Winning English - Mastering Idioms, Slang, and Cultural References
Happy Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day! • Strong as an ox • You take my breath away • You are my one and only• I only have eyes for you
新年快乐！Happy Chinese New Year! Or perhaps Happy Lunar New Year! Or perhaps Happy Spring Festival!
What exactly to call this holiday in English depends on your culture and personal preference. But no matter what, I wish you a happy, prosperous, and healthy Year of the Ox!
The ox, of course, is this year’s symbolic animal according to the Chinese zodiac. What’s a zodiac? Since ancient times, cultures across the world have divided the night sky into twelve parts. Those parts are associated with an animal or a particular pattern of stars. We call those patterns of stars constellations.
Now, eastern culture created one zodiac, and western culture created another. But of course, we’re talking about Chinese New year here. So, this year it’s an ox.
We have a pair of common sayings in English that involve an ox. First, a person can be “as strong as an ox”. That’s good. Unfortunately, a person can also be “as dumb as an ox”, which means “stupid”, and that’s not good.
By the way, an ox is the male version of a cow. Cows and oxen together are called cattle. Note the unusual plural of ox - oxen. Now, there’s one more special thing to know about oxen - usually they’ve been castrated to make them easier to control. Castrated means they’ve had their males parts cut off. Ouch. A regular, non-castrated male is called a bull.
I have one more idiom for you. Chinese New Year often means that people bring new things into the home. We have a saying in English, “Out with the old, in with the new.” I’ve covered this one before in a previous newsletter.
On this coming Sunday, it’s Valentine’s Day in many parts of the world. The origin of this holiday is a bit unclear - and maybe a little violent. Regardless, nowadays it’s associated with love and romance. Romance is what we call that feeling of excitement and mystery that we sometimes feel along with love.
There are many sayings and phrases associated with Valentine’s Day, but in this edition, I’ll give you three that you can say to your loved one if you want to express how much you love her or him.
First, “You take my breath away.” In other words, when you see this person, you are so excited that you stop breathing for a moment.
Second, “You are my one and only.” This means you are dedicating your entire life to this one person.
And finally, “I only have eyes for you.” This means that you never even look at other women or men. This one special person is all you care about.
Try these out the next time you see your favorite person. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Here is the video version of this week’s newsletter. I hope you like these videos. Let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks!
And I have a new section for you this week! I’ve started posting short videos on TikTok and Instagram. Here are a couple of examples. Let me know what you think of these, too. You can find me on those platforms by searching for “winning.english”.
Here’s one on the saying, “needle in a haystack”.
And here’s one on the proper pronunciation of “th”.
Thanks for reading, watching, and listening to Winning English! Remember, if you like what you find here on Winning English, give the post a like, and please tell a friend. Talk soon!