Incredible Idioms 5

To Give St/Sb a Rain Check

Hey guys! So, before you ask... No, we're not dead yet. But we've been very naughty bloggers lately (this, my dear friends, is called understatement), especially me, since this post marks a full half a year of me not writing one single post. I am so ashamed. Today I'm trying to make this right a bit, with an Incredible Idioms post, although I usually write about similes. Please, do enjoy your flight, but first, let me show you a video, whose song has been my inspiration source :) also, it Is a lovely video.

You can find the lyrics here (although there are several versions, none of them apparently an official one, I tend to like this one best, and I'm very much interested if I've chosen the right one... we'll see). As you can see, the narrator is giving the academy/commodities a rain check. When I was preparing this song as a listening exercise for an English lesson, I was very much intriqued by this phrase. What does it mean? After several moments of fascinated googling, I am able to bring you the solution to this not-so-metaphysical conundrum (I do profoudly apologize for these Cabin Pressure inserts, I just can't help it right now).

This phrase originates from, in the British Isles undoubtedly not-so-scarce, occasions, where a sports match or an outdoor performance of some sort had to be cancelled, or rather postponed, due to bad weather. The visitors would then get this rain check, which was a ticket that enabled them to come to the postponed performance without loosing their money.

Later, rain check gained its metaphorical meaning. For example, when you promised your friend to come to their house but something came up and you had to cancel your visit, you could say: "Can I take a rain check?", meaning that you aren't cancelling the visit, just postponing it until next time. It seems that it doesn't matter which side gets the rain check, because you can be giving it to something or somebody, or taking it, and still be the one who is postponing something.

And lastly, what I like most about this phrase being used in the song, is that you're not giving out rain checks because of procrastinating and sudden inconvenieces coming your way, making you postpone the things that you would like to do. The song is all about new beginnings, leaving the old you behind to make a fresh start and giving rain check to things that no longer work for you to make room for new and exciting stuff. At least this is how I feel about the song :) Ready to give something a rain check and take up something new? :)

Rhymey Whimmey or What Makes English So AWESOME

There are two aspects of English that I really love - rhymes and alliteration. I bet you know well what rhymes are, so I won't waste time in explaining it, I'll just give a lovely example from my favourite radio series Cabin Pressure (you'll be hearing more about this one soon enough) - from Cork to York. Easy, effective and ear-pleasing, I'd say. They even based a whole slang on it, no kidding! Guess in what accent you can "give a hook out of the window"? The word "hook" subsittues another very similar word that rhymes with it - "look". Now it makes sense, doesn't it? You can see many more examples of this language playfulness in Cockney Rhyming Slang (a slang originally used by the inhabitants in Cheapside, London). Lovely, right?

Alliteration is another thing that helps you make your statement more audially appealing. It's the simple act of starting words in a phrase or sentence with the same letter. In a sentence, I suggest you don't use alliteration for all the words in it, but only for the key terms. Alliteration is fun and can be part of a daily conversation too. Soon enough you'll train youre ears (and eyes) to spot alliteration in every speech and text you encounter. Just like today - I asked my friend a simple question "Where were we?" and suddenly the complete awsomeness of this sentence struck me. It just sounds SO great, doesn't it?

And what more, the British like to use these two great artistic features in advertisment and public announcements. Unfortunatelly I cannot recall any alliterative announcement, but maybe my dear Trollkona or even you, our dear readers, could help me with it. So look at some splendid examples of how playfully the British can use their mother tongue:

 

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Guess what product is thusly advertised!
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Get a friend!

They're saying it all the time. And they're absolutely right - the best way how to master a new language is to have a native speaker as a friend. But when I say friend, I really mean a friend. Because only then you will really communicate on daily basis and sooner or later you will probably cover every thinkable topic in the Universe. Yes, you can chat with native speakers from time to time but what you really need is a total immersion and that is possible only when some friendly feelings are involved.
There is the trick - in a friendly chat, native speakers use whatever expression come to their mind, just as you when you're chatting with your BFF you've known since your first grades. Often it will be slang and the more experienced you will get, the less help and explanations you will need from your friends when they use some word/phrase you don't know. What more - it is no shame to ask your friend - "What does this mean?" - "What do you mean by that?", but I would probably not be as courageous with some casual acquaintance. It is also great to meet both in person and on chat, as when chatting, you can look up the phrases by yourselves and even add it to your personal word list. Also, you will probably better remember the word or phrase because it is placed in a very specific, personal context and it carries a message only for you.
When looking up new words and phrases, I find the web site Urban Dictionary very useful. They also have a great FB page where they post new words and phrases daily - and most of them are pretty amusing! With these, you can easily astonish your native speaker friends ;-). It is also important to remember that we are all just humans and even native speakers can have something wrong. Bear in mind from that background your friend is and apply the new knowledge wisely and approrpiatelly. There is nothing easier than ask - "Is this considered polite?" or "Can I use this when speaking to my teacher/boss?" This info is often not involved in the dictionaries and you never know what faux-pas you may cause by wrong expression.
Well, is sounds quite amazing, doesn't it? I am not saying that with a native speaker as a friend you can throw your textbooks aways and that you can spend the money put aside for language courses on hot-tub full of champagne, but having English/American/Canadian/Australian/New Zealandian/whatever friend can be an invaluable addition to your language learning. And where can you meet native speakers? Well, this we will discuss later on.
So long, folks! :-)

