The International Channel

couch potato: [dict] Slang a person who spends too much time watching television;

I spent quite some time lying down and watching telly this weekend. A friend teased me using the "couch potato" to call me.

nod off: [dict] Fall asleep momentarily, doze;

I was away for the GRADschool last week. It was the wonderful experience,  challenging myself and getting know some new friends. Besides, Windermere is a really peaceful and pretty town.

Also, We had filled in many questionnaires during the course. "nod off" was from one of the question, which unfortunately I couldn’t remember the context .

chick flick - [dict] Slang a movie intended for and marketed to females, with themes, characters, or events more likely to appeal to women than men;

We went to pub for few drinks last Friday after the work in the uni. A guy’s gf didn’t come with him, "she went to cinema to watch some chick flicks with girls…"

okey-dokey: [phrases] a reduplicated variant of OK, a two-word phrases for rhyming.

The origin for this phrase seems a little bit interesting than the phrase itself.

turn a blind eye - to refuse to see or recognise something;

One professor is going to retire very soon and one guy said "he is not arguing with other people now and turned a blind eye on many things".

It is a similar phrase in Chinese, which can be liberally translated to, "open one eye, close one eye".

We had a plan to do climbing on tomorrow morning. I texted one of them to see if any changes occur after a long lazy weekend. "You beat me to it…", he replied and apparently he was going to check the availability with me as well. I couldn’t find any concise explanation from the dictionary on "you beat me on it", however, seemingnly, it applies on the circumstance that you have some thoughts but someone expresses them first.

cook up a storm - [UsingEnglish] If someone cooks up a storm, they cause a big fuss or generate a lot of talk about something.

Rachel is going to her family holiday in Kennya. She sent us a group email which was including a best wish to her friend’s band having a great gig, "the Phoenix Rose (the name of the band) gig cooks up a storm…". By the way, they are doing quite nice music, check it out.

over the moon - [freedict] extremely pleased and happy;

Our house hunting bussiness is coming to the end, a happy end after all. My current landlady is going to let her nice family house to us because they are going to move to Norfolk. We will even have the whole second floor as the studying area, which is really out of the blue. I am so pleased simply because all the hard work I did during last a couple of weeks is finally making everyone happy, wich turns out to make myself much more happier (to see everyone is happy), you see,"I am over the moon…" which is the text message from Rachel .

down-to-earth - [freedict]  realistic; sensible;

I started to look up some on-line house sharing websites in my spare time. Surprisingly, I just realised that a lot of people use "down-to-earth" to describe their peasonality. 

the luck of the draw - [freedict] pure chance and you have no control over it;

After coming back from a laid-back holiday break, I have to deal with many things at once and the most awkward situation is to look for a house  to rent for my friend and myself. I showed my frustration for the house hunting bussiness and the worry of too much time consumption on this matter to one guy in the research institute this moring. "tell me about it…" he just experienced the same situation and finally he is happy to find a decent house and nice housemates to live with, "it is totally the luck of the draw."

come in handy - [dict] be useful (for a certain purpose) or convenient;

One potential mathematician in our research students office challenged us with a couple of math puzzles yesterday. It was kind of fun but one guy said afterwards, "although it will never come in handy in practice…"

PS: one of the puzzles is,

Using numbers 1,3,4,6 once and only with the basic operations "+, -, *, /", can you obtain the number 24?

Have a try and see how quick you can reach the solution

shell-shocked - [dict] Stunned, distressed; affected with combat fatigue;

The world cup has ended with a final full of dramas. It was even hurted to see Zidane finish his career in a way of being sent off because of a moment of madness, although I really hoped Italy to win the trophy (of course after my favourites England and Brazil had both gone in the early knock-out stage). This disgraceful instant not only spoiled Zidane’s farewell party, but made his team mates "shell-shocked", which maybe costed them in the penalty shoot.

slack off - [dict] decrease in activity or intensity;

Some senior officials in China had been sacked since the anti-corruption mission topped our president’s agenda. He made his determination of stopping domestic corruption very clear from the beginning and he warned that "we cannot slack off for one moment…" in a recent speech cited by the BBC news.

