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Every man and his dog
Phrase: Every man and his dog Change takes a very long time to happen, and complete change takes even longer than that. The term ‘politically correct’ (PC) was first used in 1934, yet if you look in the dictionary, most English phrases, idioms, expressions etc., are still male-based. Today’s phrase, every man and his dog…
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A dog’s age
Idiom: A dog’s age Do you ever have times when you wish you were a kid again? I sure do. It’s been a dog’s age since I could let someone else make all the decisions. The strange part is that when I was a kid and didn’t have to do anything, I yearned for the…
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What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
Phrase: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger Embrace hardship and difficulty. Do that, and you will build up your strength and endurance for the next, possibly more daunting challenge. In a nutshell, that’s what Friedrich Nietzsche said. He was a smart guy, you know. Of course, he didn’t know everything, and he did have…
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Keep your eyes on the prize
Phrase: Keep your eyes on the prize Do you know what the difference between achieving your goals and not achieving your goals is? It’s not failure; I can tell you that. The difference is a loss of focus. To be successful, you must keep your eyes on the prize. The prize is your goal, and…
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Throw you a curveball
Idiom: Throw you a curveball The explanation of this one is going to involve another baseball analogy. To all of you non-baseball lovers out there, sorry about that. I don’t create the language; I just work with it. Don’t shoot the messenger. When you throw someone a curveball, you do or say something that presents…
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What makes you tick
Phrase: What makes you tick I have a profound question for you. What makes you tick? In other words, what are the reasons you behave the way you do? We often spend a lot of time wondering what makes others tick, but we spend little time thinking about ourselves and why we act the way…
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All bets are off
Phrase: All bets are off Have we reached the end of the world? Probably not, but if we have, all bets are off. Humans love predictability. When we say the end is coming, we don’t mean for the world, even though we may say that. What we mean is the end of our world as…
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Off the bat
Idiom: Off the bat Right off the bat, let me say that if a person wants to be a great English teacher, they must love the English language. In my opinion, it is essential to have a love of the ABCs of English (Australian, British, Canadian) and, naturally, American English too. Not only the standard…
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Shell out
Word of the Day: Shell out Because we live in capitalist societies, we should understand that everything comes with a price. Even stuff that initially seems free requires a payment of some kind, whether our time or data. Problems arise when we feel we are shelling out but not getting enough bang for our buck.…
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Rose-coloured glasses
Phrase: Rose-coloured glasses It would be nice to look at the world through rose-coloured glasses and not have a care in the world. Waking up and beginning to doomscroll, even before getting out of bed, has become a habit for most of us. Now I have two things to explain before we make any more…
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