A MESSAGE from Dave Sconda

TODAY ...

A word of encouragement 

from Dave Sconda.

"Straight from the horse's mouth" (idiom)

that is from his Twitter account:

«Be courageous with language learning-

don't let any fear/bad feeling get in your way

you're learning, mistakes are good, keep moving forward!»

I couldn't have said it better myself!

My feelings as well.

Suzanne

*** NOTE:

Click on TITLE for a direct link 

to Dave Sconda's Twitter account.

HUGE and HUG put to good use!

Hi!

Marie-Denise, a student, just sent me this video.

It's was made by a Swiss publicity agency 

to promote awareness for the handicapped.

I am passing it along to you 

just because it makes a point, a social one at that,

but also to show you how the words: HUGE and HUG,

can be used in the same sentence 

or as a same action as to embrace!

Have a great day and

give someone a hug!!

Suzanne

TODAY, the IDIOM: Give me a break!

Suzanne,

I would like to know what does "give me a break" mean?

Could you give me an example? Thank you !

That's an interesting question. I think there's an element of both meanings in the expression "Give me a break" since a re-wording might be something like this:

"Do me a huge favour and stop talking about it!”

I’ve also heard people say "Give it a break". This might be said also to someone if you're tired of hearing them talk about something repeatedly and want them to stop 

Another version of this expression is "Give it a rest". It's like somebody's telling you something you don't agree/believe/think is true or bragging usually in an humorous manner... and you say;

"Pahhh ...leeeze!!! Give me a break!”

When you really want to say: « Oh! Shut up! »

Remember to be polite and add a SMILE it always helps!!


To resume: The idea of 'break' has often the suggestion of pause or gap creating some kind of relief. The expressions: Give it a break/Give me a break/Give it a rest all point the same way towards the idea of: "Stop! I've had enough!"

Have a nice day!

Suzanne

MAXINE, my favourite FUNNY lady!

HEALTH MESSAGE             Please ... Give me a break

 

«As I was lying in bed pondering

the problems of the world,

I rapidly realized that

I don't really give a rat's ass*
It's the tortoise life for me!

This is my reasoning:

1.  If walking and cycling are good for your health,

     the postman would be immortal.

2.  A whale swims all day, only eats fish, 
drinks a lot  of water, and is fat.

3.  A rabbit runs and hops and only lives 15 years.

4.  A tortoise doesn't run and does nothing,

     yet it lives for 450 years.

And you tell me ... to exercise??

I don't think so!

I'm retired so, walk around me !»

For those who know me and my preferences in humour, 
you will recognize my all-time favourite,

the  lady, herself: the great MAXINE! 
Enjoy!

* I don’t really care!

NOTE TO NEW READERS:

If you CLICK on title above, there is a link to Maxine, for you to discover.

For all you new students! WHY ... words for fun?

WHY is this blog called  WORDS for FUN?

I chose this name because it represents an opportunity for me to communicate with students of ESL. WORDS also used to build up, increase, expand and develop your vocabulary, so as to give you the tools for a richer choice of words when expressing yourself in English. As a result, you will have a more interesting conversation and gain a clearer understanding of English speakers.

Now for FUN, why use the word ‘fun’? Because I love writing and writing for me is a pleasurable and creative activity. I really enjoy writing and expressing opinions and ideas. It also gives me the possibility to be spontaneous with ‘on the spur of the moment’ reactions or emotions. I also love humour and the English language is a great source of fun expressions. There are so many possibilities on word-play and puns as well.

So to sum up, there is a little bit in it for me and a little bit in it for you. Those were my intentions and reasons for using WORDS and FUN to title my blog.

I hope that you also have a pleasurable experience reading and learning as I do in writing and searching my thesaurus to expand my own use of the English language. ENJOY!!!

On that note, here’s the joke that I told in class which relates to learning, in our case, English as a second (or third) language!

·        NOTE  

There is a word-play (a play on words) right at the beginning of the joke. Are you up for a challenge? Then find it!

A family of mice, the “Mices”, were happily taking a walk on a wonderful sunny Sunday afternoon  in the neighbourhood park. When all of a sudden, a huge cat, a very very big Maine-Coon, jumped out of the bushes and surprised the little group.

Father-mouse, Jerry, jumped right in front of the cat and said very loudly:

  « Bow-Wow! … Ruff! Ruff!

    Grrr … ! Bow-Wow!! …

    Grrrr! Ruff!! »

Tom, the cat, scared and frightened by these words ran away.

"What just happened, Dad?" asked Junior Mouse.

"Well, son, this is exactly what I mean when I say

 how important it is to learn a second language.”

 It really comes in handy and just when you need it!

J I guess you know why I chose this particular one.

   Thanks to Louise Picard for sharing it with us.

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_Coon for INFO on Maine-Coon
 * For a look, click on Google IMAGES and enter Maine-Coon

TWO WEEKS and counting down!

The count down has begun!

Which means the holidays are over for this year.

It's time to leave the forest for the city.

But it's not all sad ...

for I will get to meet a lot of new you's

and a whole bunch of familiar ones.

I have already started and I want to 

welcome all of you brave persons to 

the Centre communautaire Laurent-Venne.

I met most of you this past Monday evening.

I really enjoyed sharing with you my views 

on the teaching of ESL.

I also want to thank you for answering all my questions

and being so candid about your personal experiences

with the English language.

I want to wish you all a great fall session!

I had a good feeling about our first meeting

and a great big THANK YOU for listening so attentively.

SEE YOU IN TWO WEEKS!

Monday, September 26 for some of you

and

Tuesday, September 27 for all you members of UTA!

Suzanne

THREE CATS ... What's next ??!!

WHAT A HAPPY SCENE!

I wish !!!

I am surrounded by cats!

As most of you know, whenever my friend Sylvie 

goes on holidays (on vacation), I am the designated 'cat-sitter'.

But this time around I have also become a cat owner.

You have all met LuLu, Lucien, my very cute furry friend!

Well, not so cute as I soon found out.

The moment I introduced him to my friend's two cats,

'all Hell broke loose'! (idiom)

I'm not kidding, my friendly and cudly kitty cat 

became this ferocious wild animal!!

A screaming and screeching very territorial 'lion'.

WOW! 

I wasn't expecting such conflict

nor animal behaviour.

Class management with 32 adolescents 

in full hormonal change and in defiance of authority mode

ARE EASIER TO MANAGE!!!

So there's my cool and calm Sunday morning 'shot to bits' (idiom)

 or 

as we often say in French: Gone to Hell (idiom)

or

Gone to the dogs (idiom) How ironic when talking about CATS ;) 

This adventure has not yet a happy ending

as I am here for a few more days.

In the meantime I thought that a cat joke 

or cat humour would be appropriate ...

Have a great day!

S:)zanne

*** NOTE:  check idioms that use the word HELL