Having taught some poor souls struggling with the complexities of the English language, I know what a son-of-a-bitch idioms can be. They don’t say what they mean and even kids born into English speaking families are sometimes confused by them.
My own son, at three, opened those
Little Rafi with big sister Susan
big eyes of his in terror when my friend told him she was picking him up from nursery school because his dad was ‘tied up’. She quickly noticed Rafi’s distress and explained his dad was just too busy to come. Whew!
A son of Polish immigrants painfully related what happened long ago in his 7th grade woodworking class. Dissatisfied with his sanding job, the instructor told him to use more ‘elbow grease’. Having no idea what that meant, he told his teacher he didn’t have any. I hope teachers today would be kinder, but he was sent to ask another teacher to ask for some. He’s never forgotten how embarrassed he was when that teacher and his whole class burst into laughter.
It’s raining cats and dogs
When I taught an adult night class, I had one student who loved idioms. He’d regularly watch English TV and bring in the idioms he didn’t understand and ask me to explain them. He brought in many, including ‘The buck stops here; The Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; and Don’t upset the apple cart’.
We live in a rain forest
We live in a rain forest. It happened to pour the evening I told him we’d say: ‘It’s raining cats and dogs’. I then asked what they’d say in Chinese. He seemed uncomfortable and said he couldn’t tell me. I didn’t push it. The next week, he came into class. came up to me and said ‘I can tell you now. We say ‘It’s raining dog excrement.’
I didn’t laugh. But I found the whole incident hilarious and have never forgotten it! Well, we’ve had a whole lot of rain lately and it’s been raining dog excrement for weeks for sure! Enough already….
Enough already!
Thank you for reading my blog. I love that you do. Enjoy whatever you are celebrating — and may 2020 be kind to us all.
View from Over the Hill 
Hi Muriel. All the best to you and yours.
Neil
You too young man. Keep writing. All the best.
Muriel, I hope you are fit as a fiddle and happy as a clam over the holidays.
Judy
I am Judy, I am. All is well and that’s terrific. Same to you and yours.
Ha Ha Ha! Yeah… idioms are so extremely sociological and cultural and historical… Would be hard for any of us learning a new language. Tho it does give the newbie some access to the other language’s social world…
😊 – Chris
True Chris: And some of the oldies I know are certainly out of use today and younger people wouldn’t have any idea what THEY mean. Happy New Year! Stay well….
I read somewhere that in the olden days people had thatched roofs over their houses and that cats and dogs liked to sleep there. If it rained too hard, the cats and dogs would fall in the house along with the roof.
Wow Susan: I never knew that. Neat….