Splendid Similes 7

As Irish as Paddy's Pig

Seems like I've grown rather fond of piggy similes. Happy St. Paddy's Day to you all! How are you celebrating? Are you feeling as Irish as Paddy's pig? If you're not, then it probably doesn't matter, because Paddy is said to have come from Northern England anyway - but perhaps he got the pig after he'd come to Ireland :) As for myself, I have spent my St. Paddy's Day studying for Practical English, hurrah! But even if you haven't had any whiskey, any Guinness, any green clothes - you can still save the day with Irish Hair! :)

Splendid Similes 6

As Happy as a Pig in Shit

Yeah, you got me. I'm neither a pig in shit, nor happy (though I am quite fine, thank you). It's just that I really think that the English might have made a better simile than this one. Just look at it! I know, it accurately expresses the wicked, fuzzy, happy feeling you have when your enemy slips on a banana peel. But in spite of this, I find it very un-English-like. The English don't swear! And if they do, it's brilliant, well thought and often containing long awesome unforgettable similes. Or they say "whoops-a-daisy" instead (as our beloved Wimbledon teacher taught us).

In this case I must say that the Czech version of this simile is much nicer - both nicer to hear and nicer to pigs :) it says "as happy as a pig in rye". Now, isn't that better? Though it's true that the czech word for rye - "žito" - sounds roughly similar to "shit" (as Kouzelník Žito a.k.a. Shito the Magician has already proved - Czech reference, sorry). So, may your weekends be as happy as a pig in whatever you prefer :)

Splendid Similes 5

As Cunning as a Fox That Used to Be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University but Has Moved On and Is Now Working for the UN at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning

I love Blackadder so much! Gosh I hope I made the capitalisation right... Actually, in order to write this article I've seen the Blackadder Back & Forth in English for the first time - I'm glad that both Blackadder (the original series) and this one have such great Czech dubbing. Blackadder is swarming with great, hilarious and incredibly long similes, and these three are taken from the Back & Forth movie.

1. It tastes as if someone with a bad chest cold has taken two spoonfuls of Benylin to loosen the phlegm and then coughed all over an avocado (Chutná to jako kdyby chcípák s nachcípanými průduškami spolkl dvě lžíce Bromhexinu, a pak vykašlal navrch celé avokádo)

- I'm so proud that I still remember it by heart :)

2. (Baldrick, you really are) as thick as clotted cream that’s been left out by some clot until the clots are so clotted up we couldn’t unclot them with an electric declotter (ty jsi vážně namouduši tuplovaně tupej tupec, tupější než votupená kudla, kterou ztupil tupec jako ty, takže už ji nenabrousí ani elektrický detupilátor)

- I really love how they translated it :)

3. As cunning as a fox what used to be professor of cunning at oxford university but has moved on and he’s now working for the UN at the high commission of international cunning planning  (Je tak fikanej jako filuta co bejval profesorem filutologie na Oxfordu ale dotáh' to vejš? Až na vysoký úřad komisaře OSN pro mezinárodní fikané plánování? ... jo, to je)

- Hmmm. That's cunning. 

So, what's your favourite Blackadder line/ simile? :) 

Incredible Idioms 4

Seeing is Understanding

Well, here's the thing. I am so unbelievably sorry that I missed my last week's idiomatic session and that I am late this week! I cannot express how deeply sorry I am. But you know, two essays had to be written and handed in and then I had to settle my financial dealings and that took quite a long time and most of my energy and mental capacity. And on Sunday evening, our foreign guest arrived and I have beeng trying my best to make his stay pleasant. He's still here, but because I have done almost all my other duties, I finally have time AND the energy to contribute to my idiom series. See? It's not that I am lazy! :D

But I should probably get to the point, right? So, as you can see, for the English language, seeing is understanding. Maybe in your language it works like this as well. For example, in French, you also have this idiomatic tendency and when you understand something, you can say: Je vois. Which surprisingly means .... I see! This relationship between seeing and understanding is a broad one. Understanding is also connected with clearness (of sight) and many other visual stimuli. 

I cannot understand my flatmates explanations, they are as clear as mud.

Seeing my friend drunk was a real eye-opener - he's such a boor!

When you see the presentation of our new project, you'll get the picture.

I want to clear up the misunderstanding we had earlier.

People who are in love are simply blinkered with their feelings and cannot see the imperfections of their partners.

From my point of view it is a problem and we should deal with it!

Thinking that the nation can be healed from the wrongs of the past in one generation is a very short-sighted view.

