Bringing Home the Bacon – or Bagels?

Animal rights charity PETA has suggested that many current English idioms carry negative associations with animal abuse and that we should change their wording to reflect awareness of animal rights. The altered animal idioms would retain the original meaning, while shedding the abusive imagery. As vegetarianism and veganism become more popular and awareness of animal rights grows, should our language change to keep up with society’s shifting attitudes? And is this a positive progression – or political correctness gone mad?

Continue reading

Is Office Jargon Annoying? It’s a No Brainer!

If you’ve been working from home more often after Covid, you might have missed some aspects of office life (or maybe not). One element that most people won’t have missed is the office jargon of business meetings. In fact, a new study has revealed that office jargon is one of the most hated aspects of going to work!

Business talk or office jargon includes those irritating phrases that regularly crop up at work. Many people secretly dislike corporate jargon but it continues to be used in many offices. From ‘thinking outside the box’ to ‘touching base’ and ‘leveraging synergies’ – it’s hard to avoid in most offices. So let’s employ some blue-sky thinking going forward, as we unpack the most common office jargon! Continue reading

English Idioms: A Great Way to Sound Like a Native Speaker

Idioms are some of the most interesting features of any language – and some of the hardest to understand as a foreigner. English has many idioms in common usage and learning a few of these is a fun way to sound like a native speaker.

Idioms have a figurative meaning, rather than a literal meaning and because these words mean something completely different when used in an idiomatic phrase, non-native speakers can find them very confusing! Read on to explore how you can use idioms to sound like a native speaker. Continue reading

Getting Fruity! Fruit and Veg Idioms for TEFL

Fruit and Veg Idioms - orangeFruit and veg idioms are more prevalent in the English language than you might think. If you know your onions, you might even be able to think of a few veggie idioms right now! Food in general is a useful theme in English when you are looking to find that perfect expression to describe a situation in an idiomatic way, in a manner with a bit of flavour.

Read on to explore the world of English fruit and veg idioms – adding in a few fruity phrases to your conversations is as easy as pie and it could even be the icing on the cake of your English language learning.
Continue reading