Fun with Idioms: Poles Apart

What it sounds like: Two separate poles that have been placed far away from one another.

What it means in conversation: To be completely different; in opposition or disagreement.


If you think of the idiom in terms of geography, it makes perfect sense. The North Pole and the South Pole are exactly opposite one another. There is no way to be further apart than those two geographic locations. Applied figuratively, if two people are in complete and total disagreement they are as far apart as possible, just like the North and South Poles. As in many parts of the English language, we’ve become lazy and dropped the directional indicators so that we just say “poles” and expect everyone to understand that North and South are implied.

Fun with Idioms: Lame Duck

with Idioms: Lame Duck

What it sounds like: A duck that's been wounded.

What it means in conversation: An elected public official who has been either defeated in a new election or whose term cannot be renewed, but who has a short period of time left in office during which he can still perform certain duties, though with somewhat diminished powers.

The United States recently had a lame duck session in congress and the senate between the elections and the swearing in process. Since the elections are in November, the officials who are being replaced still have to serve out their terms until January.

Lame duck sessions can be interesting because the officials who are leaving office at the end of the term don't have to worry about their re-election chances. Since they know they will be out of office, they can do things they wouldn't have done before. If there is going to be a sizable shift from one party to the other in January, the party that is losing the majority may try to push through as much legislation as possible before they have to leave office.

Fun with Idioms: Pin Down

When someone says they have you pinned down, it doesn't usually mean that they are sitting on top of you. It's not often that they are discussing the act of driving a large pin through you, either.

Pinning someone down means that you are forcing them to admit the truth. You pin someone down when you want to get to the fundamental reason or fact about something that you feel is important.

You can also pin down a concept or idea by working until you get to the fundamental explanation of the concept.

The phrase pin down originated as you would expect, from seamstresses and tailors who use pins to hold their work steady. They could pin down the fabric so that it would hold its shape before any actual sewing took place.

Tip of the week

Here is another visualization exercise.

My recommendation is you take advantage of it when you are not driving smile. We would prefer you keep your attention where it needs to be - on the road and the drivers around you.

But on a day when you are not driving and before you leave, visualize the route you will take. Consider as many details as you can. While en route, notice how many of the details you recalled, or forgot. Why did you miss them? Are you using your peripheral vision when doing in tasks that require concentration? Are you letting your background processing notice things even while your mind is engaged?

Peripheral vision and awareness of visual back ground cues are important in a visual language such as ASL. They add color, texture and dimension to our story telling techniques. We will always identify ourselves as less than fluent as long as we leave out these details. Remember, storytelling is the consultative register for native ASL users. Details mean everything.

Fun with Idioms: Halcyon Days

I thought I would pull out a golden oldie. When I was in High School, I had a teacher who loved this idiom. She used it to refer to summer vacation, Christmas break, or any opportunity to be away from the day to day grind and off enjoying some rest and relaxation.

According to Greek mythology, Halcyon was the daughter of the Ruler of the Wind. She married King Ceyx of Tachis. By all accounts, it was a true love match. Her husband was a sea-farer and as happens to sailors, he lost his life during a storm. Halcyon learned of his death through a dream, and cast herself upon the waves. In mercy, the gods turned her and her resurrected husband into kingfishers.
A kingfisher as spoken of in the Halcyon myth

A kingfisher.

Great story, right? Well, it does not end there. Zeus was a bit of a jerk. I cannot find what Halcyon and Ceyx did to irritate him, but the King of the Gods would only allow Halcyon to lay her eggs in winter and on the water near the shore where she found her husband's body. After losing several nestings and crying piteously, Zeus relented and asked Poseidon, the God of the Sea, to calm the waves for her. Thus, for a week to tend days every January, the seas calm and the kingfisher's eggs hatch. These days are still celebrated in Greece as "Alkionides Meres" - Halcyon days.

Although not as common as in the past, it is still a phrase one can use to remind others of restful and tranquil times to come, or of the past.

During snow storms where people are housebound for six to ten days, maybe it is a good time for a reminder.

New tip of the week

We have been home all week with an enforced staycation due to heavy snows in our area. The time off has reminded me of a tip that is easy to overlook.

Make the time to read. Read anything and everything you can tolerate.

There is an enormous amount of vocabulary available to one who reads. Novels can be the source of colloquialisms and new slang.

Non-fiction may provide register hints and vocabulary choices not used in every-day language.

Biographies provide insights into historical persons and events that can be the schema for a multitude of scenarios.

Even comic books, romance novels and adult literature will allow one to understand the interests of the people one interprets for.

