Teaching English Overseas - or to incoming travellers - idioms and other idiocies

 Teaching English

I was listening to other speakers of English and I heard the idiom, by a country mile. I'm sure that would perplex speakers of Chinese (Mandarin). I have taught English for many years to O level and A level  pupils in schools, first in the UK and later in Singapore.

Cats and Dogs

I remember looking out of the window in Singapore with my English Language For Foreigners class pupils, after a lesson ended. Rain was pouring down. I said, 'it's raining cats and dogs'. 

A puzzled pupil replied, "I see cats. I don't see any dogs.'

The phrase comes from the old days of thatch roofs, when cats and dogs would sleep in the rafters or on rooftops. When it rained the thatch became slippery so the cats and dogs slipped off. To protect those underneath, large family beds had a canopy supported by four posts, called a four-poster bed. You can stay in hotels with four-poster beds in many UK hotels, especially in The Lake District, where people did and still do go for honeymoons and wedding anniversaries, and Stratford Upon Avon where people go to see buildings relating to Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway.

For the benefit of one of my pupils, whose first language is Mandarin, I have been noting down and compiling a list of idioms. Here are some of my favourites.

When you are travelling, you may have to simplify your English when speaking to those who appear to be speaking English fluenty - until you use an idiom. Most idioms were originally metaphors from the mutual acitivites of speakers and listeners. But over the course of a century or more the original context has been forgotten.

Country Mile

by a country mile - a lot (distance or time - like a winding country road which is long in both distance and time)

Tenterhooks

on tenterhooks - in suspense, anxiously waiting for a decision or result (hooks used to suspend drying fabric)

  

How to Translate And Not Be Lost In Translation when it's raining cats and dogs

Problem
I was teaching Intermediate English in Singapore to pupils wanting to pass the English exam which would enable them to attend English speaking schools or colleges in Singapore.

After the lesson I and one of the pupils looked out of the window, waiting for the rain to stop before we set off for our homes.

I said, "It's raining cats and dogs."

He replied, puzzled, "I see cats - but I don't see any dogs."

I said, "It's an English expression. It means raining hard."

I looked up the translation on the internet.

You can find translations of many idioms into a page of different languages. It's interesting to see how many use similar expressions.

The Chinese Mandarin and Cantonese use the expression:
basin-bending big rain.

That's a translation into a Chinese idiom, with the words translated back more or less exactly.

For more idioms, go to:
omniglot.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Teacher of English and other languages.

Translating Italian and Italian idioms when learning Italian

I am learning Italian with a free website, Duolingo. They email me every day. (I'm also learning Spanish and German daily and Russian sometimes.)

After you complete a few exercises you gain a bonus, a lesson translating idioms. Unfortunately they give you the literal translation but expect you to guess the English equivalent proverb or saying.

So I go onto the internet and look around. Up pop some other sites. For example:

Useful Websites
http://www.memrise.com/mem/2756688/its-always-the-same-old-soup/
https://missexpatria.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/how-to-say-it-in-italian-italian-idioms/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author researcher, language teacher, and public speaker.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Idioms in Spanish

Here's a useful website. Just short enough to be read in one go.
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Spanish/Idioms

A really big dictionary will have all the idioms under the respective nouns or verbs.

The best way to learn a language is not to translate from your language, but to listen to phrases used by native speakers and copy them.

You can also watch films you already know and like with the Spanish subtitles turned on.
Then films in Spanish with English subtitles. Then again without the subtitles. Then repeat every conversation aloud as you watch.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, English teacher and tutor.