Posts tagged To have two left feet
What a klutz!
10/28/2012
by Culips
in Catch Word
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Sometimes people accidentally fall, trip, or break things. In fact, there are so many incidents like these that we’ve got a bunch of expressions to talk about them. In some cases, a person might just have a clumsy moment, but other people are clumsy all the time! In this episode, Harp and Maura give examples of what clumsy people do and explain the expressions we can use to talk about them!
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| Maura: | Now, a person who is a klutz is a clumsy person, is the kind of person that we just described, who might often break things or walks into things or falls down. |
| Harp: | Exactly. When someone does something like this, you can call them a klutz, or when someone’s doing it all the time, they’re a klutz. |
| Maura: | Right. So you might be starting to think of someone that you know who is a klutz, because we all know people who are really clumsy. |
| Harp: | Yup. I’m thinking about someone at my work. He is always running into things and dropping things. I would never give him a nice glass. I’m sure he would break it. He’s such a klutz |
| Maura: | Yeah. Sometimes there are just people who often have accidents and break things. Sometimes it’s funny, but sometimes if they break something or hurt themselves, it’s not so funny. |
Expressions from this episode included in the Learning Materials:
| Clumsy | A klutz |
| On the other hand | A pain in the butt |
| A teacup/mug | To be all thumbs |
| Fine motor skills | You know what they say |
| To get the hang of something | The two pronunciations of vase |
| To have two left feet |
Podcast/Learning Materials: Culips English Podcast, Image: ©Mugen
Hobbies
10/21/2012
by Culips
in Chatterbox
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Here’s another episode based on a great episode idea from a Culips listener! Outside of work or school, hopefully you have some free time just for yourself. In this episode, Maura and Harp discuss hobbies, what hobbies are popular in Canada and the US, and their own hobbies, past and present. Does it really sound natural to ask someone directly, “What are your hobbies?” We’ll answer that question for you too!
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| Harp: | I have to be honest; I didn’t actually ever make anything. I just knit long pieces that could maybe be a scarf, but I didn’t know how to finish it, so I just threw in the towel and gave up knitting. |
| Maura: | Sometimes that happens, too. We start a hobby and then time passes and we realize that we’re not interested, or maybe it’s too difficult, like in your case, and you just want a change. You don’t wanna do it anymore. |
| Harp: | Yeah, exactly. What about you? What were some hobbies you did when you were young? |
| Maura: | Well, when I was a kid, I took dance lessons. |
| Harp: | Oh, that’s fun. What kind of dance? |
| Maura: | I pretty much took it all. I started in ballet, and I took tap dancing for a year or two, and the rest of the years I was doing jazz dancing. |
| Harp: | Oh, that’s fun. |
| Maura: | It was pretty fun and I liked it, but when I become a teenager, I didn’t really wanna do it anymore. |
Expressions from this episode included in the Learning Materials:
| Free time, spare time, a pastime | An artist |
| Out there | Knitting, scrapbooking, and cross-stitching |
| The metro | To go through a phase |
| What do you do in your spare time? | To stick with someone |
| To take something up | To suck at something |
| To throw in the towel | Ballet |
| To have two left feet |
Podcast/Learning Materials: Culips English Podcast, Image: ©iStock
