New post How do you translate colloquial expressions?..

Each language has its own idiomatic expressions and it’s not a secret that certain people succeeded in creating dictionaries of such expressions.
But what do you do with colloquial expressions if they haven’t transformed into idioms yet?
I usually come to my wit’s end when my foreign friends ask me to translate some expressive words of my native Russian language.
As you may know Russian has many colorful colloquial phrases that describe events and things in our life (and I don’t count in abusive language). They are not exactly what you can call slang, they’re just language or region specific.
Like jokes that are understood only in your close circle of friends.
For example driving today I came to a conclusion that it’s not only “день грузовика” (‘a day of lorry’), but also “день непуганых идиотов на дорогах” (‘a day of unscared idiots on roads’).
Is it heat or something, but people were driving awfully today… got me really anxious at least 4 times in an hour.
Many such phrases first came into our speech from USSR movies, that’s why there’s still a trend to convert apt quotes from movies into colloquial expressions.
Bad thing is you won’t fully understand what people mean if you haven’t seen the corresponding movie.
If you’ll ask someone why he’s still holding that heavy backpack instead of putting it on the floor chances are you’ll get “я с ним сроднился” (‘I became one with it’) and won’t actually know why it’s supposed to be funny.
Same happens when, for example, someone tells you “я ее и так, и этак, а она – ну никак” (‘I made this and that to her but there’s no response’). You can guess what it means, but joke and half of the meaning are lost in translation.
And check out expression “будем искать” (‘we’ll be searching [for it]). Seems simple enough, but used in certain circumstances may mean not exactly what it means…
I could give you tons of examples of situations when foreigner could be lost in expressions we daily use.
But I regularly have to translate such (and more mean) things into English and sometimes lose my temper…