I titled this entry with "After pride, comes a fail" despite my doubt over the correctness of this phrase. It was from a movie (when one guy warned someone that his over-confidence would cost the failure for the plan) but the closest one I could find in the dictionary is,

Pride comes before a fall - idiom [freedict] something that you say which means if you are too confident about yourself, something bad will happen to show you that you are not as good as you think you are.

It recalled me a more precisely descriptive Chinese chéngyǔ, 骄兵必败 (jiāo bīng bì bài), which was originally well-known as the military classic in the acient China.

cock up - slang [urban] mess something up; make a mistake;

One friend of mine was notified by a conferece that his paper has to be reduced to 7 pages as most other papers. It is a little bit weird because his full paper (14 pages) had been accepted already. One guy even said, "they just cocked it up…"

hand-me-down - [dict] something, such as an article of clothing, that is passed on from one person to another;

Despite being laughable from some people’s point of view, I am not the only one who is willing to sit on a swiss ball (which will force you to keep a good body position, your back will appreciate it in particular) instead of the traditional chair. One fellow research friend next door bought a new swiss ball and he kindly gave his old one to me when he learned my intention to purchase one. After a couple of days, another friend said to me, "you had his hand-me-downs…"

brush up - [dict] review, refresh one’s memory;

The BBC sports presenter (Chris) has been reporting the world cup latest news from Germany since the heat of the World Cup 2006 has spread.everywhere. He was going to teach the audience some German in this morning’s BBC breakfast program and he said "I will brush up the new language…"

ex-pat - [urban] (short for expatriate) a person taking up residency in another country;

BBC’s program "A place under the sun - home or away" normally helps Britains to hunt their satisfactory houses on board (some places sunny). It is different this time. An British couple, who were called "ex-pat" by the presenter, have already resided on the board of Swizerland and France for many years. They were keen to find a nice house in France for permanent stay.

flip out - [dict] go mad, go crazy;

I met one friend, who I haven’t met for a long time, on my way to the gym in the early morning. When he learned that I have been doing workout in the morning for months, he said to me, "you are flipping out in the morning…"

be my guest - [dict] do as you wish.

In "Prison Break", after they succeeded in breaking out, they had to escape from the immediate chasing as well. At one point, one guy was in a state to run with the others, C-note told him, "if you wanna stay, be my guest."  

Duan wu jie (duān wū jié) - another important Chinese traditional festival, the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar year (which is today for this year).

In addition to having dragon boats racing (in the early days), the culture for Duan wu jie is to eat "zong zi (zòng zi)" (various flavours, see picture below). I still remember the wonderful taste of "zong zi" made by my familiy (mainly from the efforts of my mum and my aunts) when I was boy. The story can be found here.

One Chinese friend told me that the small Chinese supermarket in our town centre sells "zong zi" for $3.50/each  today.

ring a bell - idioms [dict] to arouse an often indistinct memory.

In Gareth’s funeral ("4 Weddings and one Funeral"), Matthew gave a few words to describe Gareth emotionally, "’terribly rude’ also rang a lot of bells…"

toast of the town - Idiom [onelook] a celebrity who receives much attention;

Since Carrie couldn’t find a proper guy taking to her book release party as the "plus one",  she told her best friends that she didn’t want to go. Sam said to her, "you must go, you are the toast of the town…"

Strike while the iron is hot - idiom [freedict] to do something immediately while you have a good chance of achieving success;

In a moive,  Ray intent to make big money by taking advantage of his younger cousin’s basketball talent.  He had to persuade his sister to sign a commercial contract for her son, "you should strike while the iron is hot…"

Interestingly, in the classical Chinese chéngyǔ (four-character idioms), we have the same phrase, called "趁热打铁" (chen re da tie / chèn rè dǎ tiě), literately means "strike the iron while is hot".

raise the roof - Slang [dict] To be extremely noisy;

Last night’s ITV1 documentary of David Beckham unveiled a genuine David, differing from the dark side of him which we always heard about from newspapers. It recalled the top moment in his career, when he brought England to the 2002 World Cup Final by scoring a magnificent free kick in the last minuate against Greece. "Can he raise the roof with this goal?", the comentator said just before he was about to kick the ball.

sugar daddy - Slang [dict] a wealthy older man who gives a young person expensive gifts;

One professor has quite some budge to spend on his research assistants or students and therefore one guy described him in a very joking way, "he is a sugar daddy…". Do mind you, it can be also used in a bad way somehow (refer to the describion in the on-line dict).

