The Maple Leaf Rag

Hi crew! I haven't had time to do the video or mp3 thing for the intonation blog entry. I have some time later this week so I'll try and get it done then. 

Meanwhile, I will put some more idioms in this blog. Hope you enjoy them!

all thumbs - basically you can't do something that requires a delicate touch. "I'm all thumbs when I have to do up my tie."

out of the woods - out of danger. "She was quite sick with cancer but now she is out of the woods."

smell a rat - suspect that something is wrong. "His whole story sounded like a lie. I smelled a rat right away."

get in my hair - what kids do sometimes. "I can't have my kids around when I am cooking, they get in my hair."

tongue-in-cheek - as a joke. " It was a tongue-in-cheek story of love and marriage."

bend over backwards - try very hard. "Her husband bent over backwards to please her."

don't have a leg to stand on - no chance of success. "Admit it! You don't have a leg to stand on!"

pulling your leg - play a joke on someone. "Ah, I'm not mad. I'm just pulling your leg."

take the bull by the horns - confront a problem, take leadership in working something out. "When it came to solving the teacher's strike, she really took the bull by the horns."

cat got your tongue? - being shyly quiet. "Why didn't you say hi to the new boy in your class? Cat  got your tongue?"

for the birds - absurd, worthless. "That new schedule is for the birds."

knock your socks off - amaze you, excite you. "The new U2 CD will just knock your socks off!"

long in the tooth - old like me! "Wow! Brian is really getting long in the tooth!"

spill the beans - let the cat out of the bad - these two mean the same thing, revealing a secret. "Did you tell her? Why did you let the cat out of the bad?" "Keep it quiet. Don't spill the beans."

straight from the horse's mouth - direct from the source, reliable information. "It's all true. I got it right from the horse's mouth. Mr. Jones told me himself."

drive up the wall - annoy or frustrate. "Your friends really drive me up the wall."

play it by ear - do something without a plan. "Ok. We've never been here before so we'll play it by ear."

I hope you enjoy these! Have fun! 

This past Wednesday, October 31st, we celebrated Halloween here in North America. It's only recently that I learned that Halloween or Hallow e'en isn't celebrated in too many countries around the world. How do the kids in those  countries survive without it? :)

I've posted some pictures of the evening on my profile page. Basically, kids dress up and go around to the different houses in a neighbourhood, knock on the door and say, "Trick or treat!" The home owner, or apartment dweller, then hands out some candies or fruit or bags of potato chips which the children put into their sacks and scurry off into the night. 

As you will see from my pictures, some home owners go all out and decorate their front yards with massive Halloween displays. Two of my neighbours do this. One, south of my house, tends to concentrate on scaring the children. Younger kids won't even walk on the other side of the street from this house but older, braver children clamour around the wild and woolly decorations.  Each year they have a coffin in which one of the homeowners lies very still until the right moment when he or she pops up and scares the bejeezus out  of any kids who are close by. Cobwebs and gravestones abound on the lawn and there is always scary music playing. They have recently added a fog machine which adds a whole other element to the display. 

Contrasting this, my other neighbours on the west side of my street concentrate on the fun part of Halloween. Their yards is festooned with pumpkins, lights, some blow up ghosts waving in the wind and a few slightly scary but obviously fake people standing at the end of the driveway. These are the same people who go absolutely wild at Christmas and decorate their lawns with literally hundreds of lights and decorations. It is a spectacular sight on a cold December night to wander by and be amazed by the sights and sounds on their lawn. The two houses are owned by Filipino sisters and the question we all have is : Where do they store all of this stuff when they are not using it? The  houses are very special places in our neighbourhood and we are all proud that they go to so much work to entertain us. 

I've used some words in this blog that you might not understand. Look them up in Google first but if you can't figure out what I mean, just ask me. Don't be shy! If you don't ask, you will never know. Right?

This blog is for more advanced speakers, but everyone who can read this can have some fun.

Read this sentence. Figure out what meaning you are giving the sentence as a whole.

'I didn't say I spoke to him.'

Pretty easy right? Well, what if you emphasized a different word each time you said the sentence? 

The first time you do it, it seems like YOU didn't speak to the person. The second time you say it, it seems like you DIDN'T say you spoke to him. What did you do? Did you speak to him or write to him or what? The third time it seems you didn't SAY you spoke to him. Maybe you sent him a text. Maybe you emailed him. 

Do you see where this is going? That simple sentence has seven different ways that it can be spoken. The difference in all of these different ways is 'intonation'. If you want to excel in English you have to learn a little bit about intonation and how it can change the way a spoken phrase 'sounds' to a listener.

This is a fun example. Don't worry if this doesn't sound easy right now. Read the sentence and try to make it sound differently each time. I'll try to figure out a way to add an mp3 of me reading that sentence to my profile. Together, we will have you speaking English just a little bit better than you have before. It will be a fun journey!