I slept like a log last night.

Hey everyone so here's one last quick idioms lesson for the month. When you want to say you slept really well you can say:

I slept like a log.

Now what is a log? In Japanese, a log is: 丸木 (まるき).

And when you sleep like a log, you slept really deeply and soundly without waking up till morning. You didn't move at all just like a fallen log. In Japanese, to sleep like a log is:

グースカ or 寝付がいい (ねつきがいい)

Now, when you CAN'T sleep well we usually say:

I was tossing and turning all night.

Meaning you couldn't fall asleep and you kept moving around in your bed so you slept badly. Which in Japanese would be:

輾転反側 (てんてんはんそく) or

寝相が悪い (ねぞうがわるい)


While being unable to sleep well is:

寝苦しい (ねぐるしい)

So here are some example sentences:

A: Did you sleep well?

B: Yeah, I slept like a log~! I feel great!

Summers in Japan are too hot! I spend the whole night tossing and turning and feel terrible in the morning! Maybe I need to buy a new air conditioner...

So I think that is it for March, see you in April for some more mini-lessons!

Phil

Talking about belly...

In English, we have a casual way to say stomach which is the word belly (小腹, こばら). Today we are going to look at many different words and expressions that use the word belly.

a belly button (臍, へそ)




This is where a baby's umbilical cord used to be. There are two kinds of belly buttons:

1. -an innie where the belly button goes in and
2. -an outie where the belly button sticks out.

a pot belly or a beer belly (酒太り, さけぶとり)

This is when someone (usually men) has a big gut, their stomach really sticks out a lot. The fattest part of their body is a big belly which sticks out. Likes this picture from thefreedictionary.com

a belly dancer (ベリーダンサー )

A belly dancer is someone who does belly dancing, which is a kid of dancing from the Middle East where women dance by moving their belly(abdomen).

a belly laugh (腹笑い, ふくわらい)

This is a big laugh from your belly ^_^

a bellyflop

This is when someone jumps into the water and lands on their belly with a loud SMACKing sound.

a bellyache

This is children's English for a stomachache. It can also be used as a verb meaning to complain-it's usually used in this way to ask someone to stop complaining.

Quit your bellyaching~! It's driving me crazy!!!

to go belly up

This is an idiom which means to go bankrupt, to fail, to die. It comes from the fact that when goldfish die they then float to the surface of the aquarium with their belly up.

I heard a rumor Mr. Donuts might go belly up.

Ok that's all for now, have a good weekend,

Phil

I think I'm gonna brown bag it today

Hey everyone, do you know what the above sentence means? If not, you soon will~! The subject of today's lesson is to brown bag it. In Japan, people sometimes bring a homemade lunch in a lunchbox(or bento) to work. But in North America, people(usually kids) bring lunch from home in a plain brown paper bag. This is where the expression to brown bag it comes from!

Man, since the recession started I've had to brown bag it to save money. I miss going out for lunch...

A: Hey Jim, wanna go out with us for lunch?

B: No, that's ok. I'm brown bagging it today.

C: Where do you eat lunch?

D: Oh, I usually brown bag it. (meaning bring lunch from home)

Ok that's all for today, I'm keeping it sweet and simple. Stay tuned for the next lesson~!

Phil

A blast from the past...!

Hey everyone, today I am going to publish a lesson from my archives ^_- It's a blast from the past that I wrote way on September 15th, 2008! The reason I chose to publish this blog again is that I last month I thought I should teach about the opposites:

clean<------> dirty
neat <------>messy

Neat means tidy, things are organized and put away. According to the online dictionary it is like, 清楚 (せいそ) in Japanese.

But I felt like I had already talked about them before and when I checked my archives there it was! So I hope you enjoy this old lesson and I will add a few more examples today ^_^ Here we go:

-----------Sept, 15th, 2008-------------------------

Well, it's time to talk about learning some English ^_- today, I am going to go over some useful vocabulary and phrasal verbs that have to do with cleaning.

messy

This is an adjective meaning disorderly, untidy, etc. To me, it is not really dirty, more it is clean but things are all over the place, nothing is put away...

Look at this mess! How did you make our hotel room so messy? We've only been here 2 hours!?!?!

Wow, two hours after straightening up my room and it's already messy~!

dirty

This adjectives means the opposite of clean, there is dirt present... so to me, it is stronger than messy.

Billy was playing in the park, he got his clothes really dirty!

Kids' hands are almost always dirty...

clean up

This phrasal verb is telling you, make something or somewhere clean. You put things away and also get rid of any dirt.

Sorry guys, I can't go out tonight I have to clean up my room.