Source: Joe Wright - Idiom Organiser

Picture: http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/13/132154/2246014-I_see_what_you_did_there_super.jpg

Alan Brinkley – The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People

As a first year English language & literature student I had quite high expectations about my American history course, including the text book. Why? I knew absolutely nothing about American history. And so I decided that I would take this seriously and do my readings.

When I discovered that the book was a 900 page monster, I was not exactly happy. But as I started reading, I was actually surprised. Getting through the first chapter was a horror, but with each finished chapter the reading got easier. And even though the book seemed really complicated and demanding a lot of focus, these factors gradually disappeared and in the end I found the book even enjoyable.

The book is divided into chapters, each with its own subchapters. Along the sides of the text important names and keywords are given, which is very helpful for orientation. Each chapter has a summarizing conclusion and a list of sources/additional readings at the end. The book also has some appendices, unfortunately I only had the individual chapters. It’s very nice that the book doesn’t give you only “its” point of view on history but includes articles about how the perspective changed over time.

To sum it up – yes. I would recommend it. For those who have never heard anything about the American history and also for the ones who have but want to learn something more (also it's a very good one for increasing reading speed :). You probably won’t like all the chapters (I hated all the ones describing wars and the ones about Wild West – booooooring), but you can always skip the ones you don’t enjoy, right? Given that it’s not a compulsory reading, which was my case, well...

Splendid Similes 4

As Tired as a Three Toed Sloth (After) Running a Marathon

I did not make this one up, would you believe it? I was looking for a "as tired as..." simile and this one does the job perfectly. I love how insanely complicated it is, you know, stressing your tiredness by making an effort to say an extraordinarily long simile that would match your state. It doesn't make sense in a way, but I think that that's what I love about it. It reminds me of those really long Blackadder similes (I must do one of those next time!)

And why am I as tired as a three-toed sloth after running a marathon? Truth is, I don't know. I guess it's just one of those days. Everyone I've met and spoke to today was also tired and had a headache and everything was as dull as dishwater. In addition, I'm also mad about the Czech post which was supposed to deliver a nice Lush package to me so instead of writing "as tired as a.... you know" post it could have been "as snug as a bug in a rug", which is also very neat. Well, maybe next time :)

Anglophile's Wishlist

When creating this blog, I've dived deeply in the question of self-studying and study materials. Right now I'm longing for some more books that would help me master English and widen my knowledge of the Anglophone world.
So far I'm using these: Joe Wright's Idioms Organiser (it's my inspiration for Incredible Idioms)
                                 Thomas Parish's The Grouchy Grammarian (soon I'll add a review)
                                 McCarthy's and O'Dell's Academic Vocabulary in Use
But I know that this is not enough. Our teachers at the grammar school weren't the best and even though I use English everyday, I still feel I have a lot to work on. In the wishlist I listed the textbooks that I hope could help me with my English struggle :-).

Oxford Word Skills: Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Oxford Collocations Dictionary for students of English
Oxford Guide to British and American Culture
Cambridge: English Collocation in Use
Oxford Word Skills: Advanced

Wow, now it seems I'm a bit Oxford obsessed, right? :D

Splendid Similes 3

As Free as a Bird

Yes, this is how I feel right now, because the exams are oveeer! Suddenly these options of the things that I could do are flooding over me and I don't know which one to choose, even though I really didn't do that much studying before, more like procrastinating... But the important thing is that now I can do whatever I want and not have to feel like I should be doing something else, because that is the key difference :)

So far I've been trying to dig out some sort of handbook which I could be exploiting for my similes posts, but I haven't been lucky very much. Nevermind, I have an online list which is pretty long :) I am also planning to write a review of Unfinished Nation - the textbook I read for my American history classes. But the best thing I think would be to watch Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and make a post out of THAT! (are you in, Fay? :D)

Also my last post got me thinking - if "as stupid as a fox" is the opposite of "as cunning as a fox", does it mean that you can turn every simile into its opposite? Imagine how awesome could that be! "As idle as mustard", "as caged as a bird" - that's actually quite sad... but listen to these: "as alive as the dodo", "as sane as a hatter" "as drunk as a judge" OR "as sober as a lord".. I kinda like those :) What would be your favourite reversed simile?

Incredible Idioms 3

Business is War

Being in business can be pretty dangerous. You really have to be a tough one to survive and succeed in business environment. Business is war, remeber it well! So, don't forget your arsenal and fight!

Sales are up! That means we're definitely gaining ground on our main competitors. They'll soon by trying to take us over!

It look as if we are going to be closed down. We don't want to give up without fight so why don't we try to organise a management buy-out?

Our image is too old-fashioned. We need to modernise our product range in order to reinforce our market position. Otherwise, we'll lose it!

It was obvious that Smiths would close down. They were surrounded by big modern supermarkets with more buiyng power.

In order to expand in the Middle East, we've joined forces with a company who have been working successfully in the region for over 20 years.

The new advertising compaign has been a huge success. We've been bombarded with thousands of new enquiries.

Source: Joe Wright - Idiom Organiser

Picture: here