chip in - Idiom [dict] To contribute; 

In the post-match interview, Arsenal’s left-back Ashley Cole gave a lots of credits to all players when they had to fight with the numerical disadvantage (the goalkeeper Lehmann was sent off in the early stage of the game) in last night’s Champions League final, "they’ve chipped in and done well as a team…"

Unlike what Thierry Henry insisted, I think the best team won after all. There is only one Barca.

off the record - Idiom [free] not intended to be known publicly;

The external examinar also remarked that guy’s work at the end of the viva, "it’s off the record, the work you’ve done are really good but you didn’t sell it very well…" 

get it off my chest - IDIOM [free] to tell someone about something that has been worrying you or making you feel guilty for a long time, in order to make you feel better; to confess sth.

One guy just passed his Ph.D viva but more than 4-month after his thesis submission, because some confusions between the internal examinar and the external one. Finally, in order to read through his thesis, the external examinar had to postpone his viva 2-month after the initial date. Thus, the external examinar said to him at the beginning of the viva, "let me get it off my chest, in chapter 7…"

cut to the chase - Idiom to state something directly; get to the point; get on with it. [wiki]

I had the regular meeting with my supervisor yesterday. He was not that fancying the protocol, which I had been working on for a while and thought the result was quite nice. Anyway, after the meeting, I told this to one guy in the office and he was taking a piss on me, "you should ask him, ‘cut to the chase, just tell me how I can get the Ph.D’…"

bounce around - [dict] move around from one place (or person) to another;

One guy from next door, who finished his Ph.D months ago, came back for the mock viva yesterday. We had a quick conversation regarding to his job hunting, another guy came cross the future plan after his Ph.D, that he may be “boncing around" in industrial for a couple of years, then going back to academic and doing what he’d like to do.

take the edge off - Idiom [dict] make less severe;

Chelsea won the second consecutive Premier Champion trophy finally by beating United in last Saturday’s match. England & United central strike, Wayne Rooney, somehow got injured in the match and could be off for 6 weeks. It was a really blow for England’s World Cup hope. The injury of Rooney "took the edge off all celebration of the Champion in Stamford Bridge (Chelsea’s home stadium)", the depression from the commentator as well as all England fans (including me).

PS: another funny meaning can be seen from the [Urban].

bits and bobs - Idiom many small things; also see [wiki]

I learned this from one of my friend when I went to her parents’ house for the Sunday dinner today. Since tomorrow is the Bank Holiday Monday, she can have one day off, just relaxing and forgetting all the "bits and bobs".

PS: "just bits and bobs in my bag", it was another example from her to help me understand.

rip-off - Idiom [wiktionary] a unfair price or rate;

It is derived from the verb rip off (’to charge an exorbitant or unfair rate’, also means ‘to cheat’). Anyway, this moring’s BBC Breakfast program revealed the parents in UK have to pay much more money ("rip-off") for their kids going to the shool holidays trip than the trip in the term time.

Tell me about it - when somebody says something about the situation which you totally agree; or when something is said that is obvious [urban]

Today I had a quick chat with a French research student who just started his Ph.D few months ago. He felt a little bit lost and boring at this moment (particularly when you have to read loads of papers for literature review). I couldn’t agree him more because I had the similar frustration at the very beginning. Then I said to him, "tell me about it", but immediately realising he didn’t get it when he was trying to explain the reason to me.

It is a really useful phrase and worths to have its place here. To be honest, I only knew it last year (2 years since I have settled in this country) when I was chatting with one of my friend over the Internet (thanks carrie). By the way, I made the same mistake to my friend as the guy made today!

thrash out - [dict] to discuss fully, especially for reaching a solution or an agreement

Despite the truth that the media and fans favour a British coach to take over next England manager after the forthcoming world cup, BBC unveiled that the ex-Brazilian 2002 World Cup winner coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is most likely to be offerred this post. Moreover, FA has already been in the stage to "thrash out a deal with Portugal’s Brazilian coach".

stand up - Slang to fail to keep a date with;

Carrie’s first ever blind date didn’t show up. She was so pissed off and said to her best friends, "I got stood up last night…" 

Off the hook - [dict] released (or be released) from blame or annoying obligation;

One episode in the CSI, the evidence they found indicated the truth that one suspect was not in the crime scene on that day, and therefore the detector said to his man, "at least he is off the hook".

