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This goes into Chinese "chengyu" or four-character idioms used heavily in mandarin, much like our "two birds, one stone." Like English idioms, origins vary between chengyu, but often they're old stories and have been used for ages in colloquial language.

Cute short animated film by Amanda Koh and Mollie Helms pits an elephant in the room against the skeleton in the closet. More idioms than you can shake a fist at!

Fun French foodcentric phrases.

It's often said that English is one of the hardest languages to learn. Given the fact that many of the words we use in English stem from Latin and Ancient Greek words - in common with many other European languages - what is it about English that has attracted this reputation for being so fearsomely difficult?

Learning a foreign language is hard. Learning English as a foreign language is also very hard. Words in the English language that we speak, say and write without question might not make sense to foreigners because of the many "exceptions" that comes with the English language. This article discusses what makes English so challenging for foreigners to learn. In particular, it gives examples of pronunciation and spelling, emphasis, homophones, synonyms, idioms, and dialects.

It's traditional during Chinese New Year to offer good wishes: positive language sets up the new year for happiness. This page provides some classic 4 word idioms （成語）to ensure good luck.

Chinese love proverbs and four character idiomatic expressions, which are also known as "chengyu" 【成語】。Idioms can reveal a lot about a culture. Here's a fun one: 行尸走肉 xíng shī zǒu ròu. Literally, this means "walking corpse and running flesh"--said of someone who's zombie-like due to workaholism.

The BBC is helping English learners understand the news. Each article is in a "mad lib" format where people learn idioms and difficult vocab by matching up the words in a sentence.

This page talks about how music and language are very similar and have many overlapping similarities, not identities, such as intonation, and idiom.

"In its contentious half-century, "could care less" has probably generated as much usage comment as aggravate has in 150 years."

Have you ever experienced mind-numbing cold? Or have you ever felt like it was so hot you could barely think? Believe it or not, these expressions are more than just idioms. Research shows that shifts in core body temperature caused by extreme heat or cold can have significant effects not only on mood but also on cognition.

NPR's Jasmine Garsd, cohost of Alt.Latino, NPR's weekly music podcast, speaks re: indigenous lyrics and music sung in indigenous languages, fused to Western idioms like hip-hop and electronica. The show itself, featuring artists who showcase their musical talents in indigenous languages from Mapuche to Tzotzil, Guarani and Quechua, can be found at this link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/altlatino/2015/03/05/390934624/hear-6-latin-american-artists-who-rock-in-indigenous-languages

Pretty much anyone can become fluent in pretty much any language at pretty much any age. It's not even true that young children learn languages faster than older children or adults: if you expose different age groups to the same amount of instruction in a foreign language, the older ones invariably do better, both initially and in the long run. Learners of any age can achieve a brilliant, even native like, command of the vocabulary of another language, including such challenging structures as idioms or proverbs.

The South has various species of both accents and dialects. An accent is composed purely of pronunciation changes, almost always vowel sounds. Dialects, on the other hand, incorporate all kinds of other stuff, including vocabulary, structure, syntax, idioms, and tenses. There were many distinct regional accents or dialects in the pre-Civil War South. North Carolina, smack in the middle of the Atlantic South, found more of those dialects within its borders than any other state. On top of that, North Carolina is home to a dialect found nowhere else in the world: the English spoken by those in the Pamlico Sound region, the coastal area that includes the Outer Banks. Interesting trivia tidbit: Distinctly Southern dialects among the white population of the American South seem only to have taken hold starting around the time of the Civil War.The period from the end of the Civil War until World War I-which seems like a long time, but is very condensed linguistically, less than three generations-saw an explosion of diversity in what are sometimes referred to as Older Southern American Accents. The article also notes the reasons for the South's linguistic diversity in re: accents and dialects, and why those accents and dialects have been perpetuated. In Southern states bordering the Atlantic Ocean, regional dialects sprung up seemingly overnight, influenced by a combination of factors, including the destruction of infrastructure, the panic of Reconstruction, lesser-known stuff like the boll weevil crisis, and the general fact that regional accents tend to be strongest among the poorest people. In the post-Civil War period, Southerners left the South en masse; the ones who stayed were often the ones who couldn't afford to leave, and often the keepers of the strongest regional accents. A lack of migration into the South, either from the North or internationally, allowed its regional accents to bloom in relative isolation. However, after WWII, an influx of Northerne

Fascinating look at the subcultural language of hospitals! The article provides several examples of "argot," the formal name for slang or jargon. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines "argot" as "an often more or less secret vocabulary and idiom peculiar to a particular group" [1]. According to its stated definition, argot permits those in the know to 1. share complex pieces of information without bystanders understanding what they are saying. 2. create or reinforce a bond between users. 3. give some emotional distance between the speaker and the event and its impact on patients and family members. 4. permits those in the know to express regret or even revulsion at having to deal with unpleasant situations. "Code brown," which refers to a conspicuous episode of fecal incontinence, is an example frequently used in the hospital setting.