It's up to you

It's up to you means that you can decide. For example, "it's up to Arnaud whether we go out for dinner or stay in." It's Arnaud's decision. In the negative "I can give you my opinion, but finally it's not up to me what we do."

Signing off

To sign off is to end a communication. With business emails, there are some very basic and common ways to end the message. The only question is how formal or informal you want to be.

The last sentence of an email often says something like this: please contact me if you have any questions. This is neutral and you can always use it. To make it less formal: please let me know if you have any questions. More formal: please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Closing the message, you can put: regards or best regards. More formally, you could put sincerely. Less formally: best or all best. Sometimes people from the UK will put cheers.

Want to practice? Send me an email titled "practice email" at coultonv@yahoo.com

When the going gets tough...

...the tough get going.






This is a classic expression! It plays with the words and their double meanings, and it makes sense to look at it in detail.


In the first part, the going means the way we have to go, or the thing that we're trying to do. To get tough means to become difficult. So you can translate this as "when the way becomes difficult."


In the second part, the tough refers to strong people. To get going is to start moving. So you could translate this part as "the strong people start moving."


When the going gets tough, the tough get going. When the way becomes difficult, the strong people start moving.


P.S. This post is dedicated to Calderwood and Davis: great friends, great people, a great romance. Two truly tough customers in the best old school sense: quiet heroes.

I heart NY

The logo here was designed in the 1970s by Milton Glazer, and commissioned by the city of New York for a promotional campaign.

This design became extremely popular, and it was intended to be read as I Love New York. Lots of people copied the design and made stickers and teeshirts for just about everything.

At some point, however, people started saying "I heart" instead of "I love." This expression comes up in articles and blog posts, for example, "Why We Heart the Kinect." When you see this expression, you can remember the original image!

Thinking about New York made me remember the opening of Woody Allen's film Manhattan. Here it is:

Although it's been many, many years since I last went to New York, I hope that I'll go again soon... What about you? Have you been there recently or are you planning to go soon?

P.S. This post is dedicated to Barbara Montaner, who hearts NY. I think NY also hearts Barbara. Who wouldn't?

What's happening?

"What's happening?" is a typical way to greet someone you know well, like a friend or coworker. It's very casual. You could also say "What's new?" or "What's going on?" or "What's up?" Then the other person could say "Nothing much," or something like that, or he or she could tell you what's happening...

Handmade/Homemade

This December I have received a beautiful origami Christmas ornament. It's made very well and I see it every time I come in my front door. It's handmade by someone very special. Handmade is an adjective that means made by hand, not by machine. We use it to describe things like clothes, books, ceramics, and other objects made by hand.

Homemade is similar: it's an adjective that means made at home instead of bought in a store. We usually use it for foods and drinks, like homemade cookies. These are cookies baked at home instead of bought.

I have to admit that I buy many things that aren't handmade, and this is something I'd like to change. More and more, I see that lots of people are making wonderful things! Certainly, I love to cook, and although I enjoy going out to restaurants, I prefer places where everything is homemade, including the desserts.

I hope that you receive something handmade this season, like a card or a small gift, and that you enjoy some great homemade treats!

P.S. Thanks to http://merchgrosso.blogspot.com/ for the image. They make some very nice clothes that you might find interesting, and they have a lot of good links on the blog.

P.P.S. This post is dedicated to Sandra Tulleuda, who makes beautiful things and gives them truly from the heart.

Nourish

In this season about giving, I find this video very, very moving.
To nourish is:
1. To provide with food or other substances necessary for life and growth; feed.
2. To foster the development of; promote.
3. To keep alive; maintain.

The most important thing is to express your true nature in the simplest, most adequate way and to appreciate it in the smallest existence. --Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

P.S. This post is dedicated to Jaume Gurt, with joy and appreciation

Check it!

