Japanese idioms

Are the following still used in japanese speech?

harawata ga kusatta (corrupt character)

urabanashi (inside chatter)

urame ni deru (to backfire)

Much obliged in advance.

i know these three words of the above poster, these are used by common Jpn , i think

Yes, those three are used. The first one is QUITE strong in meaning, though (it literally means "has rotten guts" - thus corrupt); this word would be used only to refer to a real vicious character in a story, comics, movies, etc.

As far as I know, chimatsuri ni ageru means to beat someone until they are bloody. True or false?

Waruguchi means gossip, yes or no?

I would like to know of idioms currently in common use among Japanese speakers. I imagine one like kubi ga abunai is often heard. Much obliged in advance.

chimatsuri ni ageru means to beat someone until they are bloody.
Not quite. It comes from an ancient ritual of something like the killing a sacrificial goat before a war, so it's not that simple. At times it is used in the sense of criticizing one person persistently and persistently.

Waruguchi means gossip, yes or no?
This means "speking ill of someone," or the bad words you say about a person.

May I ask where you get those un-nice words and phrases? lol

I first saw them in Akiyama Nobuo's Japanese Idioms. I then consulted a Japanese professor regarding the ones I posted here. In the book Chimatsuri ni ageru meant "to make someone a scapegoat". The man I consulted said that it meant "to beat someone until they bleed". Now, you say that the same means "to berate someone incessantly". I am confused, to be honest.

Well, I find Japanese idioms to be quite colourful. Of course I cannot use them in every situation, but are they really passing out of use, or are they actually in use, but most people prefer to avoid such idioms for fear of coming across as "old-fashioned" or worse?

I have been spending lots of time with Japanese idioms, so any help you can give is greatly appreciated.

"chimatsuri ni ageru" means... well, all of the things that you mentioned. Let me explain.

Originally it came from an olden times' (really talking about medieval times) when, before a war, the warriors of a clan or whosoever killed a captive soldier from the previous battle (as a ritual) to heighten their fighting spirit and morale, and to wish for another winning battle. Because it was a "ritual," it has the word "matsuri" - festival - in it.

NOW, in modern times, of course that does not happen, but in big corporations or in the world of politics, it could happen that someone gets targeted for criticism, for no reason, or to avert people's attention from another issue. For example, if, in a politically difficult situation between the ruling party and the opposing party, where the ruling party is having difficulty convincing the others to agree to a bill they proposed, they find that one of the politicians from the opposing party does one of those slip of the tongue things and says something blunderous - then the ruling party might jump at the opportunity, criticize that politician excessively, no end, until the public gets the feeling that oh well, that opposing party is a bunch of no-good guys... and is made to resign, or something like that. In this case, this politician criticised was "made a scapegoat," "criticised/beaten incessantly," and "beaten until he is bleeding/dead as politician."

So in modern times, this phrase can be used loosely to mean any of the above in corporate or political context, I'd say. But... even as a Japanese, it's no phrase I want to use, or I don't want to be in a situation where I see a situation like this lol. I hope this helps at least a bit :)

Which idioms are the most commonly used? These I should learn first.

Arian
I am not Japanese but I understood that making someone bleeds etc. was a figure of speech in modern language. Every language has idioms that must never be taken literally (for example in English "it is raining cats and dogs")
have you heard of the Japanese expression, when talking about a peculiar weather when there is a mix of rain and sunshine: "it is the foxes' wedding" obviously not to be taken literally either!
in addition translating idioms in another language cannot give the true meaning as the meaning of words is always based on a specific culture so the translation in another language often doesn't makes sense.
the trick is to be able to use an idiom without translating it in your own language. I use thousands of words in English whose equivalent in my own language I don't know because I learned them, and only use them, in an English context.
Thinking only in the language one speaks right then and there as if one was monolingual is the only way to be fluent in that language. Referencing to another language at the same time only mixes up the brain.

I agree with you on this one.

Idioms (and metaphor) are what make language illogical. At least for me, this is where a language shows is true colors.

Ever culture is different, so one idea may be expressed in many different ways. For instance, in English we say, "Do not cast pearls before swine." A proverb with similar meaning in Japanese is neko ni koban (casting a coin before a cat). Both of these refer to being careful to whom we extend our generosity.

Also, we say "a needle in a haystack", but in Japanese they say nikai kara megusuri (eyedrops from the second floor). Both refer to something that is lost among something else, thus making it difficult to attain.

Since idioms are metaphorical in meaning, a word-for-word translation is impossible. It is possible to arrive at a literal translation, but it would not make sense to those speaking the target language. Thus, one must use a bit of fuzzy logic and make out the meaning of the whole phrase, as opposed to mincing it up word for word.

In learning a language, the grammar is the skeleton of a language. Just as a skeleton determines the general form of a human body, so does grammar determine how words are used. Vocabulary are the muscles, fat, and sinew. Just as they are found in different parts of the body, each word in a vocabulary is used in a context as determined by grammar. Just as fat and sinew can be found in the head as well as in the belly, but both serving different purposes, so can a single word, or different forms of the same word, be used in different contexts. By combining the pattern of grammar and the context of vocabulary, we get meaning. Meaning can be compared to the movement of the body; it is the part that actually makes language work and communication possible.

Idioms seem to defy P+C=M, but in fact they can be compared to the physical features of a person, which are influenced by skeleton and other internal parts, and the environment. In the same way, just as te physical features of a person cannot always be directly related to the kind of skeleton or internal parts that he has, idioms combine grammar and vocabulary to produce phrases that do not lend themselves easily to translation and so can only be understood by those who know the culture from which an idiom comes. Idioms are hard to understand, but they can reveal things about the culture of a people more than just grammar and vocabulary ever could.

I hope I did not write too much and that my comparisons were understandable. Would you please tell me commonly used Japanese idioms? I've been studying Japanese for over 4 years, so I won't miss anything *_*