Super idioms

 What's an idiom?

     An idiom is a set phrase that is always a group of words. Its meaning is different from the meanings of the individual words present in it, i.e. the meaning of an idiom does not come directly from the words you see. It has some hidden layer of meaning that is very interesting to figure out.

 The right use of idioms at right places just amuses the readers or the listeners. It can hold the attention of the audience but be careful not to overuse idioms. Idioms have some origins. Idioms are set phrases in which words are in a fixed order. So, one can't change the order of words in an idiom.

You can't make an idiom of yours just in a moment. It takes time. A phrase created by you, that has a hidden layer of meaning, can become an idiom only when it begins to be used by a large number of people in an English speaking community. 

The use of idioms in your language makes you sound quite natural, interesting and impressive. Using idioms can even increase your confidence level.

So, what's the wait for? Let's come and learn idioms together. We'll take one idiom at a time and try to understand the same in the right contexts with multiple examples. Today's first idiom is 'Learn by heart'. 

When you learn a poem or something by heart, you memorize the same and you can now recite it without looking at the book or notebook. You have the words in your memory clearly. Here goes a few examples------

1.  I have learnt my lines by heart. (Now, I can say the dialogues with confidence.)

2.  She has to learn 20 words by heart.

3.  He has learnt the mobile numbers of all his relatives by heart.

4.  My maths teacher knew all the questions by heart.

5.  Ravi knows all the formulae by heart.

6.  I have learnt these English songs by heart.

7.  They can select you only when you can say your lines by heart.

That's all in this blog. In the next blog, we'll deal with another idiom. Do check out the next blog.

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It's far more honorable to fail than to cheat.

        Oh! What a great line! The time I came across this beautiful line and understood its meaning, I've made it the principle of my life. I've even explained the meaning of this line to my students. And, many of them got influenced and started abiding by this way of thinking. They have taken a pledge not to use unfair means in the exams ever in their life. This line shakes your heart and just wakes you up. You feel a kind of challenge. You feel a kind of force from within to make it the principle of leading your life.

       This line has been taken from a well-known poem, 'Abraham Lincoln's letter to his son's teacher'.  Abraham Lincoln was one of the most popular presidents of the USA.

        A number of beautiful things have been conveyed to teachers in this poem. We'll deal with the whole poem in some other blog. Here, I'd like to stick to the one sentence that's my favorite. 

         It's exam time these days. Students are not happy with the exams being taken as they have not studied properly due to the lingering lock-down period caused by the COVID -19. Their syllabus has not been completed. Even if the online teaching was facilitated, most of the students didn't get benefited from that. Having said that, students got full time for self-studies. And, schools have been instructed to promote students in next classes. Whatever the situation may be, malpractices must not be practiced in exams. Using unfair means in the exams is in no way in favor of students. It seems to students they can get good marks. But that's only on the surface. As a matter of fact, losses that they are not able to see are much higher. 

          The students who use unfair means in exams can never rise in their own eyes. They will have low self-esteem. They will suffer from lack of confidence. On the other hand, the one who follow the principle, 'It's far more honorable to fail than to cheat.' will have high self-esteem. They get elevated in their own eyes. Because of having self-respect, they can make eye-contacts while talking to others. 

          Moreover, leading life by a principle like this instills a feeling of greatness in your heart. Mere instructions can't do the work. Students need to be prepared by using such elevating principles. The principle we are discussing are equally applicable in other walks of life apart from exams.

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