Traditional proverbs of Canada in Khmer and English — each with its meaning and source.
Keep your stick on the ice.
“Keep your stick on the ice.”
Stay alert, stay ready, and keep doing the right thing even when nothing is happening.
Source: Modern Canadian idiom popularized by the Canadian TV comedy 'The Red Green Show' (CBC, 1991–2006); now a common everyday Canadian saying.
Attache ta tuque!
“Tie up your toque!”
Brace yourself — things are about to get intense or exciting.
Source: Traditional Québécois (French-Canadian) expression, oral tradition.
Parler à travers son chapeau.
“To speak through one's hat.”
To talk about something you know nothing about, or to speak nonsense.
Source: Traditional Québécois (French-Canadian) expression, oral tradition.
Se faire passer un sapin.
“To have a fir tree slipped to you.”
To be cheated or swindled in a deal.
Source: Traditional Québécois (French-Canadian) expression, oral tradition.
Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, and the last river poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.
“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, and the last river poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.”
Material wealth is worthless if we destroy the natural world that sustains us.
Source: Commonly attributed to Cree (First Nations) oral tradition; exact origin and attribution are debated among scholars.
Il fait frette.
“It's cold out.”
An emphatic Québécois way of saying it is bitterly, painfully cold.
Source: Traditional Québécois (French-Canadian) colloquial expression, oral tradition.