As for me and my house - we are science fiction and horror addicts. You would be surprised at the number of physics classes now teaching theories I first learned in a science fiction novel. And horror novels can be great fodder for psychology, biology and anatomy classes.

May your days be filled with great stories.

Stay warm!

New tip of the week

One thing I have noticed about interpreting is we all take it rather seriously. Now I get - its a business and we influence people's lives so it must be taken seriously.

But it is also a language, and the best language learners are kids at least in part because they play with the languages they learn. I remember when the kids were little and at the pre-reading stage. They recognized landmarks like the "golden arches" and knew it was McDonald's. Then they would make up words that rhymed with McDonald's. Sometimes they were so silly the back seat would erupt with giggles. They were learning the rules of words.

In the same way, we need to update our language use on occasion by finding fun ways to learn new things. One that I came across yesterday is actually a memory game. I have always been a fan of "concentration" ever since I saw it on television. I loved trying to remember where the prizes were shown to match them up and then guess the picture underneath. Amazon has just such a game available in software form using ASL signs and meanings.

A website called "playkidsgames.com" has a cute memory game like concentration. Called "Musical Memory Turtle", players watch as the shell of the turtle lights up and plays music. Then the player has to remember the order exactly to advance the turtle in his "race." The easy and not so easy versions are really fun. The difficult level reminds me I am not as good at this as I used to be.

These are just two suggestions for ways to bring fun back into your learning process. You will enjoy the lessons, let off a little steam - and you just might remember something.

Have fun!

Fun with idioms: Back Seat Driver

Today's idiom is "back seat driver." Taken literally, it would mean someone driving from the back seat of a car. I guess that would be possible if you had a really special car, but usually the driver sits up front.

The term is derived from the experience of driving a car while someone who is not driving constantly tells the driver what to do. In other contexts, a back seat driver is someone who seizes control of a situation when they shouldn't.

A back seat driver is a control freak who needs to be in charge of every situation. They are usually kind of frantic about giving unsolicited but constant advice and suggestions. Needless to say, this idiom is not a term of endearment.

Idiom Resources

As I was perusing the internets to find idiomatic ideas today I came across a website that is a great quick resource. IdiomSite.com lists dozens of idioms alphabetically with short descriptions after each one. If you're interested in a quick and easy way to look up an idiom that you don't understand, this site should be able to help you out. Some of the entries are not exactly idioms, but they are common phrases that would be confusing if you didn't understand the stories behind them.

Tip of the week

Another visualization game:

Practice describing favorite people and places in English to a friend, then show that friend a photo of the person or place.

Negotiate how to improve the description.

When you are both satisfied, do it again in ASL. Again, negotiate until you are both satisfied.

The difficulty in description is finding any language satisfactory for the intangibles that accompany the description. By practicing first in our primary language, we increase our ability to quantify those feelings and emotions. This in turn will enhance our ability to use our secondary language to describe those same feelings and emotions.

Fun with Idioms: Son of a Gun

The phrase "son of a gun" has evolved as a descriptive way to say that someone has done something unexpected. Usually it is used for negative behavior, but in some cases it can be used as a sort of endearment. Many people believe that "son of a gun" is a cleaned up version of "son of a bitch," but the etymology shows that it is the other way around.

When the phrase was first used, it referred to children with questionable pedigrees. Old English military ships usually did not allow their sailors to go ashore when they stopped at a port during a voyage. The military would allow the wives of the sailors to come aboard and spend some time with the men, however. Since the ships had very little space, the men and women would sling hammocks between the guns on deck. Any child that was conceived beneath the guns was known as a "son of a gun" since there was no way to confirm that the couple were actually married, which meant that there was no way to prove which sailor was the real father of the child. A son of a gun was a bastard child conceived between the guns on the deck of a military sailing ship. A couple of centuries ago this term was an insufferable insult.

The modern phrase "son of a bitch" bears a closer meaning to the original insult of the phrase "son of a gun," though "son of a bitch" developed long after "son of a gun" had become part of common speech. Today, "son of a gun" is not used in an insulting manner very often since the more powerful "son of a bitch" is available for use.

New tip of the week

The best laid schemes of Mice and Men
oft go awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!

Translated: Robert Burns, To a Mouse (Poem, November, 1785)

Scottish national poet (1759 - 1796)

Sometimes life happens at such a fast clip we are all left breathless. We do our best to stay on top of money, family, friends, business - and we forget to stay on top of our own physical and mental health.

