Forewarned is forearmed

If you know about something beforehand, you can prepare for it, prior knowledge of possible dangers or problems gives one a tactical advantage. Un homme averti en vaut deux

To click with someone

to catch on with someone. - le courant est passé avec quelqu'un

1. [for something] to be understood or comprehended by someone suddenly. 

• His explanation clicked with Maggie at once. It rings the bell.

2. [for someone or something new] to catch on with someone; to become popular or friendly with someone very quickly.

• The new product clicked with consumers and was an instant success. 
• I clicked with Tom the moment I met him.

Fiery/feisty temper

Fiery personality, fiery temper: enthusiastic, ardent, fiery, feisty, dashing.- caractère, tempérament fougueux, enflammé, ardent

The Mediterranean island of Corsica had come under French jurisdiction shortly before Napoleon’s birth in 1769. Its dramatic landscape and distinctive culture, characterised by strong family ties and volatile feuds, are often held to have shaped Napoleon’s nature and values.
(feud=querelle, dispute)

• He gets feisty when he talks about politics.

Skeleton(s) in the closet/cupboard

To have a secret of any sort that you don't want revealed, a hidden and shocking secret.- un cadavre dans le placard

• My uncle was in jail for a day once. That's our family's skeleton in the closet.

Origin:

The phrase 'a skeleton in the closet' was coined in England in the 19th century. Since then the word 'closet' has become used primarily in England to mean 'water closet'. The English now usually use 'a skeleton in the cupboard', with 'skeleton in the closet' more common in the USA.

'A skeleton in the closet' undoubtedly originated as an allusion to an apparently irreproachable person or family having a guilty secret waiting to be uncovered. The close-at-hand domestic imagery of a closet or cupboard gives a sense of the ever-present risk of discovery.

Windbag

slang, figurative, pejorative = [sb] who talks excessively.- grande gueule, moulin à paroles, pipelette

syn: bigmouth, babblermouth, gasbag

To be gobsmacked

utterly astonished; astounded- être baba
gob= la bouche, clapet    smacked= bise



being totally speachless.unable to think of anything to say.

• Mate, that's such a wicked surprise! I'm gobsmacked (wicked= sacré)

At the eleventh hour

At the eleventh hour (figurative): at the last possible moment.- au tout dernier moment, in extremis

Just before the last clock hour, 12

• At the eleventh hour, the supplies reached the starving villagers.
• Negotiators reached agreement at the eleventh hour, just in time to avoid a strike.

To be cheesed off

to be cheesed off by so, to get cheesed off with sth. (informal) - en avoir marre de quelque chose 

Syn: to be browned off, to be exasperated, to be pissed off (informal) 

annoyed and disappointed with something or someone: greatly annoyed; out of patience; "had an exasperated look on his face"; "felt exasperated beyond endurance

• I was really cheesed off that they made me go to the back of the queue
• She's a bitcheesed off with her job.

To paint the town red

to go out and celebrate; to go on a drinking bout; to get drunk. - Faire la bringue

• They were out painting the town red last night.

Origin

The expression is American slang meaning to go on a reckless debauch, to be wildly extravagant. Originally, the metaphor applied to bonfires painting the sky or scenery red. An old Irish ballad contains the lines: The beacon hills were painted red/ With many a fire that night. 

The immediate source of the phrase may be traced to the times when a Mississippi steamboat captain would want to defeat his rival. `Paint her, boys!' he would command his men as they heaped fuel upon the fires at night, casting a red glare upon the surrounding scenery. The phrase was helped into popularity by the fact that `to paint' (ie to paint the nose red) was an old slang term for drinking. [Source: Handybook of Literary Curiosities, by William S Walsh (Lippincott 1892).]
Peter Whitehead, Shaw Heath

To get a kick out of something

get a kick out of something/doing something - profiter de quelque chose
to enjoy doing something very much 

•  Anyone who gets a kick out of horror movies will love this show. 
• I get a real kick out of shopping for new shoes.

Glory box PORTISHEAD

The song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uciibl0rcs

The movie:
The song is one of the audio tracks taken from the movie "Wild":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn2-GSqPyl0

A true story about a woman who went on a long journey in the mountains to find herself back....

On spotify:
http://www.pcta.org/wild/2014/11/14/listen-wild-movie-soundtrack-spotify/

Vocabulary:

temptress: une séductrice, femme fatale

• a woman who is considered to be dangerously seductive
• a woman who tempts someone to do something, typically a sexually attractive woman who sets out to allure or seduce someone.

Lyrics

"Glory Box"

I'm so tired of playing
Playing with this bow and arrow
Gonna give my heart away
Leave it to the other girls to play
For I've been a temptress too long

Just...

