Let’s talk about beautiful women walking on runways. The runway or it may be more common to say the catwalk is a platform on which models walk and show latest fashion.

The young woman in the video below falls off her platform shoes which have a very high sole and make you look taller. These are especially worn by women with a good sense of balance.

The man in the TV-show says that it was embarrassing. This means that something makes you feel very uncomfortable.

Well, see it for yourself. If I were that model I’d be embarrassed as one can be.

Vocabulary:
models = often good-looking women posing for something
latest fashion = newest stuff designer have created
catwalk = a place where cats walk on  a cats here means hot women

A very often used term in English is “As a matter of fact” or in chatroom-slang AAMOF. It means pretty much the same as “in fact”, “actually“, “to be precise“

Here are some examples when and how it’s used:
“As a matter of fact, people dislike saints on earth: perfection is for those in heaven.”
See the rest of the article

“Yeah, I do want a medal as a matter of fact!”
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You see, it’s a nice sounding expression which isn’t difficult to apply.

Have a nice day.

Vocabulary:
to apply = to use, to put on
saints = people who are mentioned as holy (churches or cathedrals are sometimes called after them)
For example THIS one.

SARCASM:

When you something in such a way that it intones the opposite. That is sarcasm.

Best explained with examples:

This little excerpt from the US series “The Big Bang Theory” shows sarcasm. I think there’s nothing more to explain about it, is it?

But, if you need some further explanation…here we go:

“The use of remarks which clearly mean the opposite of what they say, and which are made in order to hurt someone’s feelings or to criticize something in an amusing way.” (Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary)

It is amusing indeed. I love sarcasm.

Barack Obama has killed a fly. Oh, for heavens sake, how could he just do that? It’s on all news:  TV, radio and newspaper. It’s like this would be the most important piece of news I have to hear about today. God, that man is the most powerful man in world but killing a fly doesn’t make him something better or worse than us and it’s not in any way more interesting than when I kill a fly.

Some people do even read too much into it and judge the whole foreign policy on this deed.

For example:

Examiner.com writes:
“He is not interested in alleviating the suffering of all beings.”
“He’s behaving just like he did with the fly, acting without considering the consequences of his actions.”

See the entire article

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) thinks he should have “exercised more restraint”.

All those people are just exaggerating.

Let’s imagine a different situation. Let’s say hypothetically that this fly – rest in peace you little insect – wouldn’t have been killed by Obama.  Killed is such a strong word, isn’t it? Anyway, I think that newspapers would have written about how the most powerful man in the world could not do anything against it or that he is a sissy not being able to kill a small even a small fly. This sounds like non-sense but what we watched, heard or read actually is non-sense too.

There’s a very suitable saying in German for such things: “Aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten machen” It is quite funny because in this context it fits even more than usual. Which in English would be: “Make an elephant out of a fly”. Mücke means fly. An English idiom which means the same like the German one is: “to make mountains out of molehills“.

So much for today. Thank you.

Just if someone’s interested, the brutal and vicious kill of Obama – Ninja Style:

Vocabulary:
kill = make stop living
read into = interpret
exaggerating = to make something seem more than it actually is

The expression makeover is often used when something is made looking better than before. Today we usually hear the word in context with image-editing.

Photoshop or GIMP, but especially Photoshop are well-known applications which enable us to edit something or someone the way we want.

Sometimes people even use Photoshop as a verb.

For example:
“I photoshopped her spots away.”

People today think too much about beauty and unreachable idols who are (more or less) just like ordinary people. There’s nothing different, they have eyes, legs and so on. So do we. What we think to be seeing when we’re looking at a poster or commercial in TV is not real. It’s fake. Deliberately fake. Because big companies want to sell all their products to make you think that you need it. Actually, we don’t need most of it. When you think, and I hope you don’t but just in case you do, that if you look into your own mirror at home you have to look like a model in commercials I have to say: “You don’t and never will do!” It’s simply not possible. You need a dozen people to do the makeover and look like a model. Nothing you see in all those tabloids is real nature.

