Dime

Hey everybody, today we will go over some idioms that use the word, dime.

A dime is a 10 cent coin in the US though sometimes we also say dime in Canada.

Probably the most recent slang term or idiom using dime is:

A dime bag which is a small amount of illegal drugs sold for 10 dollars. This is most useful when watching movies or crime dramas.

An older idiom is to drop the dime on someone. This means that you snitched on someone. Again, it is useful when watching crime dramas though it's a pretty old idiom and not so common anymore.

To snitch on someone, means you told the police (parents, teachers, etc.) about something bad someone did and they got caught and got in trouble.

"Mickey dropped a dime on Donald and he's in the Big House(prison) now!"

I think the idiom to drop the dime on someone comes from the fact that before when you made a phone call you had to pay a dime. So you would drop a dime into the phone to make a phonecall. For more information check out this link:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=DROP+A+DIME

At the drop of a dime, be careful this is a completely different idiom! It is still fairly common and it means you will do something instantly, without hesitation. We use this idiom to talk about OTHER PEOPLE and usually for NEGATIVE THINGS.

"Don't make Jimmy angry he'll kill you at the drop of a dime!"
(kill you without stopping to think about it)

"My girlfriend gets angry at the drop of a dime, it's driving me crazy."
(gets angry easily)

A dime a dozen, this idiom is pretty useful it means that something is common and easy to find, not so valuable, easy to replace, etc.

"Cute girls are a dime a dozen in LA."
(cute girls are everywhere in LA)

A: "Sorry, I lost your magazine."

B: "Don't worry about it, they're a dime a dozen."
(very common, not so valuable)

The last idiom I want to talk about is; on a dime. This has two meanings:

1- At a precise point, precisely.

"My new car can stop on a dime."
(can stop at an exact point)

"This motorcycle can turn on a dime."
(can turn very precisely)

2- Cheaply, inexpensively, without spending a lot of money.

"This book is great! It can tell you how to live on a dime."
(how to live without spending a lot of money)

"I'm tired of traveling on a dime! Let's take a more luxurious trip."
(traveling cheaply)

That's all for now, hope you enjoyed the lesson and be sure to live a comment in the comments section!

Phil

Christmas Carols ^_^

Hey everyone, MERRY CHRISTMAS and Have a Happy New Year~!

So, to celebrate I decided to write about Christmas carols. These are traditional Christmas songs that people sing during the Holidays. Most, are from the 19th century and during the Christmas season people go carolling. This means they go from house to house and sing Christmas songs. Carolling used to be very popular but recently it is not so common but sometimes, it still happens ^_-

So today, I am going to present to you three very common Christmas carols that I used to sing when I was a kid.The first is:

Jingle Bells

Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh
Over the fields we go
Laughing all the way

Ha Ha Ha

Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way;
Oh! what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way;
Oh! what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh

That is the version I used to sing as a child, if you want the full original version follow this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_Bells

We also had a joke version we would sing in elementary school which was:

Jingle bells, Batman smells,
Robin laid an egg;
The Batmobile lost a wheel,
And the Joker got away!

This is version talks about the superhero Batman and so it is popular among young boys who think it is funny! The second carol I am going to show you is:

We Wish you a Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas; We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Good tidings we bring to you and your kin;
Good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

This is only a small part of the carol but it is the one people remember. If you want to know the whole song follow this link: http://www.christmas-carols.net/carols/merry-christmas.html

One of the few that people know all the words to is:

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer

had a very shiny nose.

And if you ever saw him,

you would even say it glows.

All of the other reindeer

used to laugh and call him names.

They never let poor Rudolph

join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve

Santa came to say:

"Rudolph with your nose so bright,

won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

Then all the reindeer loved him

as they shouted out with glee,

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,

you'll go down in history!

Hmm, those are the ones I remember singing as a child. I hope you enjoy these songs and have a great time during the Holidays. I am off to Taiwan soon for a short vacation, I am not sure if there will be another post this year so...

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

SEE YOU IN 2009!

Phil


Songs with midi music for you to sing along to:

http://www.the-north-pole.com/carols/index.htm

Christmas carols:

http://www.christmas-carols.net/

the pinky

the pinky

So this is the smallest finger of the human hand. It is also called: the pinky(Scottish spelling is pinkie), the little finger, the baby finger, the fifth finger (or fourth finger if you don't count the thumb) and even the anti-thumb.

From the word pinky, we get the term pinky ring. This is a small ring worn on the pinky and actually, many engineers in Canada and the U.S. wear a special ring on this finger. Also, villains in movies often wear pinky rings...

While researching this lesson I learned that in Japan, when talking about two people if you lift up your pinky it means they are in a relationship... but it is a bit of an old fashioned gesture.

In China, lifting up the little finger to someone is like the middle finger to English speaking people so it is really rude~!

The last thing to mention about the little finger is: pinky swear or pinky promise. This is when two people link their little fingers and shake to make a promise. It is often used by kids. A long time ago, if you broke this promise you were supposed to cut off your pinky... kind of like the Japanese Yakuza and 指つめ.

A: Are you telling the truth?

B: Sure, I pinky swear it's the truth!

In this case, they probably won't shake using their pinkies. It is kind of like saying: I swear, cross my hurt and hope to die(if I am lying).

Finally! The finger series is done, I hope you enjoyed it ^_^ If you have any questions or suggestions please leave a post on my message board!

