Differences: Sensible, Sensitive, Sensual and Sensuous

Today’s English
September 1st, 2017

Sensible versus Sensitive
A sensible person always makes good judgement.  He has practical thinking and not carried away by emotions, feelings and situational temptations.  Similarly a sensible idea refers to one that is based on reason and experience rather than emotions. It’s the idea that is practically useful. But a sensitive person is one who is easily hurt, offended and quickly responds to even slight changes or differences emotionally.  A sensible person will take a wise decision whereas a sensitive person will fall a victim to the emotional and quick decisions. You can look for a sensible suggestion but you have to be aware of sensitive issues dealing with which is walking on the edges of sword. However a sensitive person understands and be aware of the feelings of others more than anybody else. What about sensitive tooth and sensitive skin?  Here sensitive means “reacting quickly than usual.” 
1. He’s such a sensible man whom everyone likes.
2. Please give some sensible ideas and don’t waste our time.
3. Be careful. It’s a sensitive issue.(=treat with care, otherwise people will get affected or angry)
4. Why are you so sensitive to everything? (=easily upset by everything)
5. I have sensitive skin and can’t use these cosmetics.

Sensual versus Sensuous
Everyone has five senses and the ways of gratification of these senses are uncountable.  Whatever gives pleasure to your senses is sensual. Haven’t you watched sensual scenes, felt sensual touch by someone or longed for sensual food? Though sensuous also refers to giving pleasure to your senses, there is a difference.  The sexual connotations attached with “sensual” is missing in “sensuous".  A glamour scene may be sensual to your eyes but a beautiful piece of painting or music is sensuous since it reaches your heart and delights you for ever. Sensual things appeal to your senses rather than intellect whereas sensuous things or persons are devoid of sexual influences and appeal to you senses as well as your heart and soul.
1. She drew everyone’s attention through her sensual dressing.
2. I have never seen a sensual scene like this.
3. The sensuous qualities of his music was appreciated by everyone.
4. I don’t feel the passing of time when I rejoice at my kid’s sensuous talk.

“He was a gentle and sensitive soul, and therefore had a short temper, which is why he went straight after everything with an ax...”
- Bohumil Hrabal, “I Served the King of England”

Don’t Push the Panic Button!

Today’s English
August 31st, 2017

Are you running ahead the time, running with the time or running behind the time?  If you are going to a place in advance or complete a work before the stipulated time, then you are running ahead the time.  Be punctual and you run along with the time.  Go or do late and you run behind the time.  The phrases “race against the clock" and beat the clock both mean that you are in a difficult situation to finish the task more  quickly than usually.
1.I’m sorry! You are running behind the time. It’s houseful now.
2.You are always beating the clock.  When will you be free?
3.Don’t worry! We are running ahead the time.

If you want to tell someone “to work as fast as possible”, you can use the expression “go hell for leather.”  If you go away from a place very fast, especially to complete some urgent works,  then, as the English idiom goes, you go “like a bat out of hell.”
1.We have no time. It’s time to go hell for leather.
2.I couldn’t talk to him since he rushed out like a bat out of hell.

If you are doing something very quickly without thinking about that, in a difficult situation, then you “press/hit/push the panic button.”
1.I have to push the panic button now. There’s no other go.
2.Hit the panic button and we can rectify the small errors later.

“In our rushing, bulls in china shops, we break our own lives.”
-Ann Voskamp, “One Thousand Gifts”

Five Ways to Improve Your Listening Skill

Today’s English
August 30th, 2017

LSRW is the manthra (the four pillars) of any language learning. A language learner has to start with improving his receptive skills first. (Listening and reading are receptive skills and speaking and writing are productive skills.) Here are the top 5 ways to improve your listening:

1.Watch English movies in English with full text at the footer in the beginning.  Thousands of sites and apps online, like Amazon prime video and YouTube can help you a lot. 

2.Why can’t you go for some standard learning apps like “English central" and Hello English where you can watch thousands of videos by native speakers of English, listen, repeat and compare yours with theirs.? They also ease your learning with game activities. You can start from any  level that suits you and move to higher level.

