"Que Pena" is an expression used to convey embarrasment, but in Colombia you can also use it to say "I'm sorry", or "that's too bad".
"Vale la Pena" is an expression used to mean "worthwhile". So if "pena" means ebarrasment or pain, "vale la pena" could be translated to mean "bring on the pain"
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I like your idioms. I remember when I was learning to speak Hebrew a few years back, I kept hearing people say "Haval al asman!" all the time in response to someone making a proclamation of some sort. One day I decided to ask my friend what the hell it meant, and after some giggling my friend said that literally, it meant "what a waste of time" BUT the idiomatic meaning was "Incredible!"
ReplyDeleteThat was my crash course in foreign language idioms...