What are idioms anyway?
An idiom can be defined as a number of words which, when taken together, have a different meaning from the individual meanings of each word.
Idioms cannot be checked using a dictionnary!
An idiom can be defined as a number of words which, when taken together, have a different meaning from the individual meanings of each word.
Idioms cannot be checked using a dictionnary!
This idiom is probably one of the longest I know of. It is this. Are you ready?
‘You can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy.’
What does it mean and when do we use it? Well, it means that it is often difficult to change someone. People do change in many ways but often their basic personality is not so easy to change. People remain basically the same, don’t they?
For example a boy (or a girl) who grows up in the country or desa, maybe on a farm, will always be a country sort of person even if they go and live in the city. They will never fully lose all of their country ways of thinking for example.
‘Young Jack is now a successful and rich businessman in Sydney. He owns a big house and drives an expensive car. He moved from the country about twenty years ago when he was 19 years old. But you know what? He still loves to go home to his parent’s farm and work with his dad. He says it is really what he loves to do to relax. ‘You can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy.’
The idiom is generally used when talking about ‘country boys and girls’. Here is a different idiom which actually can be used in many different situations and basically means the same thing. It tends to be used in a negative way though. Here’s Sonja again.
‘You can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy.’
What does it mean and when do we use it? Well, it means that it is often difficult to change someone. People do change in many ways but often their basic personality is not so easy to change. People remain basically the same, don’t they?
For example a boy (or a girl) who grows up in the country or desa, maybe on a farm, will always be a country sort of person even if they go and live in the city. They will never fully lose all of their country ways of thinking for example.
‘Young Jack is now a successful and rich businessman in Sydney. He owns a big house and drives an expensive car. He moved from the country about twenty years ago when he was 19 years old. But you know what? He still loves to go home to his parent’s farm and work with his dad. He says it is really what he loves to do to relax. ‘You can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy.’
The idiom is generally used when talking about ‘country boys and girls’. Here is a different idiom which actually can be used in many different situations and basically means the same thing. It tends to be used in a negative way though. Here’s Sonja again.
‘I haven’t seen Sally for along time. But she is still the same. She still finds it difficult to tell the truth. I guess the old saying is true — a leopard can’t change its spots’.
A leopard is born with black spots all over its yellowish golden body, right? As it grows up it never loses those spots. It has those spots until it dies. The idiom — ‘a leopard can’t change its spots’ — is very similar in meaning to the ‘country boy’ idiom.
To recap on today’s idioms — both mean ‘tidak mudah merubah karakter seseorang’
A leopard is born with black spots all over its yellowish golden body, right? As it grows up it never loses those spots. It has those spots until it dies. The idiom — ‘a leopard can’t change its spots’ — is very similar in meaning to the ‘country boy’ idiom.
To recap on today’s idioms — both mean ‘tidak mudah merubah karakter seseorang’
Next idiom is ‘gives you an insight’. Now those words ‘gives you an insight’ do not make any sense really but when used as a idiom they have a lot of meaning.
We use ‘gives you an insight’ when we want to explain that some activity or event has helped us to understand something more easily or more clearly. It is the same as saying that the activity or experience has opened up your eyes and that you now know a lot more than before. You have a better understanding of something.
‘I knew quite a lot about Balinese culture before I came to live in Denpasar. Living here though has reallygiven me an insight into the culture that I never had before. I now understand more after seeing what really happens in Bali.’
‘I knew quite a lot about Balinese culture before I came to live in Denpasar. Living here though has reallygiven me an insight into the culture that I never had before. I now understand more after seeing what really happens in Bali.’
‘Living in Bali has really helped me to understand the Balinese culture a lot more. My understanding hasgone through the roof. I know a lot, lot more now that I did 6 months ago. It has been great living here.’
Did you know that Australians love to travel. They are quite famous for it really. They travel a lot around Australia AND they also travel a lot overseas. Thousands of Aussies travel right here to Indonesia every year as well. There are many idioms and slang expressions used when talking about traveling and holidays. Today we have a couple for you. They are quite common and used by all sorts of Australians.
The first one is ‘catch a plane’ OR ‘catch a bus’ OR ‘catch a boat’. Now it doesn’t mean to catch a plane or a boat because that would be impossible. Too big eh?
It really means to go by or use — ‘naik’ in Bahasa Indonesia.
Sonja: “I leave on Saturday to go to Ayers Rock. First we catch a bus to the airport and then catch a plane to Alice Springs. We should be at Ayers Rock by this time tomorrow. I am so excited about this holiday.”
The second travel idiom is jump on board. To jump on board means to get onto or once again to naik something. Listen to these examples and they should show you what we mean.
Sonja: “We waited until the train stopped at the station and then we jumped on board. We showed our tickets to the conductor. Then we found our seats and sat down and waited for the train to leave the station.”
Let’s recap on today’s idioms for you –
‘catch a plane’ — ‘naik’
‘jump on board’ — ‘naik’
The second travel idiom is jump on board. To jump on board means to get onto or once again to naik something. Listen to these examples and they should show you what we mean.
Sonja: “We waited until the train stopped at the station and then we jumped on board. We showed our tickets to the conductor. Then we found our seats and sat down and waited for the train to leave the station.”
Let’s recap on today’s idioms for you –
‘catch a plane’ — ‘naik’
‘jump on board’ — ‘naik’