[xionon]

I don’t think that’s an accurate translation at all!

Skinning a cat is not a common thing. It’s not a normal food for English speakers, so the phrase carries some sense that what you’re doing is unusual.

It’s usually applied to a situation completely unrelated to skinning or otherwise preparing food, so it carries some sense of absurdity.

Most people using the phrase have never skinned anything, so there’s (usually!) a sense of ignorance on both sides.

Your translation brings none of that.

If I were to translate that idiom back to English and aim for accuracy, it would be something like, “what you’re doing is unusual, and neither of us have experience doing it, and the way you’re doing it is different than the ways I have heard of, but I suppose there’s more than one valid way to do it.” Which, I think, fits the spirit of the other examples - a very short expression that carries tons of unspoken cultural context with it, to the point that there isn’t a direct translation.

[bigyikes]

As a native English speaker, I personally never really thought about those implications you just described. I would use that phrase for any situation with multiple options, not just an unusual one. Maybe I’m using it wrong?

[zimpenfish]

As also a native English speaker, I don't believe there's any implied unusuality in the "skinning a cat" phrase. It really is just "there's more than one way."

[esperent]

I don't think so. Whenever I've heard the phrase it literally means "There are multiple valid solutions for a given problem" with no further connotations beyond a bit of absurdist humour.

[jrek]

The usage of the phrase is in no way contingent on the subject activity being unusual or a lack of experience for either party, your reading of it is far too literal.

[agurk]

I've come across different etymologies for this phrase. The first referenced use I've seen is from 1840 American humorist Seba Smith in her short story The Money Diggers when she wrote: “As it is said, ‘There are more ways than one to skin a cat,’ so are there more ways than one of digging for money”.[0]

This Economist article[1] posits that it is actually slang for sexual intercourse based on the phrase "skin the cat"[2] first recorded in 1837 being a euphemism for it. This interpretation would also fit with the above quote. The same article also points out that:

'And the rather violent act of skinning a cat is no easy thing, says John Youngaitis, a taxidermist in New York. “There is not more than one way to skin a cat.”'

From[0] we can also see that in 1678 English naturalist John Ray said in his “Collection of English Proverbs”: “There are more ways to kill a dog than hanging”.

So it seems it is possible that the contemporary phrase exists to change a less common activity for a more common one. In this case use of the idiom would not convey the sense of doing something unusual.

[0] https://www.bnd.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/answer-man/arti...

[1] https://www.economist.com/prospero/2013/10/09/shooting-skinn...

[2] https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/f3i7zgi

[sethammons]

Fwiw I’ve never read that deep into it. I have mostly experienced it as a response to a failed attempt at something and a new approach is needed. Less so, it is used to acknowledge that a problem can have alternative solutions.

[uberman]

The translation is as described:

"There are multiple valid solutions for a given problem"