A friend (Asian but from an area that speaks French a lot as a second language) recently said a phrase to me then jokingly wouldn't translate it. I tried google but no luck. Anyone want to take a crack at it?

Que va piano, va sano. I might be quoting slightly off, but that's basically it.

It's not very important but has been bugging me in a brain teaser type way.

it means "this will bother you for months"

What goes piano, goes sano

was that creole he was speaking ....??

was it sano or sans?

Que va piano, va sano.

Que va piano, va ?sano?
What goes piano, goes ?????

Sano isn't a french word. You're most likely heard it wrong.

Would Slow and Steady Wins the Race kind of make sense? Its a very indirect translation and more so from Italian, but I saw an image of it coupled with a tortoise on the internet.

Actually the person was French polynisian if that matters (Tahiti). And I've seen the phrase in several articles, so I know it's a real phrase.

Here's articles/sites also using it:

http://www.lentreprise.com/article/3.832.1.199.html

http://www.forumodena.org/modules.php?o ... le&sid=850

http://kidslink.bo.cnr.it/reni/linguaba/chiva.html

Archie, it's a mixture of French and Italian.


Que va piano, va sano

The French part:


Que va = What goes
va = goes

The Spanish will give you roughly the same (Que va = that it goes, or that which goes, I think). The Italian words are:


piano = slowly
sano = healthy


So, the exact translation:

What goes slowly, goes healthy

Or

That which goes slowly, goes healthy

Which is another way of saying:

The one who takes a slow approach, takes a healthy approach.


This appears to be the equivalent of the saying in English, "slow and easy does it".

So? Slow and Steady wins the Race?

Yup. You summed it up nicely \:D/

Thanks guys, I knew you'd come through.

This reminds me of when im in Seychelles and everyone speaks creole. A few years ago i was cluless, now i can pick up what people are saying, although speaking it is for novelty value only.