Saturday, March 18, 2017

AMERICAN IDIOMS

American Idiomatic Expressions
Hi guys!
Please search for the meaning of the following expressions:
  • "Wear your heart on your sleeves"
  • "John Hancock"
  • "give the cold shoulder..."
  • "right off the bat..."
  • "Cat got your tongue?"
  • "Rain check..."
  • "Bite one's head off..."
  • "hot potato"
  • "cold feet"
  • "out in the cold" 
  • Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
  • Our feeling for those we love increases when we are apart from them.
  • "Cheer up Dude, everybody knows that absence makes the heart grow fonder."
  • Back handed compliment
  • A compliment that also insults or puts down at the same time.
  • They gave me a backhanded compliment when they said I was smart for a girl.
  • Blow off some steam
  • To enjoy oneself by relaxing normal formalities.
  • He is a true workaholic who has misguided priorities, when he wants to blow off some steam he comes to work on Saturday wearing blue jeans.
  • Botched up
  • Substandard; messed up; make a shamble of
  • Man, you really botched up that project. Now the company will have to start all over costing double and missing all of our deadlines.
  • Brand Spanking New
  • New and unused.
  • What you really need is a brand spanking new Porsche turbo.
  • Break a leg
  • A wish of good luck, do well.
  • Break a leg in your game today.
  • Bust your balls
  • To harass with the intent to break one's spirit.
  • When I ask you if you settled that dispute with the IRS, I am not just trying to bust your balls. I am trying to help.
  • Busting your chops
  • To say things intended to harass.
  • Don't get mad, I am just busting your chops.
  • Clear as a bell
  • Clearly understood.
  • You don't have to repeat yourself. Your message is clear as a bell.
  • Close, but no cigar
  • Nearly achieving success, but not quite.
  • That free throw was close, but no cigar.
  • Cold turkey
  • To quit something abruptly.
  • You will not lose weight until you give up chocolate, and I suggest you go cold turkey.
  • Don't Count Your Chickens Before They're Hatched
  • Don't be overconfident and assume success before you know the outcome of a venture.
  • In the midst of this daydream, she did toss her curls, sending the pail of milk spilling. The moral of the fable is: Such are the disappointments of those who count their chickens before they are hatched.
  • Face the music
  • To accept the truth.
  • It's time to face the music on your donut addiction.
  • Jump on the bandwagon
  • Do what everybody else is doing, whatever is popular.
  • When the Chicago Bears are winning, I will jump on the bandwagon and be a fan.
  • Keep your pants on
  • Calm down, be patient.
  • I will be off the telephone in a minute, so keep your pants on.
  • Knock on wood
  • Tap on a wooden surface for gook luck or to keep from putting a jinx on yourself for having mentioned some hope or dream aloud.
  • If good luck is willing. I am sure that your tax returns will not be audited, knock on wood.
  • Once in a blue moon
  • To happen only on rare occasions.
  • The Post Office regularly fails to deliver checks sent in payment to me, but bills sent to me fail to be delivered only once in a blue moon.
  • Passed with flying colors
  • To exceed expectations, to do better than expected.
  • The California smog test is tough, but my car passed with flying colors.
  • Put English on it
  • To impart a spin to something in an effort to make it hard to control, usually a ball in sports like tennis.
  • Your serve is dangerous when you put English on it.
  • Rings a Bell
  • To sound familiar, to spark a memory.
  • I don't remember meeting him, but the name John Smith rings a bell.
  • Roll with the punches
  • Weather through tough times, try to minimize the trouble.
  • Sometimes in life you just have to roll with the punches, even when the punches feel like they are coming from Mike Tyson.
  • Rule of thumb
  • A basic rule that is usually but not always correct.
  • As a rule of thumb, plant tomato seeds three inches deep.
  • Show your true colors
  • To reveal your true intentions, personality, or behaviors.
  • Everyone is on best behavior on the first date, but soon enough you will show your true colors.
  • Sleep tight
  • Sleep well.
  • Good night, sleep tight.
  • Strike while the iron is hot
  • Act quickly while the opportunity is still available.
  • If you want the job, you need to strike while the iron is hot.
  • Tie the knot
  • To get married.
  • I understand you want a baby, but don't you think you should tie the knot first. In fact maybe you should get a girlfriend first.
  • Under the weather
  • To be ill.
  • I'd love to help you move all your furniture next weekend, but I expect to be feeling a bit under the weather.
  • Upper Hand
  • Control of a situation.

