Who taught: Ashka

Break a leg (Source: http://www.risingsunofnihon.com)

One of the good ways of learning English is reading good and well-written articles. In that sense, I have a very good article that you can read today. My friend, Jerome, posted this on his facebook and I think this is really worth reading and at least spend sometime to think about it.

Last Friday, I sent an email to my friends at my previous company to say good bye. Almost all of them responded me, wishing me good luck. Once again, thank you, my friends! I wish the best of luck to you too.

Ashka also responded but, in her email, she did not say “good luck.” Instead, she said, “break a leg!!!”

Well, to be honest, I had no idea about what it would mean. The only guess I had was like, “Do your best till you break your leg!”

But, ironically, this expression means, “Good luck!” There is a dedicated wikipedia page for this expression. On the page, you can find so many different theories of the etymology of the expression. Among them, I think the second one, Bowing, makes most sense.

For your information, here is the second etymology, Bowing.

This theory is thought to be an extension of the Traditional Theory. For the curtain call, when actors bow or curtsy, they place one foot behind the other and bend at the knee, “breaking” the line of the leg. In theatre, pleased audiences may applaud in which time encore bows sometimes occur. On Broadway this is considered the highest compliment to an actor.

Which one do you think makes most sense?

And…. I think you should be careful using this expression to any non-native English speakers. They would think you are crazy when you use this. For example, if your non-native English speaker friend is about to do interview and you say, “Break a leg!”, they would be like, “What? Do you really want me to break my leg? I cannot go to the interview. What are you saying there?”

Don’t you think so? This would really happen. But, Ashka, I know what you mean. Thank you so much wishing me luck! I will do my best out there and I will miss you. Let me know when you are around the town so that we could hang out!