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be a woman
I just wanna be a woman

From this time, unchained
We're all looking at a different picture
Through this new frame of mind
A thousand flowers could bloom
Move over and give us some room

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be a woman
I just wanna be a woman

[INSTRUMENTAL]

So don't you stop being a man
Just take a little look from outside when you can
Show a little tenderness
No matter if you cry

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be a woman
It's all I wanna be is all woman

For this is the beginning of forever and ever

It's time to move over...

To take a chill pill

To relax, to take it easy.- décompresser, se relaxer, prendre du recul

The best time to relax is when you don't have time for it!

• She was getting so stressed about what her boss said to her that I told her to just take a chill pill – everything would be fine.
• My wife's working so hard, she needs to take a chill pill, otherwise she'll make herself ill.

Examples from the BBC "The English we speak"

Pep talk

a talk during which someone encourages you to do something better or to work harder.- discours de motivation, paroles d'encouragement

• We got a pep talk from our coach.
• The manager gave the team a pep talk at half time.

To nitpick

To be overly critical, concerned with insignificant details - chercher la petite bête, être tatillon

• her husband nitpicks about everything: from how she puts the plates away to how she files the bills

to be nit-picky, to be a nit-picker

• For those nit-pickers out there, yes, the album wasn't released in 2004-in fact, disk one was actually released in 2001.

Spoon-fed

To provide (another) with knowledge or information in an oversimplified way. - mâcher le travail à quelqu'un

• By giving out printed sheets of facts and theories, the teachers spoon-fed us with what we needed for the exam

"Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon" E.M. Forster

To battle for hearts and minds

The hearts and minds of somebody
the complete support of a group of people

• I thought the president could have done a better job of reaching the hearts and minds of the American people in his speech on television yesterday.

have/keep (all) your wits about you

to be ready to think quickly in a situation and react to things that you are not expecting. - avoir toute sa tête

• Cycling is potentially very dangerous in the city - you have to keep your wits about you.

Usually, wits.

• intelligent observation, keen perception
  using one's wits to get ahead.
  Synonyms: cleverness, cunning, wisdom, insight, perspicacity, sacaciousness, acumen.
  
• mental faculties
  to lose one's wits; frightened out of one's wits.

• scaring the wits out of: tout à fait effrayant
• to pit one's wits against sb: rivaliser d'esprit avec qn
• to have one's wits about one: avoir toute sa tête
• to pit one's wits against sb: se mesurer à qn
• to keep one's wits about one: garder la tête sur les épaules
• to frighten the wits out of sb: faire une peur bleue à qn
• to use one's wits to do sth: se servir de sa tête pour faire qch
• to gather one's wits: rassembler ses esprits
• be scared out of my wits: être mort de peur
• to engage in a battle of wits: jouer au plus fin
• to be at one's wits' end: ne plus savoir que faire
• wit: esprit,intelligence
• dim wit: imbécile
• dry wit: humour pince-sans-rire ; humour caustique
• Syn. : deadpan.
• half-wit: idiot
• quick wit: vivacité d'esprit
• ready wit: caractère spirituel
• flash of wit: boutade

Moral compass

ethical sense or guide. - sens moral

a natural feeling that makes people know what is right and wrong and how they should behave

• Some people believe that the increase in crime shows that society is losing its moral compass.

Keep a/the lid on something

1. To keep something secret. passer sous silence

• It's supposed to be a surprise, so try to keep a lid on it, will you?

2. to control the level of something in order to stop it increasing, to maintain control over something.- garder sous controle 

• His forces kept a lid on unrest for nearly eight years.
• Economic difficulties continued and the government intervened to keep a lid on inflation.

Pry into something

to snoop into something; to get into someone else's business. - se mêler de, s'immiscer dans, être indiscret

• Why are you prying into my affairs all the time? 
• I wish you wouldn't pry into my personal life.

Stave off something

stave off something also stave something off = prevent, ward off.- contrer, éviter

• so you get good about using the technology to figure out how to stave off that boredom.
• to keep something away or keep something from happening 
• The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to boost the economy and stave off a recession.
• Death is natural and inevitable - we can't stave it off forever.
• He could stave his thirst off no longer.
• They say that if you take extra vitamins, you may be able to stave off the flu.

Stuck in a rut

bored by routine. - enlisé dans une routine

• But people often feel they want to change their life, to change their job. They might feel stuck in a rut. 

To eat humble pie

to be forced to admit that you are wrong and to say you are sorry 

• The producers of the advert had to eat humble pie and apologize for misrepresenting the facts.

faire amende honorable, reconnaître son erreur, admettre son erreur

Under the radar

To slip or to go under the radar. To go unnoticed, especially for a long period of time.- passer entre les mailles du filet

• They know they're buying links and choosing to go under the radar to avoid penalties
• While the majority are well looked after, we know in extreme cases that things go very wrong for these children because they go under the radar

Small talk

chat, converse about trivial subjects.- papoter, bavarder, faire la causette

• I'm no good at making small talk at parties.

