Sometimes I feel like an idiom

By Steven L. Shields

I cannot help it. Idioms are so much a part of everyday speech they simply roll off my tongue naturally. A young friend recently asked me, “What's an idiom?” He's a fourth-grade primary school student.

He's Korean but is a high-level English speaker. He'd been watching an American TV series, where one character called the other an “idiom.” My young friend thought it might be another word for “idiot.” Perhaps he's not too wrong.

When I use idioms speaking to people for whom English is a second, third, or fourth language, the meaning is often lost. Idioms are culture-bound. Idioms are not easily translated.

Finding equivalents in another language is challenging, though many have tried. I'm an idiot when I speak in idioms because my hearer often cannot understand me. Using idioms, sometimes, is insensitive to my audience or environment.

Some of my most commonly used idioms include these:

A couple of sandwiches short of a picnic. I use this to describe someone who is not performing at 100 percent. Frankly, it's derogatory. American picnic fare is often centered on sandwiches. I remember in my earlier years in Korea when picnics focused on gimbap. Without sandwiches, an American picnic is lacking. So if someone doesn't have their act together, I use this expression.

The ball is in your court. Now it's your turn to do something. I've done all I can do. The idiom refers to a basketball court. The ball is bounced and passed down the court between players. I've given the ball to you, you need to bounce it down the court and score a point. If we are working on a team, and each team member has specific tasks to complete for the project, and I've finished mine, the other team members need to complete their tasks.

The icing on the cake. Something extra special. Cake is tasty, but we like the “icing” or sweet topping of cream and sugar. When we've done something right, and then something extra happens to make it better, we like that.

A piece of cake. Something easy to do. Who can resist cake? It's easy to indulge. A mathematics whiz looks at a problem, quickly finds the answer, and can say to their classmates, that test was easy. It was a “piece of cake.”

Knock your socks off. Exciting or surprising. I've created a recipe that is so delicious, it will knock your socks off. That movie is so much fun, it will knock your socks off. The new BTS is so good, it will knock your socks off. This idiom is always used to express joy, interest, and entertainment.

Cost an arm and a leg. Something costly. Of course, you won't cut off your arms or legs. Think how costly it would be, compared to normal, everyday life, when you wouldn't have the use of your limbs. No one would willingly give that up.

I went to the market to buy a watermelon. The prices are so high this season, it will cost an arm and a leg to eat watermelon. (With due respect to any who have suffered the loss of full mobility). Perhaps this idiom needs to be retired. How about replacing it with: it will cost a pretty penny?

Words alone cannot explain the meaning of an idiom. Idioms are not in the primary ESL curriculum. Nor do they form a part of language learning in the U.S. Idioms are picked up in conversation with others. Many are regional in the U.S., some with slight word variances in different areas.

I think I learned most of my regular idiomatic expressions from my Dad and Grandfather. Sometimes listening to the two of them talk, and sometimes when they were talking to me directly. I'm sure I learned some from my Mom and Grandmother, too.

When we sit down to have a chat, all I can say to you is this: warning, here comes an idiom.

Steven L. Shields (slshields@gmail.com) has lived in Korea for many years, beginning in the 1970s. He served as copy editor of The Korea Times in 1977. He is a retired clergyman and vice president of the Royal Asiatic Society-Korea Branch.