Daily Archives: March 26, 2010

26 Mar

down the rabbit hole

Who taught: Sangeetha and Alex

I feel like I have gone a long series about “animals in phrases.” In fact, there are so many phrases where you can find animals in it in American English. You know what the most popular animal is. I think it is “horse.” I mentioned about this to Jake and he told me he thinks it is because of American history of being with horses long time.

Let me summarize the expressions that have horse in it I learned!

1. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink

2. from the horse’s mouth

3. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth

4. Trojan horse

5. hung like a ho…. (This is still very embarrassing to say even I mentioned it in my previous post! So,I am adding dots instead of the full one here.)

I learned another useful one with animal in it today. It is “down the rabbit hole” This expression can be used when you are about to do something hard or something you do not know how it will end or progress. So, let’s say you are going to get married! Then, I would say, “Well, my friend, you are about to go down the rabbit hole! Good luck with that!” Don’t get me wrong, though! I am saying you should take marriage very seriously and be prepared for so many different aspects of it. Don’t you agree?

The other thing I learned the other day is “make a mountain out of molehill” This is one of the expressions I actually get the meaning as I hear it for the first time. What do you think? Can you get it? It means basically “exaggerate.” For example, you have some bad experiences with your customer at your work today and, because of it, you are worried about you might be getting into a big trouble. Then, I would say “Come on, don’t make a mountain out of the molehill! It is not that important. Just, get over it! It could happen to anybody.” One thing I like about this expression is that this one has got rhyme when you speak. Try it now! Come on, say it to you! Can you feel it? I think that is another fun part of learning English or maybe different languages.

So, don’t be afraid of getting into a new thing. It is all yours. My friend Andrew says “You cannot get it with that attitude! Hey, Believe it and achieve it!” So, my friend out there, “Believe it and Achieve it!” Learning English is fun!! Yay!!

Good night and have a great weekend! ….. and see you soon!

26 Mar

Brownnose

Doesn’t this one sounds like my nose? I mean Asian people’s nose because our skin color is brown or yellow.

But, this one has very different meaning. What would happen if you get your face really closer to someone’s ass? I mean close enough your nose can touch someone’s anus and that person did not properly clean his anus after he/she went to bathroom to drop a deuce. It doesn’t look good, right? Well, apparently, your nose will get something from doing it and it should be brown color. Or maybe black or yellow depends on what that person ate before he went to bathroom. I will stop here. It is getting too dirty and distracted from the point 🙂

“So, do you get the idea here? What? Still not get it? OK…OK.. I will give you a definition.” This means “to support every opinion or decision of another person, especially your superior.” The other expression you can use is “suck up to” or “flatter.” I heard this expression from my company’s all-hands meeting. There was a time that the company’s President gave a presentation (That day was his birthday and not everyone knew that.) and, right after that, another person also was going to make his presentation. When he got the microphone, he started with mentioning the President’s birthday, saying “Congratulations! Today is your birthday!” Then, the last person who gave a presentation said, “Oh, brownnosing!” It was kind of joking but I did not know what it means and asked my friends to figure the meaning out. Well, today’s lesson is “In the long term, brownnosing would not work. If we want to be successful at work, we gotta be sincere and honest.” Oh…. but, it could work for your wife. So, try to brownnose your wife when she is angry at you. She will forgive you. It is kind of wisdom for life.