If I clean up my room once a week I get my allowance ^_^

tidy up

This phrasal verb goes with messy; "you have to tidy up your messy room". It means, to put away things, to organize them. Like Katadzukeru(片付ける,かたづける) in Japanese. It does not really mean getting out the mop and cleaning in a serious way... it is a more casual kind of cleaning.

Oh! My girlfriend just called, she's coming over. Hurry, help me tidy up!

Just give me 2 minutes to tidy up before you come in.

straighten up

This phrasal verb is very similar to tidy up, the main difference is that it is more formal and a bit of a higher level expression.

Smith, straighten up your office! Our clients will be here any minute!!!

I have to straighten up my room, this sucks!

Alright, I think that is it for now. If you have any questions, thoughts, comments or ideas for a lesson let me know!

Phil

Do you like English?

Yeah, I love it!

Today we will talk about liking something. In English you have several pretty standard answers to the question:

Do you like ___________?

++Yeah, I love it!

+Yeah, I do. or
+Yeah, I like it.

+/-Well, I don't mind it. or
+/-Well, it's ok.

- weak No, not really.

-No, I don't. or
-No, I don't like it.

--No, I hate it!

I love it is the most positive and I hate it is the most negative. When we use well with it's ok or I don't mind it is a very weak agreement... Be very careful when using the word hate in English it is REALLY STRONG! It is like the Japanese, daikirai (大嫌い, だいきらい). The word hate is rarely used in English so when you do use it, it adds extra-power to your statement~!

Here are some examples:

Do you like curry?
Well, it's ok.

Do you like horror movies?
Yeah, I do. My favorite horror movies are zombie movies!

Did you like dinner?
Yeah, it was really good.

Do you like natto?
No, I don't.

What do you think of pretentious people?
I hate them~! They're such jerks!

Have a nice day,

Phil

Man this bites~! -- Part 2

For the second lesson about the word bite, we're gonna talk about the slang expression to bite. This means that something sucks, it was popular in the 1990s but I am not sure if it's used very often these days.

A: Man, I have no money to go to the party.

B: Dude, that bites~!

The food in my school cafeteria bites!

meaning,

The food in my school cafeteria sucks~!

There are also plenty of idioms using the word bite. We will talk about some of them:

bite the dust

This is a really casual way to say someone or something died or ended.

Did you hear? Nova bit the dust.

bite the bullet

This means that you will accept or do something unpleasant. Basically, it means to endure something...

I'm not a big fan of my new schedule, oh well I guess I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and do my best.

bite (someone's) head off

This means that you yell at someone angrily, it's usually used when someone suddenly answers a question by screaming a reply.

A: How's the project going?

B: LEAVE ME ALONE!!! IT'LL BE FINISHED ON TIME!!!

A: Um ok, don't bite my head off I was just asking.

B: Sorry, I'm just really stressed out recently.

bite off more than you can chew

This means that you took on a project or task that is more than you can do on your own. You are trying to do something that is too difficult for you.

Looks like I bit off more than I can chew, I have no idea how I'll finish the project on time!

Well I think that is enough about bite, I hope you enjoyed these lessons and expect more lessons soon!

Phil

Wanna grab a bite to eat? -- Part 1

Hi everyone, today's lesson will be about the word bite. Now the verb to bite means kamu 噛む (かむ) in Japanese, for example:

Ow~! Your dog bit me!

Now the noun a bite can have several meanings, it can mean the mark left by an animal or insect biting you.

My arm is itchy because I have a mosquito bite.

It can also mean a bite of food, in Japanese you would say hitokuchi 一口, (ひとくち).

Gimme a bite!

which in Japanese would be,

hitokuchi choudai!

In casual English, a bite can also mean a light meal or snack.

Do you wanna have a bite to eat?

meaning,

Do you want to eat a light meal or snack?

I'm hungry I'm gonna go grab a bite.

meaning,

I'm hungry I'm going to go eat something.

Hmmm, there are some other interesting expressions that use bite but I think I'll do another lesson to cover those so stay tuned for Part 2!

Phil

You suck!

Hey everyone! To start off this month I will talk about the really useful word:

SUCK

To suck in slang or casual English it means it is horrible, terrible, really really bad.

It is used as a verb:

Man, that movie totally sucked~! It was shit!

Man, that movie was total garbage~! It was horrible!

It is used as an adjective:

A: Have you heard of "The Grillhouse"?

B: Yeah, I've been there. It's a pretty sucky restaurant, you shouldn't go there.

Here suck becomes an adjective by adding the suffix ~y. For example:

He's a weaselly little man.

Meaning he's a small guy who looks or acts like a weasel.

Or you can also used suck as an adjective meaning someone is bad at something or they aren't any good:

Man you suck at basketball!

Dude you suck!

So I hope that helps you out when watching movies or TV shows, have a good week,

Phil