It is important to schedule break time into the work day. Anyone who starts as soon as the day breaks and works until well after dark knows how exhausting it can be. The life of a private practice interpreter is often hit or miss, feast or famine. It is tempting to fill the schedule full while the work is available and promise oneself a good rest when the work slows.

The problem is the human body needs more recuperation time than that. Even six hours of sleep can restore the muscles that were stressed by a day of interpreting. A half an hour with one's eyes closed can help the mind process the linguistic overload of a long assignment. A short walk can stretch muscles cramped from long hours of sitting. Watching a silly something on You-tube or Hulu can lift the spirits after a hard job.

We have to learn to take care of ourselves. Most interpreters, as a care-giving profession, sacrifice themselves for their family or their community. The best and the healthiest know when to say "no." The world will still turn, the bills will still be there, the work will still come.

You will just be healthy enough to face whatever life throws at you.

Take care of you - you are the only "you" we've got.

Active versus Passive voice.

Active and passive voice sentences describe the same action in different ways. Active voice is generally preferable for writing and formal speaking because it is clear and consice.

People tend to fall into passive voice very easily when they are trying to describe something or tell a story. Lecturing professors and off-the-cuff speakers are notorious for stringing together long stretches of prose that is entirely passive.

How do you tell the difference between passive and active voice when you hear it?

The linguistic explanation is that active voice sentences have a subject-verb construction, while passive sentences have a verb-subject construction.

Active: The dog bit the man.

Passive: The man was bitten by the dog.

Both sentences mean the same thing, but say it very differently.

One way to spot a passive sentence is to look for a series of unnecessary words. "The man was bitten by the dog" uses 7 words to say the same thing that "The dog bit the man" accomplished in 5. It doesn't seem like a huge difference in a short example, but it can get really cumbersome in a more complex sentence.

Passive voice also tends to make the listener wait until the entire sentence is over before the meaning is clear. Active voice tells you who did what right away. You can remove the linking words from an active sentence and still understand what is being said: dog bit man.

Take out the links from a passive sentence and it is a little strange: man bitten dog.

In some cases, passive sentences leave out the subject entirely. "The man was bitten" doesn't say who - or what - did the biting.

Understanding the difference between active and passive voice can help you communicate more effectively in many different situations. Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/5cc99h.

First Tip of 2011

Watch an action show without sounds or captions.

Here's a great way to practice gleaning information from only visual cues. Look for relationships and emotions. See how well you can figure out the point of the show. Later, play it back or watch the re-run and see what you missed.

A second reason to employ this tip is to understand a little more about the culture we serve. In the years before captioned media, the most popular movies among the Deaf community were action films. Dramas were poorly lit and had too much talking to lipread, even if one were good enough to lip read around the camera angles. Comedies had their moments, but also relied often upon verbal puns that were easy to miss. If it wasn't a slapstick comedy, most of my Deaf friends skipped it. Musicals were also hit and miss. The old MGM musicals had enough dancing to keep my friends interested, but later shows like Moulin Rouge were again dark and relied upon the words too much to make sense.

But action shows were a hoot. The dialogue was only as important as the plot. No one really cared why Harrison Ford was jumping off a train or a dam, my friends just though it was exciting to watch. Their parents would share the same feeling about Hitchcock thrillers. The intricacies of the storyline were lost but a plane chasing a man down in a corn field was exciting regardless!

So give it a try. You may understand your Deaf friends more - and have a great opportunity to improve your observation skills and by extension, your interpreting skills.

We've Moved

Check out the new digs!

Happy 2011!

Maryanne and Heather

Fun with Idioms: Acid test

With Idioms: Acid Test

The English language is just full of little phrases that say one thing but mean something completely different. Most people go through life hearing idioms daily but never thinking about exactly what those idioms really mean.

As an interpreter, it is vital to understand the meaning behind the words. Since idioms don't really make literal sense, they can be incredibly confusing if they aren't translated properly. That's why it's important to learn the real meaning behind as many idioms as possible so that you are prepared for any interpreting situation.

Today's idiom is "acid test." The literal meaning of an acid test would be to perform a test on acid, right? The truth is, the phrase does come from a real test involving acid. Scientists use litmus paper to determine the acidity or baseness of a chemical. It is also called a "Litmus test."

Of course, when someone uses the phrase in conversation it means something completely different. Outside of the laboratory, an acid test is a severe or crucial trial. Something is going to happen that will expose the true nature of the person or thing being considered.

Idioms are signed in different ways depending on the context, but one suggestion for acid test would be to sign "investigate" with an affect showing intensity.