english@home

Idioms

2008-08-14T10:47:00.001-03:00

Hi Everyone!!

I know it’s been a while since my last post and I would like to start this new one by apologizing to you for taking that long to post something new. The problem is that I have been up to my eyes in work lately and the Olympic Games have been really exciting, especially the swimming competition. It’s been quite difficult to concentrate on what I have to do these days, there’s always something interesting to watch, don’t you think? Have you been watching the Games? What about Michael Phelps? No one stands a chance against that guy. He’s head and shoulders above the other swimmers and it seems to me that he will win all the eight gold medals hands down. The Brazilian volleyball team, however, seem to be having a hard time to beat their opponents and last night Russia has made it clear that we are not unbeatable. Do you think the Brazilian domination of volleyball is coming to an end?

Well, I’d like to draw your attention now to some expressions that I used in the text above. Were you able to understand the meaning of these expressions without using a dictionary? If you need some extra help, there you go:
Which expression means:
A) without much effort; easily
B) to be extremely busy
C) to be much better than the others

These expressions are called idioms and they are used on a daily basis in American or British English. An idiom is a phrase where the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words, which can make idioms hard for students to understand. There is a wide variety of idioms in English and the can be divided into categories (sports, body, colors, animals, etc) in order to help us better understand them. So as to help you improve your knowledge of idioms click on the links below, choose on or two idioms that you liked and send us your sentence using the idioms. Hope you enjoy it!

Links:
Using English.com
The Idiom Connection

Are Americans really stupid? - Video

2008-08-06T16:06:00.003-03:00

Americans are reckoned to be very arrogant and know nothing about the world. Is that really true? Watch the videos below and draw your own conclusions.

Video 1: This video shows a reporter asking US citizens questions about the world their country runs.

Video 2: Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, talks about why -- though we want to know more about the world than ever -- the US media is actually showing less. Eye-opening stats and graphs.

TED: It stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 200 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week.

Don't forget send me your comments. Thanks!!

My Mobile and Me

2008-08-05T12:11:00.000-03:00

If there's something people can't leave without today is the mobile phone. People use it to send messages, take photos, check their emails and lots of other things. We do know, however, that the mobile phone may cause an embarrassment when it rings in inappropriate situations.

Read the article "Me and My Mobile" about the use of mobile phones in England. Now tell us what you think. Are there occasions when you would NOT use your phone? Have you had any amusing experiences when phoning?