English Translation
Introducing basic programming techniques to a software engineer is carrying iron to Vizcaya.
Perhaps somebody can come up with an idiomatic English translation than “carrying iron to Vizcaya”?
Introducing basic programming techniques to a software engineer is carrying iron to Vizcaya.
Perhaps somebody can come up with an idiomatic English translation than “carrying iron to Vizcaya”?
– British English version
When I was young in the UK I would often hear the phrase “it’s like taking coals to Newcastle” to mean the same thing. This was because Newcastle upon Tyne was a major coal mining and exporting region. I think it makes more sense when using the alternative form “selling coals in Newcastle” or similar.
I note that on the English Wiktionary page for "carry coals to Newcastle" one of the Spanish translations is “llevar hierro a Vizcaya” and its Wiktionary page in turn uses “carry coals to Newcastle” as the translation.
Nowadays I live in Australia where we have the world’s largest coal exporting port.
That port is called …
Having said that, in this particular sentence I would think that the idiom “teach grandma how to suck eggs” would have been more appropriate. Interestingly “today I learned” … on the Wiktionary page for that idiom it suggests that it was first attested in a translation from Spanish.