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quinta-feira, 19 de março de 2020

Bad blood: o que significa?


You know we've been quarantined these past days because of coronavirus and like many people I've been taking the time to stay home and catch up on the many series and movies I used to ignore. It was during one of these movies I heard someone using the expression bad blood. Let me tell you what was happening when it came up.

There's this couple that's recently got into a relationship and there's this girl who used to be very close friends with the guy from the couple. There wasn't really a problem until the girlfriend found out about her boyfriend almost dating her before she became his girlfriend. It was a situation where basically he would've dated this other girl if it wasn't for a coincidence. So obviously the girlfriend got really insecure thinking about the possibility of being a second choice.

When he hears of her insecurity he approaches her in a somewhat surprised way to show how nonsense those thoughts of hers were: 'oh that's why there was all that bad blood between you two before I met you'.

Bad blood is nothing but tension and disdain between two or more people due to past disagreement or transgressions. What he meant to say to her is that he noticed some kind of animosity between them two but didn't supposedly understand why.

That expression also instantly reminds me of Taylor Swift's song entitled bad blood. Right in the beginning of the song she starts off by saying "cause baby now we've got bad blood". There was a lot of fuss over this song because soon she revealed the song was about another female artist, who according to her attempted to sabotage one of her concert tour ls by hiring the people who worked for her. So there was a lot of bad blood between them two from that point on. That's all for now guys. Take care!

terça-feira, 17 de março de 2020

body shaming

Let's just stop for a moment to appreciate that quote by Billie Eilish. If it's too small for you to understand I recommend that you click on the picture to the left to maximize. That quote has been taken from part of a live show where she strips her clothes down to bra to make a statement against body shamers.

Billie Eilish is known for her oversized outfits. During one of her interviews she confessed purposefully hiding her body to avoid criticism and judgement, or simply trying to make her job more about her art and work and less about her physical appearance. So it was unexpected for most people to see her strip down in her show.

When you body shame someone, you criticize, ridicule, or otherwise make someone feel ashamed about (some aspect of) their physical appearance, especially their weight. 

in one's sweet time: o que significa?

If you're not living under a rock or maybe isolated from the rest of the world you must've noticed the terror of a new virus outbreak. It's hard to escape from the news about coronavirus because it's everywhere on TV, radio and social media. And speaking of social media, I just saw a recent post by dua lipa urging fans to take care of themselves.

She also takes the chance to criticize the government because according to her they have taken their own sweet time to tell people what they should be doing to protect each other. And if you scam through the expression one's own sweet time for the first time  you might easily misunderstand it. That's why I decided to bring the expression to my blog.

If you do something in your own sweet time you do it in your own preferred pace, without consideration for how it will affect others. So getting back to dua lipa's post, what she is worried about is that if the government doesn't take matters seriously on time, the virus will spread more.

o que significa o phrasal verbo to tell someone off

While I was watching TV the other day I saw an interratial couple discussing possible situations they might have to confront from that point on now that they're together. The black woman said it's the first time she's been in a relationship like that but the white man claims to have dated black girls in the past and brings up an experience he had with an ex while holding hands on the streets.

He didn't give details but basically a random guy shouted insults to them out of nowhere and for no reason other than prejudice. He said his girlfriend got really mad and went up to him to tell him off. When you tell someone off, you "castigate, rebuke, or reprimand one in a severe or merciless manner". A noun or pronoun can be used between "tell" and "off." Parents tell off their children very often for their bad behavior for example.

segunda-feira, 16 de março de 2020

Saint Patrick's Day: maneiras diferentes de usar a palavra Green em Inglês

Tomorrow's saint Patrick's day and I was wondering what I could bring to my blog other than everything else that you can easily find out there on the internet. So I remembered that I'll be giving classes tomorrow about the holiday itself but also be touching on a few other usages for the word green.

If you don't know why green has to do with saint Patrick's day, the only thing I assure you is that there are quite a few possible explanations for that. But I'll leave you with the simplest one: the green stripe on the Irish flag. So now that we've set this aside, let's get down to business:

As a noun, green can also refer to paper money, especially in large amounts. So imagine you just got a new car which by the way is kind of expensive. You show up at your work in it and all your curious friends come up to you to ask how much you paid for it. So they can approach you with a question that will sound something like: "I bet you had to lay down some serious feen for that car, huh? How much was it?" It's not hard to notice that's a very informal way of referring to money.

