My Cat Is On Fire

One day while in grad-school I was sitting in the Indiana University – Bloomington cafeteria with a Korean classmate of mine (who shall, to this day, remain nameless). I love languages and so I asked her to teach me some basic phrases in Korean – hello, goodbye, yes, no, thank you. She did and asked if there was anything else I wanted to learn. I thought for a moment and then said – “My cat is on fire.” Startled, she made me say it a few more times before she fully understood that, yes, I did, in fact, mean “My cat is on fire.” She asked why on Earth I’d ever need to say something like that. I think the humour was lost in translation. So I assured I did mean what I said. She promised to translate the phrase if I promised to never, ever say who taught it to me. And thus was the birth of My Cat Is On Fire (MCIOF). Since then I or random people I meet from around the globe have translated “My cat is on fire.” into 50 languages and counting. The other day I figured it was time to give it its own dedicated blog and store, as well as open it up to other random sayings – so here is the MCIOF blog and MCIOF Zazzle store. I hope you enjoy! B