How do you memorize sayings in another dialect/language? Any examples?

The only way I memorize them if I keep coming across them.  After a while, it becomes part of my speech patter.  I don't speak French but I do say "C'est la vie."  I don't speak Spanish, but I do say "Que pasa?" on occasion.  I use a lot of Yiddish words because I'm originally from New York where a lot of Jewish people settled in the early 20th century (my grandparents were among them) where many words and phrases became part of the (Americanized) English language.  The funniest thing I saw many, many years ago was a cab driver who was quite obviously a recent Hindu arrival due to his attire and his use of mixing his language with only a small smattering of English, get frustrated in traffic and scream at another cabbie in perfectly clear English, "Schmuck," which, in case anyone reading this doesn't know, is a Yiddish word.    

I use them frequently. Like ach du Scheise. Or; was aw immer. Every day I say I say S'is a shaina daag!
Unfortunately, that's about it. Tschuss.

not sure but i know spanish from being born in south america, i learned english when i came here when i was 7

Learning a song or a poem in a foreign language helps, especially if you really like it in English.  I memorized Beethoven's Ode to Joy in German because it inspires me.

I didn't actually memorise anything but picked up a few useful Japanese phrases when I worked for them. 

Choto-bloody-mate means wait a bloody minute
Yosh is "OK" so I tweaked it a little and came up with yoshi doshi for okey dokey. 
And I'm never good, or well. When somebody asks I'm "pretty genki, thanks". 

I avoid using foreign idioms because it can become an affectation or risk inadvertently insulting or patronising the genuine speaker. I refuse for example, to call everyone irrespective of sex and age, a "guy" - I am not an American, and do not live in America! Similarly, I do not use French or German idioms - and know very few anyway.

However, accents are different, for me. Despite being an English South coastal native and resident who ought to have a Dorset accent with trace of of Hampshire, parental accent traces from the Midlands (200 miles North) and current circle of Northern English friends (around 100 miles further Up North still) have given me an odd somewhere-in-between accent plus tendency occasionally to use Yorkshire dialect constructions.

For example, I've found myself occasionally using "were" instead of the standard "was", and even "were that" - a sentence ending usually emphasising a point already made, as in "It were a good do, were that" ('do' = the event in question, such as a celebration).


There was an intriguing programme about British accents and dialects on the radio last night, in which the presenter interviewed passengers on the UK's longest-distance single train service - Aberdeen to Penzance via NE England, the Midlands then Somerset and the South West. It showed just how much the British dialects and accents change in really very short distances - not just the obvious Scots then Northern English. E.g., a lady who boarded the train in Birmingham explained hers is not a Birmingham accent, by about 10 miles or so; the Bristolian could differentiate between voices from North and South of just that city alone.