Fluffy

covered with soft fur

fluffy toy : peluche

fluffy duck: duveteux, duveteuse
(nuage) floconneux, floconneuse
(nourriture) léger, légère, aérien, aérienne
(chat) au poil soyeux adj
(serviette) doux, douce adj

Go viral

 "Turnip for What"

the video which featured the first lady dancing with a turnip to the hit song “Turn Down for What” has been “looped” more than 1 million times. 

This video has gone viral!

http://youtu.be/7nngvq9C-0Q

Creed

belief system, ethos

• no matter what race or creed (= religious belief).-croyance

• their creed of self-help (= principles).- philosophie

In the line of duty

while doing a job. 

• The fireman was injured in the line of duty -  dans l'exercice de leurs fonctions, en service

Thanks Charlie!

Drawing by Lucille Clerc.
Free speech  is the way ideas are tested, in contrast to orthodoxy being owned by the most powerful trying to impose their ways of thinking.  
Without freedom to challenge orthodoxy, any other freedoms will not last long...

banger

His car's an old banger:
Sa voiture est un vieux tacot, vieille bagnole

Bangers and mash:  
les saucisses à la purée  

Reverso dictionary

This dictionary is a valuable tool, it’s free, online and collaborative. Words are put into context so it’s easier to understand the scope of the new vocabulary you've just learned. 

It also provides a feature that allows you to save a word or an expression in your personal list, then you can go through this list from time to time to commit those words to memory. 

To activate this functionality, you need to set up an account for free:

German version : http://woerterbuch.reverso.net/

French version: http://dictionnaire.reverso.net/francais-anglais/

There is version for Android for those who have an android device such as a tablet or a smartphone. There are plenty of other languages but the English one is the most comprehensive.

To be tickled pink

I'm tickled pink. - Je suis aux anges
to tickle = chatouiller

Bread and Roses

Review of the film "Pride" from The Guardian
featuring the song "Bread and Roses"

"Bread and Roses" is a political slogan as well as the name of an associated poem and song. It originated from a speech given by Rose Schneiderman; a line in that speech ("The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too.") inspired the title of the poem Bread and Roses by James Oppenheim. The poem was first published in The American Magazine in December 1911, with the attribution line "'Bread for all, and Roses, too'—a slogan of the women in the West." The poem has been translated into other languages and has been set to music by at least three composers.

It is commonly associated with the successful textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts during January–March 1912, now often known as the "Bread and Roses strike".

The slogan pairing bread and roses, appealing for both fair wages and dignified conditions, found resonance as transcending "the sometimes tedious struggles for marginal economic advances" in the "light of labor struggles as based on striving for dignity and respect", as Robert J. S. Ross wrote in 2013. 
(more on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_Roses)

Spin out of control

Brussel on the 6 of November 2014...

If activities or events spin out of control, they change very quickly and in an uncontrolled way

cars on fire in Brussel on November the 6th

To go out of control, to get off track - déraper

• The country's economy seemed to be spinning out of control.

http://www.rtbf.be/video/detail_violences-durant-la-manifestation-nationale?id=1969097


Following the simultaneous federal elections and regional elections of 25 May 2014, Belgium has finally a new government since mid-October...the schedule is pretty good if we remember that we had to wait 536 days after the previous election to form a new government. As usual, the formation of the Belgian government led  to a strike but this time it went out of control: more than a hundred police officers were injured, the demonstration spinned out of control when dockers from Antwerpen came into action.

Catch-22

 "Between a rock and a hard place", in other words - there is no way out/solution because of the conflicting rules or pressures one is facing.

• It's a real Catch-22: to get a job you need experience, but to get experience you need a job.
• John would be hurt if she didn't invite him, but if she did, Mary wouldn't come. It was a Catch-22

Catch-22 is a satirical novel by the American author Joseph Heller.  It is about a pilot in the Second World War. It is frequently cited as one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century.

The phrase "Catch-22" has entered the English language, referring to a type of unsolvable logic puzzle.

Pigeon holing

to classify or categorize, esp. in a rigid manner, to treat or classify according to a mental stereotype

    
to put somebody in a pigeon-hole - cataloguer quelqu'un  

• Because I had an unusual accent people were not able to put me into a pigeon-hole.
• He felt they had pigeonholed him ...        

to be pigeonholed as sth - être catalogué comme quelque chose 

• I don't want to be pigeonholed as a kids' presenter.   

Nice try!

