To be a good neighbor in Israel, learn Arabic idioms. – The Forward
When learning a foreign language, everyone has a moment when they first realize that what they just said makes no sense, because they literally translated something that doesn’t translate literally. I recently went out with an Israeli woman who insisted on speaking English with me even though she barely speaks English. I asked her how she was and she told me she was “on her face.” I had to explain to her that “ al hapanim” (“things are crappy”) is a Hebrew idiom that doesn’t work in English. She didn’t understand what I was trying to say; the date went downhill from there.
Source: forward.com