Pull one's leg

February 24, 2006

I studied myself a phrase a couple of days ago when I was typing an email to one of my friends. When someone say to me some jokes, I always reply "You're kidding." I found out another phrase which expresses the same meaning. According to my dictionary, the phrase "pull someone's leg" means "kidding".
That's interesting ! There's a Japanese idiom like that, but the meaning is so different. When Japanese people say the phrase "pull someone's leg(足を引っ張る：あしをひっぱる)", it means "ruin someone's efforts", "disturb someone's working" or "cause trouble" in Japanese.

For instance:
An employee broke down a machine in our factory yesterday, so I had to work overtime due to his error ! It's been one of those days ! I really wanted to shout at him angrily, "Don't pull my leg !(足を引っ張るな！：あしをひっぱるな！)"

As a matter of fact, the employee often cause trouble("pull my leg" in Japanese) in the factory. That's why my legs are very long. Sorry, just kidding. I have a Japanese typical figure, short legs and a long trunk. haha.

By the way, I had a steak for my last night's dinner as the following picture. But the steak was very thin because it was really very cheap one ! It was as thin as my hair. (ToT)