Phil

the ring finger

Hey everyone! Today, we will finally finish my series about fingers by covering the ring finger. This is the third finger of the hand (fourth if you count the thumb), especially the left hand on which people normally wear their wedding rings.

Here is a picture:

In many cultures, this is a magical finger and so you get the name; medical finger because it was supposed to have healing powers. This is the same as in Japan where you call it: 薬指 - kusuri yubi or medicine finger.

There aren't any real idioms again just the term ring finger which is often used. Ex:

A: Wow, that is a cute guy!

B: Did you check his ring finger? Is he married?

Ok, there is one more lesson left in this series which is about the smallest finger... ...the pinky!

Phil

Index finger, Middle finger...

Hey everyone, I will continue my series on finger idioms. Today, I will be covering the index finger and the middle finger.

the index finger

This is also called the pointing finger (though it is rude to point with this finger), the forefinger, the first finger and the trigger finger.

I couldn't really think of any idioms that go with this finger, the trigger finger is said because it is the one you use to pull the trigger to shoot a gun.

So you might here: "I have an itchy trigger finger" which means that you will easily shoot your gun.

People might also say "pull my finger" and put out the index finger, when you pull it they fart! It's a kid's joke ^_-

I often get hangnails on my index fingers... this means that a small piece of nail sticks out the side of the fingernail. Then you pull it out and it is a bit painful.
Not too fun -_-

the middle finger

This is the finger you use when you tell people to F#*K You! So there are a few idioms about this:

to give someone the finger

This guy cut me off on the road so I gave him the finger.

to flip the bird

My teacher was mean to me so when she turned around I flipped her the bird.

Hmm, that is about it. There are not many idioms about these fingers... Our next lesson is about the ring finger... and then the last lesson will be about the pinky!

Phil

iknow check out this interesting site!

We interrupt my series on finger idioms to tell you about a new website for people learning Japanese or Japanese people learning English it is called iknow:

http://www.iknow.co.jp/

It is pretty cool, there is audio, photos, etc. that help you learn lots of vocabulary. So if you want to do a free online study course, check it out!

Phil

2 Thumbs up!

Today, we will be talking about the thumb! 2 thumbs up is an idiom that is often used to describe movies, it means it is a great movie~! 2 thumbs down means it is a terrible movie.

This is a really old idiom that comes from the Roman Empire, when the Emperor went to the Colosseum and saw gladiators fight-he would give the thumbs up to spare someone's life and the thumbs down to say he should be killed...

So from that, we got two idioms:

thumbs up, meaning something is good

and

thumbs down, meaning something is bad

So you can say, "I gave him the thumbs up/down", which means I showed that I approve or disapprove of something.

Now, onto some more idioms!

twiddle your thumbs, this means to do nothing, you just sat there moving your thumbs in circles.

Don't just sit there twiddling your thumbs! Help me!

I hate waiting! I just sit there twiddling my thumbs!

to thumb through something, this means you look through something quickly usually a magazine, book or a bunch of papers. Think of all those people in convenience stores thumbing through magazines...

Can you thumb through my paper for me and tell me what you think?

all thumbs or all fingers and thumbs, this means you are bad with your hands, you aren't good at making things with your hands.

Don't ask me to help build your shelf, I'm all thumbs.

stick out like a sore thumb, this means you are easily noticed, it looks like you do not belong there.

I don't like going to fancy restaurants, I always feel like I stick out like a sore thumb!

under someone's thumb, this means you are under someone's control.

Bob's totally under his wife's thumb, he never does anything without her permission.

have a green thumb, this means you are good with plants and gardening. You can easily make things grow.

My wife has a green thumb, her garden is doing great!

There are other thumb idioms but I think these are the most common. I hope you enjoyed today's lesson.

Have a nice day!

Phil

Check...

Sorry for not blogging in awhile but last week was my Japanese test, I think it went ok and I will find out in 3 months!!! What a long wait...

Anyways, today I will just make a quick post about an instruction I saw on the test's answer sheet. There was this English phrase:

"Check up on your test voucher"

This isn't correct English... so I thought I would talk about phrasal verbs using check.

I would probably say something like "Check against your test voucher" or simply "Check your test voucher".

Check up on means that you research someone's background.

At my office, we check up on all new applicants before hiring them.

Or, it is used by parents when talking about seeing(checking) what their children are doing. This is to make sure they stay out of trouble.

I always check up on my kids via cellphone.

Check on has a similar meaning but is not as strong, so check up on can often be seen as a little negative...

(a teenager) Stop checking up on me!!!

Check out means to look at something or go and try a new shop or restaurant, like I want to go and see if it is any good. Kind of like the Japanese 行って見たい。

Check out that cute girl!

I want to check out that new restaurant near the train station.

Check over, means double-check so look over something carefully to see that everything is ok.

Check over your answers before handing in the test.

Check off, comes from having a list of things to do. When finish doing something you check it off your list or cross it off your list.

I found the gift my girlfriend wanted~! I can cross her off my Christmas list.

Check into is the same as look into, again this means research or verify. It is usually used when talking about situations and you will try to find out what is happening.

A: What's going on with the Johnson account? I hear there's a problem.

B: I'll check into it and get back to you.

Basically, check means to verify, to see if something or someone is as you imagine it to be.

A: Is Bob in his office?

B: Let me check... yeah, he is.

So that is it for now, the next post will continue my series on fingers and finger idioms!

Phil