"Get forty wanks" - English Idoms
Non-native learners of English – even the advanced ones – would rather be safe than sorry, and therefore avoid idioms like the pest, for fear they might end up with egg on their face. Just when their confidence goes through the roof and they feel the world’s their oyster, one faux pas is sufficient to make everything go pear-shaped.
To this day, Rupert, one of my students, still cannot fathom why his British business partners cracked up when he bid them good night after a long and busy working day: I’m really tired; I’m afraid I won’t be able to join you at the pub. I’ll just pop upstairs and try to get forty wanks. Good night!
While Arnold is baffled why his cautious attitude – I think I’ll make a pass – failed to be appreciated accordingly by the other members of the meeting, Jan’s courteous behaviour – The secretary dropped her phone, so I got it up for her – remained equally unrewarded. Needless to say, they wouldn’t touch an idiom with a barge pole now. “Why not?”, I ask. “Once bitten, twice shy,” they reply.
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Without urging learners of English to squeeze idioms into conversation for the sake of more authentic language production, I can’t stress enough that identifying, understanding and correctly using idiomatic expressions that native speakers take for granted is an achievement not to be trifled with. In order to retain and retrieve idioms, one needs a solid semantic, pragmatic and linguistic context, backed up by wide exposure to real life usage. What is bound to lighten the cognitive effort is the exposure to both the literal and the figurative meanings simultaneously. This would result in conjuring up visual images meant to reinforce the idiomatic connotation.
For instance, did you know that in the past, long before computer times, solicitors used to keep their clients’ documents in a file folder tied with red ribbon to prevent the papers from falling out? When they needed a paper from the file, they would obviously have to cut through red tape. The figurative meaning of the idiom is avoiding unnecessary bureaucratic procedures, like in “It took us ages to obtain the right papers to start a business in Italy, because nobody was able to help us cut through all the red tape”.
During the Battle of Copenhagen, in 1801, when the commander of the British fleet signalled to Nelson to discontinue the action, the Admiral deliberately turned the telescope to his blind eye, making sure that he failed to see it, as he was certain of victory. The idiom is used when we pretend not to see something, like in “The authorities are facing a hard dilemma: should they turn a blind eye to soft drugs or legalise them?” By the way, do you know the origins of black market, red herring and white elephant?
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Based on an article published in The Teacher, no.74, 2009
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Monica Hoogstad ©2011
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