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Dutch: we use Chinese and Spanish to me as well, but it doesn't mean that something doesn't seem quite right. It typically means that you don't understand something. Looking in a dictionary, it is mentioned for Chinese, but not for Spanish, so maybe it's because I grew up close to the German border that the local dialect uses Spanish and thereby the people might also say Spanish in normal Dutch.

For the train station, we don't have something that means the same that I can think of right now, but a similar one is "my name is Haas". You can say it when you suspect someone just pretends not to know anything about it, but about yourself it can be used either way. Seems to be a purely Dutch thing, I looked up the Wikipedia and discovered that it does not have anything to do with the animal "haas" (hare). Somewhat unsurprisingly, it comes from a story about a German:

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mijn_naam_is_haas

Paraphrased in English: The saying probably stems from an event in 1855, where a German student wanted to flee to France. To cross the border, he needed an identity card, which he got from a classmate, Victor von Hase. Von Hase then claimed he lost his ID, but it was later found in France, where the murderer had lost it. The real Von Hase had to appear in court and that is where he spoke the words millions would come to speak after him: "Mein Name ist Hase [...] ich weiß von nichts." (My name is "hare", I don't know anything about this.)




The same saying exists in German as well.


Oh, odd that there is no mention of it on the Wikipedia page, nor a translation.


I was never aware of the origin, but I know the use. And I was born and raised quite far from the Dutch border, so it’s not local spillover.

I’d put that down to the notoriety requirements of the German Wikipedia which are somewhat peculiar.

Edit: It’s mentioned on this Wikipedia page https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hase and TIL: The expression was coined in the city I was born in.




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