How are You? I'm PINK today.

You might be wondering what the title means. Well, it is not that I have gone a bit cuckoo in the head. As you may already know, just as colours can express sounds and tastes so can they express ideas and feelings. For that reason, languages are full of the use of colours to describe moods, and the English language is not an exception. Here are some common idiomatic expressions with colours and their meanings:

1) I saw red. (I got very angry)

2) I was green with envy. (I was very jealous)

3) I was tickled pink when I heard the news. (I was really happy)

4) It came out of the blue.(It was a surprise)

5) I'm really browned-off about it. (I'm fed up, annoyed with it)

6) I was in blue funk. (I was very scared)

And now, let's make something out of all this. I would like to know how you are feeling today, and a funny way of doing this is by associating your moods with colours. If you enter this page, you are going to be able to keep a record of your moods and visualize them in beautiful colour strips. You are also going to have the possibility of writing a comment on why you have chosen that colour. To do so, follow these instructions:

1) Enter the page.

2) Login by entering the following information:

Username: challengestudents

Password: moods

3) Click on post

4) Click on the colours that reflect your moods

5) Write the feelings associated with the colours under "Describe it using words", separate them by commas and do not forget to write your name.

Ex: Sabrina: happy, green with envy

6) Press post and that's all.

To see the colour strips you and the rest have done follow this link.

Looking forward to seeing your colour strips.

It is not only YOU!

If you sometimes feel that you will never master the English language, here you have two examples to make you feel that you are not the only one. If even native speakers may sometimes misheard a song, why feel frustrated when you, who are just starting to learn the language cannot understand every single word you hear. Here you have a video of a famous advertisement from the 80's in which you can see a strange way in which a native apeaker interpret this song.


Have you been able to understand the actual lyrics of the song? If you have been able to: Congratulations!!!!! If not, don't worry here you have the correct interpretation of the song.

Get up in the morning,
slaving for bread, sir,
So that every mouth can be fed.
Poor me, Israelite.
My wife and my kids,
They are packed up and leave me.
Darling, she said, I was yours to be seen.
Poor me, Israelite.

I will now tell you another interesting story. Sam Goldwin arrived in the United States from Poland at the age of eleven. He later became one of Hollywood’s most successful film producers, but he never managed to completely master the English language. According to wikipedia "Samuel Goldwyn's inferior English language skills led to many of his malapropisms, paradoxes, and other speech errors called Goldwynisms ("A humorous statement or phrase resulting from the use of incongruous or contradictory words, situations, idioms, etc.") being frequently quoted"
Some of his Goldwynisms are very well-known although probably not all genuine:
“Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist needs his head examined!”
“An oral contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on".
Goldwyn often confused common sayings. Can you tell us which are the actual idiomatic expressions he was trying to say. Maybe you can also explain to us the meaning of them and provide us with an example in which the idioms are used. (You can leave them as a comment)
1) “Include me out”
2) “They’re always biting the hand that lays the golden egg” (Be careful! This is a mixture of two sayings)
3) “We have all passed a lot of water since then”
4) “It rolls oft my back like a duck”
5) “In two words: impossible”
We would also like to hear about your own experience with the English Language. Do you find any skill (listening, speaking,writing, reading) remarkably difficult? Have you ever misheard a song or confused common sayings in English or in your mother tongue? Can you share the anecdote with us? We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Finally, remember that in our forum there are lots of new topics to be discussed and if you are new to it yo can start by telling us something about you in the introductions section.