sell short - [dict] underestimate the real value or ability of;

Jake has a lot of fun to live with uncle Charlie, but he has to move to his grandma’s place. He loves uncle Charlie and can’t understand why his dad is not as cool as uncle Charlie, Charlie says to him, "Do not sell your dad short".

cut it out - [dict] stop; desist

In the movie "The Island", when the insurance policy (the clone), Tom Lincoln 6E, was keeping mocking Tom Lincoln’s Scottish accent, Tom had enough of it, "Cut it out…"

end off - Slang shup up;

In the show "Apprentice", the manager of the second hand car market was not happy at all about the work one team did. He had quite a strong conversation with this team project manager, pointing out unforgivable mistakes they made. "End off", he finished the conversation and didn’t accept any explainations.

have a nerve - have courage, see [here]

The show "Run for Glory" in the BBC1 describes a group of "potential" runners have been trained to compete in the London Marathon. When they faced one training program, an abseil down a 250 foot rock, only 2 brave person agreed to have a try in the first place. For the rest of them who reckoned it is kind of madness, "Do them have a nerve?" to bring it on .

out of the blue - not anticipated; unexpected

I plan to go back my normal weight training next Monday after picking up the back shoulder injury from the gym 2 weeks ago. Honestly, I am still in a state over the injury and a little bit worried about it since it seemingly hasn’t been recovered fully. One mate in my office was trying to comfort me, "When you pick up the weight, you will know it if it is out of the blue…"

run-out-of-mill - [dict] not special or outstanding in any way; average <syn. run-out-of-mine>

It is from the same talk, "You and Your Research", given by Richard Hamming in 1986. He argued that scientists should work on important problems in the first place, "I’m not talking about ordinary run-of-the-mill research; I’m talking about great research."

live up to - [dict] fulfil the requirements or expectations of; live or act in accordance with;

After a brilliant open address from the chairman, Richard Hamming (the brilliant scientist behind the "Hamming Code" which has been well-known to each computer science or electronic&electrical engineering graduate) responded,  "I doubt if I can live up to the Introduction", before giving such an inspiring talk, "You and Your Research" (see here for the transcript), at the Bell Communications Research Colloquium Seminar in 1986.

Downhill - toward a lower or worse state;

Following the doctor’s suggestion, I haven’t been to gym for a week becasue of my injuried back shoulder. I met one staff who is also the regular in my gym this morning and told him that I will not go to the gym until the week after next week. He said to me, "it will be downhill when you get back."

fall out - [dict] have a breach in relations;

Eddie and some men from his unit had not kept in touch with each other after the war. Thus, he said to the Captain, "to be honest, we all kind of fell out." (– The Five People You Meet in Heaven)

It is from the book "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" (which I am reading currently).

Eddie (the main character in this book) was in the happy memory about a girl who he met many many years ago. He was stunned by her beauty and couldn’t say anything at that moment,  "he was so nervous he felt as if his tongue were glued to his teeth."

PS: why not "is glued"? 

knackered - [dict] very tired; exhausted. (mainly used in the UK) /the silent ‘k’ in terms of pronunciation/

"be knackered" is mentioned quite often here. But I never bothered to check the spelling until I found it by accident this afternoon. Just a short note to remind myself.

Knees-up [wikionary]- /archaic/ A party (mainly used in the UK);

Presumably, it is from a traditional British party song "Knees-up Mother Brown" . Anyway, a good friend of my is leaving for Zambia for 8-month volunteering project (best best wishes to her ) and she is planning to have a party in the evening just before she goes. She sent us the email which said "I’m having a bit of a knees up at my house…"

I think we should sing the OLD "knees-up Mother Brown" in her keens-up…haha… 

gear up - [Phrasal Verb]  to get ready for a coming action or event;

Sony is going to launch a new on-line service offering users to download games to its forthcoming PS3 console, although the release of PS3 has been delayed. This news is titled "Sony gears up PS3 online network" [here] in the bbc news website.

single out - (Idom [dict]) Choose or distinguish from others; select from a group;

It is from a friend’s email, which said his project "was singled out" and will be demonstrated in front of the public. But nevertheless, you may be aware of "single out" being regarded as the synonym of discriminate ("treat differently on the basis of sex or race"), depending upon the context.