Still using green as a noun, we have got a second meaning for the word, but this time a little bit less politically correct: marijuana. That's a very common slang by the way, both in Portuguese and English. So if you hear someone saying they got some green, depending on the context they are probably talking about weed. 

So finally talking about green as an adjective, we have got a few things to consider: green can mean immature or inexperienced. One of the first times I heard someone making usage of green to mean inexperienced I was listening to hand in my pocket by Alanis Morissette. She claims to be green in the song but also wise. 

But if you see people defining things and not people by calling them green, we've got a totally new situation. It's just that green can also mean environmentally conscious or designed not to have an adverse impact on the environment, like in building principles, departments, companies, student centers, etc.

domingo, 15 de março de 2020

o que significa to have a soft spot?

There's this documentary on Netflix called 100 humans which can be very self explanatory once you find out it's literally about 100 humans on many kinds of social experiments. If you watch the first episode you'll see they are discussing sexual attraction. And among the many tests the humans are put under one of them is about whether or not people in uniforms become more appealing.

What they do to discover that is they slipt the 100 humans into two groups of 50 and have them talk to the same people expect in one of the groups these people wear uniforms. So there's a fast food waiter, a surgeon, a soldier and then a police officer. When that police officer introduces himself to the humans on the social experiments there's something he says that caught my ear: people think I'm tough because of my job but they don't know I have a soft spot for animals.

When you have a soft spot for someone or something, you feel a great deal of affection for them or like them a lot. You can use that expression especially when you fit a stereotype of people who wouldn't normally have an affection for certain things or people. So in the police officer's opinion maybe people wouldn't expect him to have a soft spot for cute animals but he does. Do you have a soft spot for someone or something that people wouldn't expect you to? Let me know in the comment section down below!!!!

domingo, 8 de março de 2020

o que significa a expressão to do 180 (one-eighty)?

Sometimes you see and hear the same expression coming up in songs, TV shows, books and movies so many times but you never really stop to fully understand it. That's what happened to me with the expression to do 180. The first time I heard it was in the song wake up alone by Amy winehouse, a very saddened song that expresses the voice of a woman who's been trying to forget about a man and move on, but not so successfully. The second time I heard the expression happened recently in the song Don't start now by dua lipa, which unlike Amy's song portrays a woman who's already moved on and is absolutely fine now. 

When you do a 180, you make a big change in your opinions, lifestyle, perspective, decisions, etc. Literally, if you stop to think about it, when you do a 180, you turn 180 degrees so that you will then be facing the opposite direction. And actually you can also use the expression in that literal way as in "I was going to school but because of those dark clouds in the sky I did a 180 and headed back home". But still talking about both dua lipa's and Amy's songs, let's see how they put it into their verses:

It's okay in the day
I'm staying busy
Tied up enough so I don't have to wonder where is he
Got so sick of crying
So just lately
When I catch myself, I do a one-eighty
(Wake up alone, Amy winehouse)

If you don't wanna see me
Did a full 180, crazy
Thinking 'bout the way I was
Did the heartbreak change me? Maybe…
(Don't start now, dua lipa)

Both these women were trying to do a one-eighty on their romantic relationships because they were probably unhappy about the way it went. Maybe their boyfriends weren't respecting them, or maybe they didn't love them back, treat them right, I don't know. The thing is, something made them want to change their perspective and do a 180. 

That's all for now guys. Let me know in the comment section down below if sometime in the past you had to do a 180 on anything or anyone. Talk to you next time!

sábado, 7 de março de 2020

O que significa a expressão to put through the wringer?

Not very proud to say this, but I'm on the third or fourth episode of Love is blind, a reality show about men and women seeking romance and marriage. And during one of the proposals a newly-engaged woman said something about her fiance that caught my ear: "He really put me through the wringer". What does she mean by that?

The thing is, before I tell you about the expression, I need to clarify the context of the show. It's just a bunch of singles trying to match and get engaged to each other without ever seeing each other face-to-face. They're separated by a thin wall and are only allowed to meet when they finally make a final match. One of the men were having a hard time deciding which woman to pick, and ended up putting three women through the wringer. So by now you have probably realized the meaning of the expression is not positive. 

If you put someone through the wringer, you subject them to some ordeal, trial, or punishment, or you make them undergo an unpleasant experience.