LET'S SPEAK ENGLISH:
Broadcast: Monday, July 31 1939 at 9:00 PM

Ninth Talk of New Series - Idioms

1. Don't count your chickens before they are hatched
2. A nest egg
3. An ugly duckling
4. All his geese are swans
5. Can't say boo to a goose
6. To chew the cud
7. Calf love
8. A bull in the china shop
9. An Irish bull
10. To take the bull by the horns
11. On the horns of a dilemma
12. A cock and bull story
13. Sheeps eyes
14. Sheepish
15. To get his goat
16. To play the giddy goat
17. A scape goat
18. To put the cart before the horse
19. To kick over the traces
20. Do not look a gift horse in the mouth
21. To ride the high horse
22. To eat his head off
23, To lock the stable door after the horse has gone
24. A mare's nest
25. A night mare
26. A towel horse
27. I can't make head or tail of it
28. To make an ass of oneself
29. A dog in the manger
30. Dirty Dog
31. To go to the dogs
32. A lucky dog
33. A bitch
34. A gay dog
35. A dog's life.

TRANSCRIPT: NINTH TALK - IDIOMS

PRESIDENT. - Good morning, Miss Backfisch! It's so nice of you to come and visit my farmyard.

MISS LOTTE BACKFISCH. - Danke! Never have I been befor in Palestine in ze farm. I have not all ze English names learn for ze wild animals.

P. Oh! They're not wild, you know. My chickens are quite tame (chicken noises). Everyone visits my chickens: everyone visits every chicken in every village in Palestine. Otherwise the chickens are offended.

(Chicken noises)

B. But vy you say in ze English zat you must not count ze chickens befor zey are hatched? Zat is silly. Vy you count not ze eggs?

P. Because you don't know how many chickens are going to come out alive.

B. Ach zo !

P. Yes. People who count their chickens before they're hatched are considered in England to be very unwise. Don't you think it's foolish to anticipate things like that?

B. No ! I don't sink ze same viz you. You see, Kucki, zat's ze young man I marry soon, he tell me I must sink at ze future.
(Chicken noises)
Oh ! Look ze beautiful eggs in ze nest ! But zere is von egg from 'porzellan'.

P. You mean an egg made of china. We call that a nest egg.

B. And according to zat model ze hens lay ze eggs?

P. Yes, but in English, a nest egg means something else as well. It means your savings, your capital.
(Duck noises)

B. So you have also docks? I see beeg docks und little docks

P. You know, little ducks are called ducklings.

B. Zen zat von is a ogly dockling. His snout is so great.

P. (amused) You mean his beak is so big. He's the plain one in the family. Don't you know the story about the ugly duckling that turned out to be beautiful swan?

B. No, I don't know zat story. Bot I sink I am zo beautiful as a swan.

P. No doubt your mother thought so, even when you were a long-legged school girl.

B. Ach ney !

P. Mothers think all their geese are swans. That means they're sure all their children are going to be beauties.

B. I do not like ze geese. Zey bite my legs.
(Goose noises)

P. You mustn't be frightened of them. You must learn to say boo to a goose, as we say in England.
B. Like ve zay booze to ze polizei in zis country. Bot 'I am not frightened of ze polizei. I'm not frightened of nozzing.

P. Really?

B. No ! Not efen off my Kucki. Ven he try to keess me last night, I spank him on ze ear.
(Cow noises)
B. Oh! you have also ze cows? Vot a big farm!

P. You see this cow? She's a champion· milker.
(Cow noises)

P. It's all right, you can pat her: she's very placid.

B. Vy she eat slowly like zat ?

P. That's called chewing the cud. But chewing the cud also means turning something over slowly in your mind.

B. I sink in my mind of I marry Kucki. I chew ze cudses all ze time.

P. (laughs).

B. Kucki he leeve viz his mozzer and she geefe nefer him no monny. I don't sink he lurve me.

P. Perhaps it's calf love? You know, the kind of childish love a boy feels for a girl before he's grown up.

B. Nein! Nein!

P. That's the way a calf loves its mother.

B. (angrily) My Kucki he is no calf! You laugh at heem! He is very big and strong. So strong like ze bull ven he hold me tight in hees arms. You say bull, nicht wahr?

P. That's right.

B. You know, my Kucki he break all ze sings like ze bull. Ven he seet down, he break ze chair. He opset ze table and break all ze kristall.

P. How terrible ! Just like a bull in the china shop. A bull in the china shop in idiomatic English means a clumsy person in a delicate situation.

B. Ach zo ! Bot my Kucki is zo sveet. He tell me fonny stories and make me to laugh zo moch. He is so silly viz hees stories. He tell me he see Hans in ze street and Hans see him. And ven zey com together, it voz neizer from both.

P. Ha! Ha! That's an Irish bull. A bull also means a kind of joke.

As the Irish tell lots of jokes, an absurd story's called an Irish bull.