Chum - an intimate friend or companion;

Chump - a stupid or foolish person; idiot;

Chav - the lower class; uneducated and ignorant people;

Two friends from the university came to my house for dinner last night. We had a really nice conversation afterwards. Finally, "chum, chump, chav" concluded such a chill out evening (thanks mike for explaining the difference among those three words for me). I am afraid I had maken mistakes on "chum" and "chump" on many occasions before.

Wind (sb.) up - creating tension (to annoy or irritate somebody)

One lecturer complained some unexpected results from his experiments to us in today’s lunch time, "the thing which really winds me up is…(bla, bla)".

In the dictionary.com, you won’t find such a meaning [here] for "wind up" at all. However, one friend of mine said it may be the British phrase and it is widely used in Britain. By the way, another normal sense of "wind up" is similar to "end up", see the example in the Fenglish.

It seems to me that we can attach "-ish" [dict] to every word, expressing "approximately; somewhat" informally, as seen from two daily conversations I had with my friends.

- Yesterday, I was asking one friend to have the afternoon coffee break and he said, "shall we go to there a little bit late…5 o’clock - ish…" (around 5 o’clock)

- I was chatting with one of my friend today. When I asked how her job hunting is going, she said to me "it is OK- ish…"

There are some really nice local café shops in the area (ealing, london) where one of my friend and her husband are living. One of them is called "mañana" (presumably it is a spanish café). I remembered words, "la mañana" (the morning) and "esta mañana" (this morning), learned  from my Spanish class. Thus, I was showing off my little Spanish knowledge and explaining it to the couple, "mañana" means "morning" (normal logic, isn’t it). Interestingly, he knows Spanish (probably even better than me) as well and insisited "mañana" in Spanish means "tomorrow".

He is correct eventually after I check with Spanish Vocabulary list today, "mañana" alone really means "tomorrow". But funny enough, if you put "the" or "this" in front of "tomorrow", it is becoming "the morning" or "this morning" .

By the way, we had some really tasty fresh breads from another nice Italian café. Having them with a cup of Capuccino on lazy Sunday morning would be "luxury".

One of my college colleague thought she left her ipod in the office another day. She was so worried and asked me to do her a favour searching it around her desk this morning, "I am in a state about it (the ipod)".

In a state: feel anxious, upset and disturbed, Agitated [synonym in a lather, in a stew]

early bird - [dictionary] Informal 1. A person who arises early in the morning. 2. One that arrives or takes place early or before others.

I am a morning guy, normally getting up quite early and coming to the university very early as well. This morning, one researcher from next door said to me, "you are really an early bird…"

By the way, this also reminded me one proverb, "early bird gets the  worm", I learned from Fenglish, which is referred to the link.

One academic forwarded an email to me today, which highly recommended a couple of papers written by a renowned educationist, "talked about his new courses which blew many of us off our feet for the breadth of their vision and novelty…".

I always regarded "blow off" as a Slang using in the circumstance when someone choose not to attend or accompany (more likely,  they already agree and are expected to be there), but actually, it comes across to have another meaning,

blow off - To relieve or release (pressure); let off

I caught a cold last Friday and I suspect it was caused by the situation that "I didn’t zip up my coat properly when I got out from the gym, particularly after the shower" (my original phrase). Apparently, it sounds a little bit weird from some native speakers’ perspective (doesn’t it?). Thus, one guy suggested me to use the phrase "wrap up warm" in this circumstance, indicating "to put the clothes on tightly and keep warm, against the cold weather (no matter it is to zip up or button up)".

Due to the laziness, I never bother to find out the precise terms for the egg cooked with boiling water and the one stirring after be beaten. Accidentally, I just got them (Poached egg [here], and Scrambled egg [here]) when I was having a look of some cooking books in the Waterstone’s this afternoon.

By the way, in China, we have many other ways to cook eggs, for instance, steaming (probably not an exact word). Beat eggs and put in a bowl, adding few water, salt and sesame oil (or other oils depending on your personal flavour), stirring them for a couple of minutes, like the step to make scrambled eggs. But nevertheless, insteand of stir-frying, move the bowl into a big saucepan which contains boiled water and steam it for 5-6 minutes. My grandpa can make the best "steaming eggs" in the world, which was my best treat when I was boy.