Morpheus: Welcome to the real world.

Don’t reach for stars which don’t exist. Reach for stars which are worth to be reached.

I hope I haven’t offended anyone out there and if I have I’m sorry but I have just written the plain truth.

Vocabulary:
well-known = famous, a lot of people know about it
to enable = make possible
spots = those hated red dots in one’s face
ordinary = not special, like everyone
commercial = advertisement, ad, method to sell a product
fake = not real, not truth

Today I’ll let Duncan do the job.

Don’t forget by iron you can also mean the chemical element Ferrum which belongs to the metals in the periodic table.

wallet = case you keep your money in
rush = hurry
bump into to = meet by coincidence

A mystery is something which is not explicable (unexplainable) or has not been understood yet.  In our world a lot of mysteries have been solved through the last centuries. For people today, it’s not difficult to understand why there are flashes and thunders. We understand that the sun is not a god you have to feed unless he wouldn’t cross the sky. (Maya’s theory)

Many other things wouldn’t be explained today without modern science. They were mysterious mysteries a certain time ago. Nowadays we’re facing other mysteries we do not understand. For example most of us don’t understand how something can be at one and another place at the same time. Well, it’s called Quantum Physics and just a bunch of people truly try to understand it…it’s quite simply a mystery…

Hugh Laurie: Mystery

By the way, this song is a very good example for the usage of tenses.

Present Perfect: Until now and still continuing.
All my life has been a mystery.
You and I have always lived in a different country.
You’ve been dead now let me see….

Present Simple:
As a human being you are history…

Past Simple: finished action
Why did I write this song for you?

Vocabulary:
nowadays = these days, in the time we are living in, not like in the past
violent dislike  = you do not like someone very, very much
We never meant to be… = We just don’t match together, there’s no sense for us two together
mean = to have a purpose or sense (This signal means you have to stop.)
human being = a man or a woman
be history = be dead now, belong to the past, not any longer existing

When we say that:

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Then we want to express that it takes a long time to create something. You can’t achieve everything immediately, it needs time and effort to build something up.

A conversation with that expression could look like this:
Tom: God, it sometimes seems like I’m just planning and planning and make no progress at all.
Jane: Oh, come on, Rome wasn’t built in a day and you have to take your time too until you make some progress.

And here Morcheeba:

Vocabulary:
build something up = make/create something
progress =  to get better and better / to come to the next level

The English language is spoken all over the world and as a result of that different accents of the language have developed.

An accent is a variation of a language. It’s the way people from an specific area, country or group talk like. An accent most likely contains bits of the sound of your mother tongue. A native speaker of English can immediately hear it, when someone talks with an accent.

But not just for speakers of English as the second language  an accents matters. For people who live in the UK an American sounds very different too.

Example:
She speaks with a strong Irish accent.
He speaks English very fluent and almost accent-free.

There isn’t a real English you could really learn. It’s more important you can make yourself understood than to practice speaking like Prince Charles or 50 Cent. Language as you use it defines your character and your background as well.

Here we have an interesting video with some accents of English

Vocabulary:
likely = highly probable, happens quite sure
develop=a process from one state to another, “develop to the next level”

Very superstitious!

The today’s word I’ve chosen to explain is superstition.

Some people are superstitious which means that they believe in things which are not scientifically explainable.

For example:

• “I won’t go out of my house on Friday 13th, I’m sure something bad will happen!”

• In the US in most buildings the 13th floor is left out in order to avoid unlucky incidents.

Well, you see and you maybe identify yourself as a superstitious person.

Here’s a song about superstition by Stevie Wonder:

Excertp from the lyrics:

[Chorus]
“When you believe in things,
that you don’t understand,
then you suffer,
superstition ain’t the way”

Well, this is what I tried to explain at the beginning.

Vocabulary:
ain’t = us-slang that means is not
to suffer = feel pain / to feel uncomfortable / to feel very bad because of something (an illness “suffer from …”)