If you are wondering who has the upper hand in your relationship, the next time you get up to fetch drinks, take a look on the sofa. There you will find that person.



Familiarity with idiomatic expressions is a must for call center agents. Idiomatic expressions or idioms are non-standard speech, slang or figurative expressions whose meaning cannot be directly deduced from the meanings of the words that composes it. Idioms are frequently employed by native speakers of English, which more often than not are the clients of our call center companies.


More importantly, call center agents must be familiar with idiomatic expressions because the use of idioms do not randomly happen in ordinary conversations but happens most often when one speaker is complaining to another. Studies show that the complaints play a significant role in throwing personal troubles or concerns publicly that is why complaints are formulated idiomatically. Idiomatic expressions are showed in unpromising unfavorable environments in which recipients have suspended commiserating or supporting with a complainant. Moreover, they also have a special heftiness that helps summarize a complaint in order to enhance its authenticity, and concurrently bring the grumble to an end.

Here under are some of the most common idiomatic expressions that a call center agent must know in order to ensure understanding communication with customers who native English speakers:

Beat around the bush avoiding coming to the point or talking about what the client needs to know directly.
Give me the runaround – trying to evade the issue or to fool the client by not giving the correct and pertinent information needed. The customer is frustrated and felt being tricked or deceived by the agent.
Catch 22  the dilemma of facing two unwanted or objectionable alternatives like the devil and the deep blue sea. The customer has no choice.
Lemon description given to a defective or substandard product.
All ears  listen carefully or attentively
Cry over spilt milk  useless complaint for something that cannot be recovered.
Eat one’s words  admit mistake
Figure out – try to understand or solve the situation such as how to operate a product and solve the problem.
Fed up  tired, bored and dismayed with someone (agent) or something (product)


17 comments:

  1. This is gonna help us a lot thought we've been taught during the career about idioma a think we didn't even take the surface of them because we didn't put them into practice or in real situation they kept there in notebooks but now we have the chance to practice them and as you told us last session that in a call center, agents are in contact with native speaker which will not ask you or will not clarify the meaning of the idiomatic expressions that are supposed to be known by us cause they think we handle that informal vocabulary. I guess that if we at least manage the basic ones will help us a lot but we don't have to conform and we need to learn as many as possible most of them that you're sharing us are new for me. I hope we can put them into practice in the next session among my classmates. Regards Mr Garcia.

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  2. These idioms are so helpful because it is very common for people who live in the US to applly them in conversations. Even when we watch some series like Friends and Two and a half men , they are used. Idioms are part of the language and we can not translate them like we think the meaning may be. Learning them is important in order to apply them in our everyday lives. I keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best when we have a quiz or presentation.

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  3. Is the best way as we can improve our skills as you says, the world call centers are involved in this kind of expressions and we need to know the meaning of the message we are receiving to respond immediately without a wrong answer…each day we learn new things and is a challenge we need to take.,for another hand American people use those expressions frequently, with friends, on the street and wherever you go. Also because is important part of our life, and sometimes just study in class but never we practice this kind of expressions with our friends or in our real context. for example I have learned a lot about this information becasues there are new idioms I didnt know as: "cat got your tonge" that you use toward someone who tell nothing I think that in spanish would be te comieron la lengua los ratones. I hope, I'm not get to wrong

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  4. Learning idioms is reallly essential because they are a good example of the pragmatic side of the English language , which mean the use of language in a specific contex , as it is stated in the reading people tend to speak using idioms when they are angry , that is the main reason why call center agents must know since many customers who call them do it in an agry way.

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  5. Thanks beceause sharing this list of idioms . I consider that these idioms are going to help us in order to enhance our lexic, and also, getting familiar with them is important because sometimes we listen that somebody use them but we do not know what he or she meant, or we make literal translation and we get confused.

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  6. This will be really helpful for us, because now everybody uses idioms, even in spanish. Idioms makes more interesting a conversation and the way we communicate each other changes. It's important to know idioms, because for sure someone will use it in a conversation, because people find interesting to use them. The problem with idioms would be that you need to know them or have a good understanding in order to catch what they mean even sometimes is not as easy because the ycan't not be translated literally. Another spoon to our knowledge.

