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Put your foot down
Idiom: Put your foot down If you’re tired of others telling you what to do and when to do it, it’s time for you to put your foot down. When you put your foot down, you exercise your authority, stop unwanted things from happening and take control of the situation. We’re all born free, and if…
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Red-letter day
WotD: Red-letter day Think about the best day of your life, the day you will always remember, and that is a red-letter day. If we lived in a perfect utopia, every day would be the best day of our lives. Things would get better and better without end. Unfortunately, from time to time, we all have…
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Think out loud
Idiom: Think out loud You’ve heard someone speak out loud, shout out loud and probably even sing out loud, but have you ever heard anyone think out loud? When someone thinks out loud, they say whatever comes to mind. They don’t think about it first to consider if it makes sense or not – they say it.…
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In store
Word of the Day: In store When I first came to Japan, I had no idea what the future held in store for me. Initially, I was under the impression that the Japanese were obsessed with shopping. Whenever I talked about favourite activities or hobbies with my students, they seemed interested in sleeping, shopping or some combination…
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Put out to pasture
Idiom: Put out to pasture Older workers will no longer be put out to pasture at 60 years old. When you think about being 60 years old, in today’s terms, it’s not very old at all. I’d say 60 is the new 45. For the longest time in Japan, large corporations forced their workers to retire at…
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Muckrake
Word of the Day: Muckrake The mass media is changing in Japan and starting to accept the need to muckrake. Muckrake means to seek out scandal and print or publish it in publications or, of course, online. Everyone loves a good scandal. When I first came here, it was almost unheard of for a newspaper to…
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Give your all
Phrase: Give your all For many people, January is the time of year when you give your all, turn over a new leaf, work on self-improvement and become the person they’ve always wanted to be. The sad part is that most of them give up in a very short period. The road to failure is paved…
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Tis the season to be jolly
Expression: Tis the season to be jolly Tis the season to be jolly, eat, drink and be merry. Yes, Christmas is still two days away, but why not start early? Let’s make it an even two weeks, shall we? You already know the twelve days of Christmas stretch from December 25th to Epiphany on January…
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The proof is in the pudding
Proverb: The proof is in the pudding Will 2019, the year of the boar, be a good year? Who can tell for sure? The only guarantee is the proof is in the pudding. By this time next week, Christmas Day will have come and gone. We’ll all be thinking about the fast-approaching New Year, which will…
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Written in the stars
Phrase: Written in the stars It’s said that our future is written in the stars. Who first said it, or how long ago was it first believed? No one knows for sure. It’s probably fair to say that since humans first looked up, they were fascinated by the sight of the night sky filled with twinkling…
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