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Lucky break
WotD: Lucky break We all need a lucky break once in a while. When times are tough, and nothing seems to be going our way, that is just the moment when we have to keep our eyes open for lucky breaks. Some people say that they don’t believe in luck and that we have to make our success.…
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Turn back time
Phrase: Turn back time The older I become, the more I think it would be great to turn back time or the clock and be twelve years old again. When I was twelve, summer vacation lasted forever, and I was free. During the dog days of summer, a bunch of other guys and I would ride our BMX bicycles. We’d…
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Conspicuous consumption
WotD: Conspicuous consumption Conspicuous consumption is all around us. Even if you don’t know what it is, you automatically notice it every day. First, to understand the term, you must know what conspicuous means. Conspicuous means that something is easily noticeable. If you were to wear a yellow suit to a funeral in Japan, you would be conspicuous because everyone wears…
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Down on your luck
Idiom: Down on your luck If you feel like you’re having a bad day, you may be down on your luck. Sometimes no matter what you do, bad luck follows you around. If you’re down on your luck, you’re in a bad situation or are having money problems. No matter what you do, things don’t get…
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With great power comes great responsibility
Phrase: With great power comes great responsibility I’d like you to read the following sentence aloud and then pause and let it hang in the air for a moment. With great power comes great responsibility. What does this phrase mean to you? What do you imagine when you read those words? Do you have an…
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Spring chicken
WotD: Spring chicken Isn’t this little chick cute? This, ladies and gentlemen, is a spring chicken, our new Word of the Day. As you can see, a chick is very young. In English, we use the term spring chicken to refer to a young person. It’s usually used in the negative to indicate that a person is not…
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Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
Phrase: Damned if you do, damned if you don’t Have you ever felt trapped in a situation in which you had to do something but were damned if you do, damned if you don’t do it? There are times when we have to choose between two undesirable options, and there is no neutral third option available. The difficulty…
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Fishy
Word of the Day: Fishy Not everyone likes to eat fish, yet we all know when a fish doesn’t smell right. We know a bad fish stinks when it has gone bad and is no longer edible. The same is true for a situation that doesn’t ‘smell right.’ When something is wrong with a situation,…
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Pull Strings
Phrase: Pull Strings An expression in English goes; it’s not what you know; it’s who you know. Quite often, having connections with influential people or with people who have a little bit of power enables you to pull strings. The phrase pull strings means if you have connections, you can use that influence to get things done easier…
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Chicken scratches
WotD: Chicken scratches A doctor’s handwriting looks like chicken scratches. This is a common belief in North America and perhaps around the world. Ask any pharmacist if they can always understand the prescriptions written by a doctor, and they will undoubtedly tell you no. Chicken scratches is a term used to refer to difficult or impossible-to-read handwriting.…
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