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  7. Thanks for this information Sr. As we know this idioms are going to help us in order to add more vocabulary and say things in a better way. at the same time when we stablish a conversation with someone we can use it and if the other people use it too is going to be easier to understand. Because we have a previos knowledge about american idioms.

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  8. Is very important and useful know about the American idiomatic expressions because are very common in native speakers of English, and for that reason in a call center the agents have knowledge of this idioms when they communicate with customers in order to get a better comprehension. As learners is necessary acquire these expressions to help us avoid confusions and understand due to most of the time when idioms are translated literally do not make sense at all.

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  9. Idioms...I would say they're one of the most interesting things in the English learning process, however we don't get to use them often or put them into practice for some reasons, one, because it seems that every day, there are new idioms used out there so we have to learn each of them and it's like learning many dictionaries at a time 😅 since their usage will depend on the country/place where you find yourself in, and another reason could be that we are used to speak this language in an "ordinary/formal" way.
    So, as call center agents, we have to challenge ourselves to learn all of them in order to get what the customers are saying at the time we are facing their complaints as the reading says, and not just for that but for us to speak the English language in a more natural way.

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  10. I believe idioms help us to feel more comfortable when speaking. its everyday english. Now that we are in the callcenter area, I think that idioms will give us a plus when addressing to native speakers.


    Name: Jose Evelio Chicas Vigil
    IDIOMS
    1.“Wear your heart on your sleeve”.
    To make your feelings and emotions obvious rather than hiding them.
    2. John Hancock
    One's signature, as in Just put your John Hancock on the dotted line.
    3. Give someone the cold shoulder

    To intentionally ignore someone or treat someone in an unfriendly way:
    I thought she really liked me, but the next day she gave me the cold shoulder.
    4. Right off the bat and straight off the bat
    Fig. immediately; first thing. When he was learning to ride a bicycle, he fell on his head right off the bat. The new manager demanded new office furniture right off the bat.
    5. Cat got your tongue
    —used to ask someone why he or she is not saying anything “You've been unusually quiet tonight,” she said. “What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?”
    6. Take a rain check (on sth)
    Used to tell someone that you cannot accept an invitation now, but would like to do so at a later time:
    Mind if I take a rain check on that drink? I have to work late tonight.
    7. Bite someone’s head off
    to speak to someone angrily when there is no reason to:
    I just asked if I could help – you don’t have to bite my head off!
    8. Hot potato
    A problem, situation, etc. that is difficult to deal with and causes a lot of disagreement:
    The abortion issue is a political hot potato in the United States.

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  11. I agree with you, because all these types of expressions are non-standard speech. So in my case Sometimes is difficult catch the meaning in some Idiomatic expressions, because they're not directly deduced. But I think if we put into practice will be most easily to understand the message and catch the speaker intentions, because the meaning goes beyond than is written.

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  12. good to get more vocabulary about idioms in my poor list of them. thank you for sharing us american idioms /. I am sure that those are going to help us to improve our language by acquiring them and apply them to any future chance of work as agent in a call center..

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  13. All of these Indioms are going to help us in our learning because we are going to apply in the real life, also these expressions are so important for us because we can get more vocabulary !thank you for sharing this informations Mr. Garcia

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  14. They are so pervasive throughout the English language that to ignore them is to miss out on a large percentage of the phrasal interpretations and nuances.

    Idioms cause your mind to shift from the reality of your situation to the abstract thought of the analogy or concept they reference. They keep your mind stimulated and focused. They provide an outlet for expressive communication and a way for different people to say the same thing in different ways

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  15. Idioms are a part of the figurative language
    Idioms make a language sound very creative, and can also get others to think and figure out what the person who is using the idiom might mean. If we don't have a good relationship with idioms will be very difficult to understand what the other person is trying to say. So it is important to know about that.

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  16. I little bit late but I was reading about it so and my opinion idioms for English are very useful and most of the time we use in different time expressions.

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  17. Well idioms are part of the figurative language and idioms in a contex makes the contex seem very nice and interesting at the moment you use is really nice how you say that.....

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