Before I went to Korea for the first time, I bought, among other things, the then-current edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Korea. In the Culture section, it says:
PROVERBS
Traditional saying provide an uncensored insight into a nation’s psyche.
…
An unblemished character is a Korean’s most treasured possession. To avoid any suspicion of being a thief, ‘Do not tie your shoelaces in a melon patch or touch your hat under a pear tree.’
Yesterday evening I was browsing through TV Tropes and found its page for Translation: “Yes”, which it explains:
While we commonly expect short phrases in one language to be equally short in another, sometimes short phrases are translated into surprisingly long ones: however, many shows parody this completely by having a single word become a long phrase in English, or a ridiculously long phrase to a single English word, often the word ‘Yes’.
I noticed this many years ago when proofreading transcripts of court proceedings against the audio recording. There would be exchanges like:
Barrister (in English): Did you see the accused do something on the night in question?
Interpreter (in other language): [Approximately that long sentence.]
Witness (in other language): [Very long sentence.]
Interpreter (in English): Yes.
The judge and barristers never seemed to notice or question this.
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Never Pure and Rarely Simple 