This blog seeks to bring you only the highest quality of posts and links. However, since a HUGE number of students ask me about slang expressions, here is my suggested link: The Online Slang Dictionary at http://onlineslangdictionary.com/. I want to warn you that a lot of the words and expressions there are sexual in nature. On the other hand, a lot (maybe the majority) are not, and you can search the site. I've given you the link to the home page. One more thing: the content of this site is user-generated. This makes sense because slang is also user-generated. What I like about this resource is that it gives us expressions currently in use.

Enjoy!

Ya gotta wanna

The title of this post is an example of spoken English. The sounds have been made into words which are similar to the original words, but not the same. A translation into more formal English would be "You've got to want to."

Here are a few more examples of this kind of spoken English:

Gonna = going to
Hafta = have to
Gimme = give me
Lemme = let me
Should've = should have
Would've = would have
Could've = could have
Ya = you
Doncha = don't you


It's typical to find these kinds of expressions in songs, because people rarely sing in a formal way. Also, some singers and native speakers say -in instead of -ing, for example "I'm goin' to California."

Pixar University's Randy Nelson on Learning and Working in the Collaborative Age

Feel like

Feel like is a way of saying that you want to do something or experience something. When we combine it with a verb, the verb is -ing. For example, "I don't feel like dancing." This means that I don't want to do it right now. We use this expression a lot when we're talking about what to do. For example:

"Do you feel like going out for lunch?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Where do you want to go? Do you feel like having Chinese?"

"Ummm, not really... What about Thai?"

"I don't really feel like going that far. What about pizza?"

You can also put a noun after feel like, so you could say, "I don't feel like Chinese... What about Thai?"

Shake your booty

To shake your booty is to dance. The first time this expression became well known, it was in the song by KC and the Sunshine Band, Shake, Shake, Shake Your Booty in 1976. Your booty is your behind. Some people shake their booties more when they dance than others. Also, some people like to dance and some don't. Personally, I'm not much of a dancer. You're not likely to find me shaking my booty very often. But sometimes...

Speaking of dancing, one of my favorite dance scenes ever has to be the one from Pulp Fiction.
Maybe Vincent and Mia are not shaking their booties disco-style, but they're really dancing...



Anyway, if you like to dance, I hope your holiday season will be full of booty shaking. And if not, I hope people respect your desire not to dance!

P.S. This post is dedicated to Anna and Encarna with great affection.

Exciting/excited (adjectives)

A number of adjectives can end with -ed or -ing. What's the rule for this?

Skiing is exciting. You are excited. Skiing is the cause of your feeling. It's exciting, with -ing. The feeling you have is being excited, with -ed. Here are some more examples:

The book was interesting and the students were interested.

Some people thought the film was boring, but I wasn't bored.

Traveling can be tiring, especially for children, who often get very tired on a long trip.

Old school

Old school is an adjective. We use it to describe things which are old-fashioned in a good way. A typical example would be the barber shop on my street. This is a place where men get their hair cut. Only men. They have magazines for men and the place is very simple and direct: you go in, sit down, wait for your turn, and get a haircut. This haircut is good and very, very inexpensive. There are no fancy shampoos and conditioners for sale, and no house music playing. This barber shop is old school. In Barcelona, we still have a lot of places which are old school, and that's a wonderful thing. You can also use old school to apply to a person, a strategy, a way of doing things. The key is that you admire the classic elements of the thing you're talking about.

Here's a video of Joan Armatrading singing a song she wrote called "Love and Affection." The year was 1976. To me, Joan Armatrading is old school. I wish this video didn't have any advertising or the name "Dave" across the top, but I think it's still worth it to see Joan and hear the song. See what you think...



P.S. This post is dedicated to Tanya Figueroa, maven of cheese, great teacher, and lovely friend, someone who appreciates the best of what's old school.

Alphabet!

