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April showers bring May flowers
Saying: April showers bring May flowers Can you feel it? Spring is in the air! April is a time of new beginnings and awakening. As the temperature rises, the world comes to life with flowers blooming and people smiling. It marks the end of winter and brings a change in the weather that encourages us…
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You reap what you sow
Proverb: You reap what you sow The adage, you reap what you sow, is one of the most important lessons we can learn in life. It means that if you put in hard work and determination, you will eventually reap the rewards of your efforts. Hard work pays off in many ways: happiness, wealth, and…
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Cut out for
Idiom: Cut out for All across North America, young people and even some adults are trying to decide what job they are cut out for and if it matches up reasonably well with careers or jobs that pay a liveable salary. When I was in grade 12, the career counsellor in my school suggested I…
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Get ahead
WotD: Get ahead Hey, what’s up? How goes the battle? Are you winning or losing? Where I come from, when people meet, they often ask each other many questions in quick succession. So quick you never get a chance to answer most of them. I covered the question of how goes the battle back in…
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Like a hot knife through butter
Phrase: Like a hot knife through butter Coming up with a business idea and creating that business is relatively easy. Anyone can do it. On the other hand, maintaining that business and making it profitable is where the vast majority of small business owners fail. Entrepreneurs have to wear many hats, and in this day…
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Cheek to cheek
Idiom: Cheek to cheek Valentine’s Day is coming up. For some people, that is more of a curse than a pleasure. Remember when you would dance cheek-to-cheek with your significant other and not have a care in the world? Cheek-to-cheek is often used to describe people dancing with their heads close together in a romantic…
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Turn your stomach
Listen to ArtisanEnglish.jp posts & lesson introductions here. YouTube / iTunes / Spotify / Radio Public / Pocket Casts / Anchor / Google Podcasts / Breaker / Overcast Phrase: Turn your stomach From time to time, a story pops up in the news that turns your stomach. That’s what happened recently, and my stomach is…
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Act your age
Phrase: Act your age Life is full of contradictions, and it’s becoming harder to navigate through them all the time. These days we’re told 50 is the new 35, the retirement age is getting pushed back to 70, and Buzz Aldrin just got married for the fourth time at 93. Can you imagine that honeymoon?…
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Eaten alive
Phrase: Eaten alive No, this is not Shark Week at ArtisanEnglish.jp. If the title eaten alive caught your attention, and you’re here looking for blood and guts, you may be disappointed. However, if you are looking for heartache, disappointment and broken dreams, you’ve come to the right place. When someone is eaten alive, they are…
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After the fact
Phrase: After the fact We are living in ageing societies, and that comes with inevitable consequences. One of them is that so many of the people we interact with daily suddenly disappear, and we often only find out after the fact that they have been hospitalized for an illness or even passed away. During the…
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