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Straight from the horse’s mouth
English Idiom: Straight from the horse’s mouth If you want or need the whole truth about something, it is better to get it straight from the horse’s mouth. You need to get the information from someone who has direct, personal knowledge of the subject. Everybody loves a rumour. Gossip flows through the grapevine at the…
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Stopgap
Word of the Day: Stopgap A stopgap is a temporary solution, such as emergency repairs, to a problem until a better and more permanent solution can be found. When we have a typhoon in Japan, small landslides usually block roads. These small landslides are immediately removed, and the roads opened, but this is only temporary…
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Too much of a good thing
English Expression: Too much of a good thing It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. You can have too much of a good thing. This expression means you enjoy a positive thing so much that it becomes damaging. A novel thing you enjoy and look forward to can become tedious and unpleasant if you enjoy it…
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Eye candy
Word of the Day: Eye candy Eye candy is the best kind of candy because you can have as much as you want, and it has no calories. But what exactly is eye candy? Well, it’s attractive and catches your attention, but it’s not useful, or your interest in it will not last long. If…
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A fool and his money are soon parted
English Proverb: A fool and his money are soon parted Money is precious. Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you the things that make you happy. Money is difficult to obtain and easy to spend, so when we spend money, we must take our time and consider what we spend it on.…
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Winnings
WotD: Winnings My students and I recently discussed the recent $758,000,000 (seven hundred fifty-eight million) lottery prize that someone in the US won. The lucky person has a choice of how they would like to receive their winnings. Your winnings are any amount of money you have won. The lucky winner could receive a lump…
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Nothing to sneeze at
English Expression: Nothing to sneeze at OK, this is a strange one. When we need to take something seriously, or we should not ignore something, then we can say that it’s nothing to sneeze at. Finding a lump, strange-looking blemish or anything unusual with your body or skin is nothing to sneeze at. Anybody who…
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Couch potato
WotD: Couch potato Before we start discussing couch potatoes, I want you to think about a potato for a moment. OK, do you have the image of a potato in your mind? Good. Now, what is your potato doing? Nothing right? That is because potatoes are sedentary. A potato just sits there and does nothing.…
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Worth one’s salt
Phrase: Worth your salt Salt has been vital throughout history. Roman soldiers were not paid with money; they were paid with salt. If I can go off on a bit of a tangent, salt is where the word salary originates. The Latin for salt is salarius. You can already see that salarius looks similar to…
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Sedentary
Word of the Day: Sedentary One of society’s most significant problems today is that we are all sedentary. If you live a sedentary lifestyle, you spend most of your time sitting in one place with very little physical activity or exertion. People were designed to move, but we no longer move as much as we…
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