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Love me, love my dog
Proverb: Love me, love my dog Happy Valentine’s Day! We’ll start today with an explanation of the proverb love me, love my dog, then look at the weird and bloody origins of the celebration. Love me, love my dog means if you love someone, you have to accept everything about them, both the good and…
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Take centre stage
Idiom: Take centre stage There’s much enjoyment to be found if you are an avid reader of daily news. You may think it’s the same every day, but it isn’t. Sure, some topics take centre stage for a few days or weeks, but they soon disappear like a nine days’ wonder, and something else pops…
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Up in arms
Phrase: Up in arms At the moment, women and men around Japan and perhaps even the world are up in arms about the uneducated and discriminatory remarks about women made by Yoshiro Mori. OK, sure, there seems to be no direct intent to disparage women. However, men in powerful positions make discriminatory remarks and take…
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On the cusp
Phrase: On the cusp You, me, we, I, the world, are always on the cusp of something. What does that mean exactly? Well, the cusp is the line between two different things. Now, you can’t see the line, and often you don’t know when that line was crossed until you look back and analyze what…
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Pariah
Word of the Day: Pariah I planned to write this post on the word pariah using Donald Trump as an example, but something occurred a few days ago that changed my mind. The Japan IOC Chairman Mori said that meetings are too long because women talk too much. Think for a moment about that. He…
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To a T
Phrase: To a T I used this phrase last week during a lesson and suddenly realized the student I was talking to may not understand what it meant. I explained it to her, and now I’m going to explain it to you. To a T means perfectly or exactly. Some personalities on Japanese TV can…
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A bull in a china shop
Phrase: A bull in a china shop When I was young, I often heard my mother complain my father, was like a bull in a china shop. At that time, I had visions of a rodeo bull in a Chinese medicine shop. You know what I mean, those stores you sometimes see on TV with…
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Beat you to the punch
Idiom: Beat you to the punch Don’t you hate it when you want to say something, but someone else says it before you do? Well, not only did they take the words out of your mouth, they beat you to the punch as well. If someone beats you to the punch, they do or say…
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Make your own way
Phrase: Make your own way There’s a lot to be said for making your own way in life. Sure, this is not the easy way. People tend to have more appreciation and respect for things they have completed, built or learned themselves than for what has been handed to them on a silver platter. Japanese…
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Splurge
Word of the Day: Splurge Economies are slowing down around the world, except for those of Taiwan and China. Restaurants and brick-and-mortar shops are declaring bankruptcy and dropping like flies. Vacations have been cancelled, and jobs have been lost, but you know what? We are on the verge of a splurge. Yep, I do think…
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