Yesterday, one of the Germans came up to me and said, “I got an e-mail from Megan, and she said she was running late because her son is under the weather.” I nodded, not sure if I was supposed to be sympathetic to this Megan woman’s kid, or what the right response was.

“So,” he continued, “you know what that means? That’s a common phrase, that ‘under the weather?’”

“Yes,” I replied. “It means he’s sick.”

“Sick? Like sick, serious?”

“No, like sick, not feeling well.”

Thanking me, he wandered back off shaking his head at the weird Americans and their weird sayings. But it got me thinking how often we throw that phrase around and how funny it must sound to someone who understands the literal words but not the phrase.

Some of the words they have make sense “translated,” even if I don’t fully understand why. For example, goose bumps is equal to goose skin in German (even though I’ve never seen a goose get bumpy skin when it’s cold). The funny bone on your elbow is the music bone to them (not funny OR musical when it is hit). A lot of our sayings, like “cross your fingers” are also used in German, even though I have no idea where the saying comes from.

Apparently they have been missing out on “under the weather” all this time. I guess I have three months to fix that.