B. (derisively) An Irish bull!

P. You know, I rather like your Kucki, he sounds a lovable young man. You should be brave and marry him.

B. Ja! Ja!

P. Why don't you take the bull by the horns, as we say in England? That's what the bull-fighter does, when he's in difficulties.
(Cow noises).

B. I vill sink from zat. Now I vant to see ze dilemma.

P. Dilemma? Perhaps you mean a llama. You know, the animal that looks as if its father was a camel and its mother a sheep?

B. (scornfully) No ! I read in ze book last night zat ze hero vos on ze horns of ze dilemma. So I vant to see ze dilemma.

P. (laughing) Oh! Now I know what you mean. But a dilemma's not an animal; it's a Greek word that means a situation in which there are two alternatives, both equally unpleasant.

B. Ach zo?

P. So if you're on the horns of a dilemma, it means you can only choose between two evils.

B. Zen I am on ze horns of ze dilemma. Ven I do marry Kucki, he hafe no money. Ven I not marry Kucki perhaps he marry some ozzer girls.

P. I don't believe that your Kucki hasn't any money. It's all a cock and bull story. Do you know what that means?

B. Nein.

P. Well, it means an impossible tale, because cocks and bulls can't talk to each other.
(Cock crows and cow noises)

B. (triumphantly) Bot zey talk to von anozzer in your farm. Now let me see ze sheeps.

P. You mean the sheep. One sheep, many sheep.

B. Many sheeps.
(Sheep noises)

B. Vot fonny eyes zey hafe got! I laugh ven zey look at me viz zeir sheep's eyes.

P. (laughing) That's what your Kucki does - look at you with sheep's eyes.

B. (angrily) You shall not say zat he is a sheep, my Kucki,

P. Oh! come ...

B. Zen he voz a calf: now he is a sheep!

P. (soothingly) Please don't be offended! In England, when we say some one makes sheep's eyes, all we mean is that he looks at his young lady out of the corner of his eye. Then she can't see that he's in love with her.

B. (mollified) Ah! Zat is moch better. Kucki he do look at me like zat, efen ven ve meet ze first time. He voz sitting on a coffee.

P. 'At a cafe', not 'on a coffee'.

B. At a cafe: and he make ze sheep eye viz me.

P. Didn't that make you feel rather bashful or, as we say, sheepish?
(Sheep noises)

B. No, I pretend I do not notice: so he become angry.

P. In fact you teased him until you got his goat. That is, until you made him indignant.
(Goat noises)

B. (excitedly) Oh ! Have you got ze goat? How lurvely! I hear zem comming back from ze field. Zat little von is jomping round. Poor sing! He look zo tired he almost fall down. I sink he is a geeddy goat.

P. (laughing) Do you know what that means in English idiom? To play the giddy goat means to act very foolishly. I'm sure you play the giddy goat sometimes when you're out with your Kucki.

B. (Giggles).

P. Let's go now: they've locked up the goats for the night.

B. Ach! no. Zere's von goat zat has ron avay. How do you say zat in English? He is an escape-goat?

P. (laughing) No ! No ! I'm afraid you've got that muddled up. A goat can escape. But what you mean is a scape goat. That's something quite different.

B. Zo?

P. A scape goat is the goat that used to be chosen in biblical times to be sent into the wilderness with all the sins of the people. So a scape goat is someone on whom the blame is put for everything that goes wrong.

B. Ah ! Now I go to see ze horses. You go viz me? Zees are ze vork horses, nicht?
(Horse noises)

P. Yes ! That's right.

B. Look ! Zey are taking von from ze stable for pulling ze cart. But zey pot ze cart before ze horse. How fonny! (laughs).

P. How idiomatic you're becoming! To put the cart before the horse in England means to do the last thing first.

B. (excitedly) Now zey put ze horse in ze cart. Bot ze horse is angry.
(Angry neighing)

B. He jomp about and put hees leg over ze leazer rope.

P. Those leather ropes as you call them are traces. Anyone who's unconventional is said to kick over the traces. That's what you'll do if you marry Kucki against your mother's wishes.

B. My mozzer tell Kucki, "My girl she ees too yong to marry". But I do not listen to my mozzer. I am free. I am not a horse zat is tied to ze cart.
(Horse noises)

B. Please, Sir, have you free horses for riding? Befor zat I arrive to Palestine, I ride ze horses.

P. Arrived in Palestine, not to Palestine.

B. In Palestine.

P. Now this horse is my own riding horse.
(Horse neighing)

P. I got it as a gift when it was a foal and it's still quite young. You can tell its age by its teeth: I'll force open its mouth so that you can see what I mean.

B. But no, I never do zat !

P. Why not? Are you afraid he'll bite you?

B. No, bot I read in ze book of English phrases zat I most never look at ze gift horse in ze mouse.

P. (laughing) Oh, that! That's only an idiom. You mustn't take it so literally. All it means is that you mustn't criticize a present. You must accept it in the spirit in which it's given.

