The equivalents of the English saying "That's Greek to me" vary fascinatingly by language: Germans say "Das kommt mir Spanisch vor" (That seems Spanish to me), Dutch speakers say "Dat is Chinees voor mij" (That's Chinese to me), Filipinos say "It's German to me," Finns say "It's Hebrew," Hebrew speakers say "It's Chinese to me," and Mandarin Chinese speakers say "Tiānshū" (heavenly script) or "guǐ huà fú" (ghost drawings).
Why "Greek to Me" Is Spanish, Chinese, or Hebrew Elsewhere
When Shakespeare wrote "it was Greek to me" in Julius Caesar, he probably didn't realize he was documenting a linguistic phenomenon that spans the entire globe. Every culture, it turns out, has a go-to language they blame when something makes absolutely no sense.
Europe's Blame Game
Germans point their finger at Spanish. "Das kommt mir Spanisch vor" literally translates to "That seems Spanish to me." The phrase dates back to the 16th century when the Spanish-born Holy Roman Emperor Charles V introduced Spanish customs to the German court, leaving locals thoroughly confused.
The Dutch, meanwhile, blame Chinese. "Dat is Chinees voor mij" rolls off Dutch tongues whenever paperwork gets too complicated or instructions become incomprehensible. Finns take a different approach entirely, declaring confusing things to be Hebrew.
The Global Confusion Chain
Here's where it gets delightfully circular:
- English speakers blame Greek
- Germans blame Spanish
- Dutch blame Chinese
- Filipinos blame German
- Finns blame Hebrew
- Hebrew speakers blame Chinese
Notice anything? Chinese gets blamed by multiple languages, yet Mandarin speakers don't point to any existing language at all. Instead, they call incomprehensible text "tiānshū"—literally "heavenly script" or "a book from the sky." Another colorful Chinese expression is "guǐ huà fú," meaning "ghost drawings" or talismanic symbols.
Why These Particular Languages?
The pattern reveals something fascinating about cultural contact and perceived "otherness." Languages typically blame tongues they've encountered but never needed to learn—foreign enough to seem exotic, familiar enough to reference.
Greeks, for instance, say "Μου φαίνονται κινέζικα" (It seems Chinese to me). Italians declare things to be Arabic. Poles say something is "Chinese speech." The Portuguese blame Greek, coming full circle with English.
Geographic neighbors rarely blame each other. Germans don't blame French despite centuries of interaction. Instead, they reach for Spanish—a language from a country they've historically had less direct contact with.
The Chicken Intestines Theory
Some Chinese expressions for incomprehensible writing are wonderfully vivid. Beyond "heavenly script," there's a folk expression comparing messy or foreign writing to "chicken intestines"—a reference to the tangled, squiggly appearance of unfamiliar characters.
This isn't meant to be insulting. It's simply descriptive. When you've grown up reading characters that are essentially stylized pictures, the loops and connections of Latin script genuinely can resemble, well, entrails.
What It All Means
These expressions reveal how humans process the unfamiliar. We don't say "I don't understand this." We say "this is that other thing"—externalizing confusion onto something foreign and unknowable.
The fact that Chinese appears in so many of these expressions isn't a coincidence. For European languages, Chinese characters represent perhaps the most visually different writing system they might encounter. It's become shorthand for "maximum incomprehensibility."
Meanwhile, the Chinese response—calling foreign text "heavenly" or "ghostly"—suggests something almost reverent about the unknown. It's not stupid or barbaric. It's otherworldly.
Next time something makes no sense to you, consider: which language would you blame? Your answer says more about your culture's history than you might think.