Idioms

...at the eleventh hour
---don't beat around the bush
---I aced the test
---piece of cake
---easy as pie
---be on the road
...I'll be in and out
---apple of my eye
---bite of more than one can chew
...break a leg
...she broke his heart
...I need 10 bucks
...he's so bull-headed
...Scott burned the midnight oil
...by the skin of one's teeth

Imagine your learning a new language and you hear people speak these words. For Americans we understand  what they are saying because we've grown up with these phases, called idioms.  But, to a Slovak or someone for who English is a foreign language, when I say "I need ten bucks" to go to the movie, they don't get it. Ten bucks? Ten stags? Ten big male deer? Antlers?   You can see the "wheels turning" (another idiom) in their head.

I find it humbling to sit and visit with people who are professionally proficient in their fields: journalists, pharmacists, pastors, and yet they labor to speak English and they desire to speak the language well. One of the notes I share with them is that English is articulated in many different ways. For instance, last summer when I was in Maine we asked a sheriff for directions. His accent was so strong I could hardly understand the first few sentences. I've shared the same experience in Louisiana when listening to people from the bayou country talk in an airport. I picked up about half of their conversation.

So, what I do is this: I invite them to read a few paragraphs of something that I know they have not read before our visit. Then I complement them because I understood every word they spoke. They might emphasize different syllables but big deal.  I remember trying to pronounce the store name Pamida.  I pronounced it as PA-me-dah.  The correct way to pronounce the word was PA-my-duh. So, what did I learn? Even if you speak the word differently people hear the word and know what you mean. See, it's a piece of  cake!