We learn the alphabet at the beginning of our study of English, and native speakers have to learn it too. Because most of us learned the alphabet a long time ago, it's hard to remember that it wasn't easy! For adults learning English, some of the sounds aren't easy to make or to recognize, depending on your native language or mother tongue. This expression is very good, I think, because the language you grow up with conditions your tongue as well as your mouth and what sounds you're able to make. For non-native speakers of Spanish and Catalan, for example, making the "rr" sound can be difficult. It's important to continue practicing the sounds of the alphabet, even though you know them, and especially if some of them, like "a" for example, are hard for you to recognize correctly when people say them. This can be a problem if you're on the phone and someone is spelling something, like his or her name.
For some good practice on pronunciation, I recommend New English File. Here's the link:
http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/englishfile/preint/c_pronunciation/
This is the pre-intermediate one, and you could go to the other levels to practice.

P.S. This image is from a book by Peter Blake, Alphabets. Many thanks to www.dezeen.com

Getting together

When we plan to meet some friends or family, or even one person, we often use the the phrasal verb get together. For example, "This weekend I'm getting together with Viri and Nedra." The concept is that you'll see each other and do something together, like have lunch or drinks, or just relax at someone's home.
At this time of year, when the nights are long, it's great to get together with good friends, especially ones who make you laugh and tell great stories and know wonderful games and have good books to recommend...

(This post is dedicated to Harriet Sandilands, marvelous poet, teacher, and friend.)

Funny

Funny is an adjective and we use it to describe something which makes you laugh. This could be a person with a good sense of humor, or a joke, a film, a cartoon, even something you see on the street which strikes you as amusing. There are many different kinds of humor, from silly and slapstick to witty to sarcastic and acid. One kind of humor is parody: making an imitation of something, usually in an extreme way, in order to make it funny. Sometimes when I want to read something funny, I visit The Onion at http://www.theonion.com/. This is a site which parodizes the news of the United States. It's not always funny, but I often find something there that makes me laugh so much that the people of the sales department start shaking their heads.

If you have any funny websites or publications to recommend, it would be great to hear about them!

Thanks to Bill Watterson and http://www.fanpop.com/ for the image from Calvin and Hobbes!

Health

My word for the day is health. This is the noun and the adjective is healthy or healthful. A person is healthy when he or she feels well and doesn't have any physical or mental problems. Things that promote good health are healthful, like exercise, good eating habits, etc.

We can speak of different kinds of health, for example, financial health or mental health. A company or country could be financially healthy. The comparative and superlative forms of healthy are healthier and healthiest. The opposite adjectives are unhealthy and unhealthful. Some environments are polluted and thus unhealthful.

Sometimes when we make a toast (say something when we raise our glasses of wine, beer or champagne), we say, "To your health." We often write "Have a healthy and happy New Year" on cards we send for Christmas.

I hope that you are enjoying good health. If not, I hope that you feel better soon!

P.S. This is my one hundredth post. Thank you for reading, making comments and being supportive!

Benefits

Benefits are good things. We talk about a situation having benefits, for example, "the benefits of renting an apartment for a week vs. staying in a hotel." In terms of employment, benefits are the services that the company offers employees in addition to salary. These benefits typically include health insurance, discounts for things like child care or the gym, etc. The combination of benefits offered by a company is often called the benefits plan or package.

Benefit can also be a verb, defined as: to do good to; be of service to. For example, "we need a health program to benefit everyone."

Google is one company which is famous for having great benefits for its employees. To see what they offer, you can go to http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/lifeatgoogle/benefits/index.html

You can also watch a video about how it is to work at Google, at http://www.youtube.com/lifeatgoogle

Gift

A gift or present is something we give to someone for his or her birthday or on some other occasion. We often take a gift to someone's house when we go there for dinner, something like a bottle of wine or some flowers. Sometime the gift is wrapped in paper, sometimes not. The paper we use for this is called giftwrap, and many stores have a giftwrapping service. We use the verb give with gifts and presents. The noun is giftgiving. A gift could be many things, including a donation to a charitable organization.

We also use the word gift to describe the special talent or ability a person can have. For example, he has a gift for music. This means that he has a special ability with music. There's also an adjective, gifted, which is often used to describe very talented children.

Most cultures and families have some traditions about giftgiving. Are there any that you especially like?