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By a country mile
English Phrase: By a country mile In sports, you may hear something like, “The Tigers beat the Giants by a country mile.” If two people compare their smartphones, you might hear, “My smartphone is better than yours by a country mile.” When making comparisons, the expression by a country mile means a considerable amount. Distances…
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Befit
Word of the Day: Befit The word befit means suitable or appropriate for someone or something. As an example, it’s not befitting for a gentleman to use four-letter words. Likewise, drinking alcohol and driving a car is not befitting behaviour of a police officer. Many people on both sides of the debate say that the…
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Liaison
Word of the Day: Liaison As with most words, liaison (lee eh zon) can have various meanings. The meaning that I will introduce here is a person who helps two different groups, people, companies, etc., communicate with each other. A real estate agent works as a liaison between a home seller and a home buyer.…
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Whip someone into shape
English Idiom: Whip someone into shape First of all, with this idiom, nobody is hitting or whipping anybody. I want to make this very clear. When we whip someone into shape, we take action to get them into good condition so they can perform well. If a soccer team is performing poorly or underachieving, the…
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Box someone in
English Idiom: Box someone in Box someone in is an interesting idiom. It relates to a situation in which someone (usually with power) reduces the options and alternatives of another person. By doing this, the dominant person forces the other to take an action. Let me give a clear example. Imagine that a company needs…
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Francophone
Word of the Day: Francophone The other day, I introduced the term Anglophone, so it is now time to introduce the term Francophone. Francophone refers to people or areas that use French as their mother tongue. Many countries in Africa speak French as the official language. We can refer to those countries as Francophone Africa.…
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Kill time
English Idiom: Kill time Trains are a part of life in Japan. They arrive and depart mainly on schedule, but unfortunately, they are not always there when you need them. What do you do? Well, you have to kill time. Most people these days do something to kill time on their smartphones, such as reading…
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Laissez-faire
Word of the Day: Laissez-faire There has been much media coverage about Renho, the new leader of the Democratic Party in Japan, and her dual Taiwanese-Japanese nationality. It was also reported that the Japanese government had taken a laissez-faire attitude towards dual citizenship. Although officially, Japanese citizens should give up their other nationality and possess…
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Necessity is the mother of invention
Proverb: Necessity is the Mother of Invention Necessity is the mother of invention is a neat little proverb, which means when people need something, they find a way of getting it or making it. Imagine that you are going to wash your clothes. Before you do, you check the pockets and find your new key…
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Anglophone
Word of the Day: Anglophone Most people know Canada has two official languages: French and English. Only some people in Canada are bilingual, and many people have different degrees of bilingualism. I am an Anglophone but can speak and understand a little French. An Anglophone is a person who speaks English as a mother tongue…
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