phrase I heard Dan Akroyd say

[satanjesus.livejournal.com]

I have always remembered a phrase Dan Akroyd said in Spies Like Us, when exposing some covert Russians... phonetically, he says, "Well, you know what they say... ne chem ne znayesh." It seems like "one doesn't know" or "one never knows."

I am wondering if it is a real saying, that way I might stop remembering it if this is meaningless.

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

It is not grammatically correct Russian, so one can only guess what the writer had in mind. Something about not knowing, that's for sure, but nothing more definite than that.

[gllazz.livejournal.com]

if i am not mistaken, he said something like 'меньше знаешь - крепче спишь' (the less you know, the better you sleep)

[oryx_and_crake]

Oh, that makes perfect sense. Thank you.

[kozavr.livejournal.com]

You'd better not to use Hollywood movies' Russian as a source (including signs) :) usually they talk nonsense

[xxblackxsatinxx.livejournal.com]

Russian proverbs amuse me greatly. :)

[marsianka-selma.livejournal.com]

"ничем не знаешь" is incorrect and meaningless. You can say "никогда не знаешь" (you never know), which is gramatically correct, but it sounds like a loan-translation from English.

[marsianka-selma.livejournal.com]

Do you know this one: "Знал бы прикуп - жил бы в Сочи"? :)))
It means "if I knew the cards (e.g. in poker), I would live in Sochi" (a town considered a great place to live in the times when this proverb came up).

[hyyudu.livejournal.com]

Прикуп (or community cards) are two cards in a preference game, which affects a lot on a play, and if you know them, you have a best strategy for trading. In some other games there are community cards too, a player gets it after distribution of the rest of ones. Never heard about прикуп in poker.

[marsianka-selma.livejournal.com]

Well, ok, thank you. Maybe I wasn't entirely correct here, but there also unknown cards in poker game, which one has to guess in order to win. :)

[kys.livejournal.com]

The saying 'you would never know' in fact exists in Russian, but it sounds like 'nikogda ne znayesh' (никогда не знаешь). 'Ne chem ne znayesh' does not sound correct at all.

[elvit.livejournal.com]

Никогда не знаешь, где найдешь, где потеряешь. ;-)

[russian-bob.livejournal.com]

English: "ignorance is bliss"

[spiritrc.livejournal.com]

Taking in account that Dan Akroyd is an awful actor that usually acted in some low-budget movies of cold war times (the only exception that I know is Ghost Busters), I'd say that what he said there was some nonesense that was meant to sound Russian to an average Joe.

This is another hillarious example of a typical Hollywood movie about Russians:
http://www.livejournal.ru/themes/id/18261

[satanjesus.livejournal.com]

haha