A very personal opinion: smart technologies requires smart teachers...

http://hmaxwelladams.edublogs.org/2011/02/22/edublog-2-the-impact-of-smart-boards/

It's time for a talk

Julia Sweeney

http://www.ted.com/talks/julia_sweeney_has_the_talk

Despite her best efforts, comedian Julia Sweeney is forced to tell a little white lie when her 8-year-old begins learning about frog reproduction — and starts to ask some very smart questions.





--------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcript from TED:

0:30I have a daughter, Mulan. And when she was eight, last year, she was doing a report for school or she had some homework about frogs. And we were at this restaurant, and she said, "So, basically, frogs lay eggs and the eggs turn into tadpoles (toad larva, polliwog= têtard) , and tadpoles turn into frogs."
And I said, "Yeah. You know, I'm not really up on (je ne suis pas à jour) my frog reproduction that much. It's the females, I think, that lay the eggs, and then the males fertilize them. And then they become tadpoles and frogs."

0:39And she says, "What? Only the females have eggs?"

0:41And I said, "Yeah."

0:43And she goes, "And what's this fertilizing?"

0:45So I kind of said, "Oh, it's this extra ingredient, you know, that you need to create a new frog from the mom and dad frog." 

0:53And she said, "Oh, so is that true for humans too?"

0:56And I thought, "Okay, here we go." I didn't know it would happen so quick, at eight. I was trying to remember all the guidebooks, and all I could remember was, "Only answer the question they're asking.Don't give any more information."  So I said, "Yes."

1:12And she said, "And where do, um, where do human women, like, where do women lay their eggs?"

1:19And I said, "Well, funny you should ask.  We have evolved to have our own pond. We have our very own pond inside our bodies. And we lay our eggs there, we don't have to worry about other eggs or anything like that. It's our own pond. And that's how it happens."

1:38And she goes, "Then how do they get fertilized?"

1:40And I said, "Well, Men, through their penis, they fertilize the eggs by the sperm coming out. And you go through the woman's vagina."

1:51And so we're just eating, and her jaw just drops, and she goes, "Mom! Like, where you go to the bathroom?"

1:58And I said, "I know. I know."  That's how we evolved. It does seem odd. It is a little bit like having a waste treatment plant right next to an amusement park ... Bad zoning, but ..." 

2:18She's like, "What?" And she goes, "But Mom, but men and women can't ever see each other naked, Mom. So how could that ever happen?"

2:26And then I go, "Well," and then I put my Margaret Mead hat on. "Human males and females develop a special bond, and when they're much older, much, much older than you, and they have a very special feeling, then they can be naked together."

2:42And she said, "Mom, have you done this before?"

2:46And I said, "Yes."

2:49And she said, "But Mom, you can't have kids." Because she knows that I adopted her and that I can't have kids.

2:53And I said, "Yes."

2:55And she said, "Well, you don't have to do that again."

2:57And I said, "..."

3:00And then she said, "But how does it happen when a man and woman are together? Like, how do they know that's the time? Mom, does the man just say, 'Is now the time to take off my pants?'"

3:09And I said, "Yes." "That is exactly right. That's exactly how it happens."

3:20So we're driving home and she's looking out the window, and she goes, "Mom. What if two just people saw each other on the street, like a man and a woman, they just started doing it. Would that ever happen?"

3:28And I said, "Oh, no. Humans are so private. Oh ..."

3:33And then she goes, "What if there was like a party, and there was just like a whole bunch of girls and a whole bunch of boys, and there was a bunch of men and women and they just started doing it, Mom?Would that ever happen?"

3:42And I said, "Oh, no, no. That's not how we do it."

3:48Then we got home and we see the cat. And she goes, "Mom, how do cats do it?"

3:52And I go, "Oh, it's the same. It's basically the same."

3:54And then she got all caught up in the legs. "But how would the legs go, Mom? I don't understand the legs." She goes, "Mom, everyone can't do the splits (grand écart)."

4:00And I go, "I know, but the legs ..." and I'm probably like, "The legs get worked out."

4:04And she goes, "But I just can't understand it."

4:05So I go, "You know, why don't we go on the Internet, and maybe we can see ... like on Wikipedia." 

4:11So we go online, and we put in "cats mating." And, unfortunately, on YouTube, there's many cats mating videos. And we watched them and I'm so thankful, because she's just like, "Wow! This is so amazing."She goes, "What about dogs?" So we put in dogs mating, and, you know, we're watching it, and she's totally absorbed.

4:27And then she goes, "Mom, do you think they would have, on the Internet, any humans mating?" And then I realized that I had taken my little eight year old's hand, and taken her right into Internet porn. 

4:43And I looked into this trusting, loving face, and I said, "Oh, no. That would never happen."

4:53