Hi again. Okay. So you’ve got the sneaky feeling that you can now tell a friend about that awesome wing-walking experience a few years back... Well, maybe not.

Anyway, we have seen that English is full of idiomatic expressions. Remember we should learn one at a time. Of course, not everyone is patient enough to learn the words they accidentally encounter. So, for those of you that are into that sort of thing, here is a long list of idioms we use in English to express happiness or sadness. This can be useful both for my Avanzado 1 and Avanzado 2 students.

The following is for my Avanzado 2 crowd.

If you've done your part we are all in a position to describe that jaw-dropping thing you did some years ago. You've done a bit of wing-walking or bungee jumping or you ate insects in the jungle... Just don't forget that in order to tell your story efficiently you must:

1.     Make sure we know the key vocabulary (skydive, jump off, parachute)

2.     Pay close attention to the chunks (get on the plane, pull the cord, spin out of control, etc) so you can use all those words in long sequences (when it was time to pull the cord, I thought I was going to be sick).

3.     Express how you felt before, while and after the activity. In this area it may be necessary to spice things up a little by using "interesting" expressions. What do I mean by that? Well, to begin with use idioms (I was having a blast) which may or may not consist in analogies (I was happy as a flea in a doghouse) and, of course, remember all those extreme adjectives (absolutely exhilarating, utterly devastating). If not engaging, you will not sound boring.

N.B. Only in the truly advanced levels can you use deliberate wordplays (like saying “I was jumping for joy” when discussing a skydiving experience).

Okay. One last thing: check out this video (we watched part of it in the classroom). Not only is it full of interesting vocabulary but it also has plenty of pretty usable expressions (peak in high school, tramp stamp, highly noticeable...). Do not forget to take notes. Oh... One more thing. If you find it hard to understand the videoclip just click on the "CC" button (it stands for "closed-captioned") and you'll watch it with subtitles.