B. Ach zo?

P. You see, if you look at a horse in the mouth, you can tell if it's an old and worthless one.
(Horse neighing)

B. Zat horse is so beeg. May I ride on him? I like to ride on a high horse.

P. (laughing) I don't think you would if you knew what that meant.

B. Bot vy?

P. Because to ride the high horse is to be arrogant and proud, like people are who look down from horse back on those who walk on foot.

B. Ah! I know. Like ze svanky people zat rite on ze beach in Tel Aviv and pretend zey are Anglish.
(Horse neighing)

B. Now your horse he is eating.

P. He does nothing else all day except eat his head off.

B. (ncredulously) He really eat hees head off?

P. (laughing) No, not literally. That means he costs more to feed than the value of the work he does. It would be much cheaper for me to have a motor car.

B. (softly) Sh ! Ve better leave heem now or he shall not eat. Door closes.

B. Bot vy you lock ze door of ze stable ?

P. Well, it's no good locking the stable door after the horse has gone.

B. Of course!

P. That's idiomatic English for being wise after the event.

B. Oh! I know! Like ze polizei zat are sent in this contry to be guard on ze houses of the Government after zey burn down.

P. (sadly) Yes! It's the same with the police in every country. They never believe anything they're told beforehand. They think it's just a mare's nest.

B. (incredulously) Do mares hafe really nests, like ze birds?

P. (laughing) Oh! no! That's just a figure of speech. A mare doesn't have a nest at all; so a mare's nest is something that's quite improbable.

B. (nodding) M-m! But if ze mare hafe no nest, how she sleep at night? I nefer see ze mare sleep. She stand op or she lie down?

P. They can sleep either way. Sometimes they even have nightmares.

B. Nightmare? Vot is zat?

P. It's a bad dream. People used to think that nightmares were caused by monsters that sat on them when they were asleep.

B. (innocently) Perhaps ze nightmare is ze vife of ze towel-horse ?

P. (laughing). That's marvellous! (laughing) No! I'm afraid not. A towel horse is only a wooden frame on which you dry towels.

B. Ach zo !

P. It's square and hasn't any head or any tail.

B. Can't you make ze head or ze tail of it?

P. I suppose you could, if you wanted a realistic one. But not to make head or tail of something has another meaning in English.

B. Really ?

P. Yes. It means you can't understand it all.

B. (angrily) I can't onderstand it all? You sink I am so stoopid? Your English viz its towel-horse and nightmares is vorse zan stoopid.

P. Oh! but ...

B. Eet is mad. All you English is mad. You must go to ze home for mads.

P. (soothingly) Now ! Now ! I'm sorry I offended you. I'm afraid I made rather an ass of myself.

B. (magnanimously) Zat is all right.

P. An ass looks foolish and I feel foolish too.

B. Never mind ! I am no more angry.
(Donkey noises)

B. You have a donky too?

P. Yes, it's eating its supper, out of the manger; that wooden box over there full of hay.

B. I see. Bot zere is a dog in ze manger.
(Dog noises)

P. In idiomatic English a dog in the manger means someone who won't let you have something he doesn't want himself.

B. Zat ees not nice.
(Dog noises)

B. Ugh! Zat dog ees not a very clean dog: he ees a dirty dog.

P. (laughing) You must be careful whom you call a dirty dog; It's only used in English to abuse your friends.

B. Zo?

P. If your Kucki invites you to the movies and then accepts another invitation to go somewhere else without you, you can call him "a dirty dog".

B. (coldly) You see I vill.

P. But you can still go on loving him just the same.

B. (relieved) Ah!
(Dog noises)

B. Have you any more dogs? I vant to take a permission to see zem.

P. "I want to have your permission to see them".

B. "Have your permission". So let's go to ze dogs!

P. (laughing) You can't say that.

B. (surprised) Vy not so?

P. To go to the dogs means the road to ruin.

B. Ah!

P. Kucki will never forgive you if you go to the dogs. He thinks the world of you and you're obviously in love with him. He's a lucky dog.

B. (proudly) Zen I am a locky bitch.

P. (shocked) Oh no ! You mustn't say that either.

B. No?

P. That means an immoral woman. A bitch is a woman who goes to the dogs.

B. Zen I say I am happy and gay. Can I say I am ze gay dog?

P. (doubtfully) Ye-e-s. But a gay dog really means someone who likes wine, women and songs. I used to be rather a gay dog until I took up farming. That's a wretched existence - as we say, a dog's life.
(Dog noises)

B. Oh! already eet is zo late.

P. Is it?

B. Yes, I most go and see Kucki and tell heem all about my visit to your farmyard. Good-bye, Mister President.

P: Good-bye, Miss Backfisch; and my regards to Kucki !
(Cock crows)