3.TV channels are almost in all languages and the varieties are more than what you can expect.  Watch, enjoy and improve your listening.  Start with local English news, move to Times Now and end up with BBC English news.

4.Talk to the native speakers of English to learn the right pronunciation and stress patterns.  Many online sites are ready for you with native speakers of English and you should just join with them in chat without hesitation.

5.Would you like to study, work or live abroad? Are you afraid of listening to foreigners' English and talking with them? IELTS is the answer.  International English Language Testing System is meant for non-native speakers of English. Prepare and take this test to improve your listening skills along with other three skills. British council and Cambridge English are awaiting you! To know more about this: http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams/ielts/

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
-Stephen R. Covey, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”

Don’t play a mug's game? Got it?

Today’s English
August 29th, 2017

If you are empty, I mean, with little knowledge, you should keep quiet.  Otherwise you will breathe life into the proverb – “empty vessel makes more noise.”  But how can you keep your stomach empty and continue your work even without taking the lunch or dinner?  So don’t work like a machine and take food at the right time.  Because, you know, as the English expression goes, “an empty sack cannot stand upright.”

1. As empty vessel makes more noise, they made all fuss about the matter.
2. First let’s have lunch and then work. Don’t you know “an empty sack cannot stand upright.”?

If you feel that in future a situation will turn out to be bad than expected to be good, you can use the phrase, “see/think the glass as half empty.”
1. The present situation in Tamil nadu makes everyone think the glass as half empty.
2. I see the glass as half empty. Don’t look for any favour from the management.

Have you heard about the phrase “empty nesters"? It refers to parents whose children have grown up and left them.  It shows how much the parents miss them with whom they had their whole heart. An activity that is totally useless is also said to be empty, in other words, it’s “a mug's game.”  If you are doing any such thing, don’t forget that you are “chasing your tail” like a cat.

1. All parents have to turn one day “empty nesters.”
2. Please understand that all your activities on WhatsApp and Facebook is but a mug's game.
3. You can never solve the problem in this system.  You are just chasing your own tail.

“You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you’ll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no . . . anything. There’s no chance at all of recovery. You’ll just — exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever . . . lost.”
- J.K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”

The Known Words and the Unknown Meaning

Today’s English
August 28th, 2017

1. Known Word : bag
Unknown phrase: one’s bag
Meaning: one’s interest or taste
Examples:
A. You should choose your job according to your bag.
B. If it’s his bag, let him do it.

2. Known Word : engineer
Unknown meaning: the originator of something
Examples:
A. He is the engineer of all these changes happening here.
B. Who is the engineer of this practice followed here?

3. Known Word : jam
Unknown phrase: a promise of jam tomorrow
Meaning: a promise that is never materialized (never happens)
Examples:
A. I’ll give you a treat tomorrow. Really? Or is it just a jam tomorrow?
B. Don’t believe in his jam tomorrow.

4. Known Word : pencil
Unknown phrase: pencilled in
Meaning: noted down /arranged /scheduled provisionally
Examples:
A. September 10 was pencilled in as the last date for submitting record note.
B. Just pencil in what I say. Later we can change it.

5. Known Word : wife
Unknown phrase: wife beater
Meaning: a man’s sleeveless T-shirt
Examples:
A. With blue jeans and white wife beater, he looked so smart.
B. How much is this wife beater?

“One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.”
- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Differences: Truth, Fact and Reality

Today’s English
August 27th, 2017

Truth has the following three characteristics:
1.It is “only one", not having two or more forms like lie. Oneness is its nature.

2.Truth never changes at any time, under any circumstances. 

3.It’s eternal, exists for ever, beyond destruction, though everything in the universe including all of us will come to an end one day.

We say God is truth because He has the above three characteristics.

Fact versus truth
Fact is what is known, tested, proved and accepted to be true.  Fact is not truth in the sense that it changes from time to time.  If you say that someone is young and beautiful, it is a fact, not truth.  After some years, the same person may not be young and beautiful. If you say that somebody is poor that is not truth but fact that may change one day.   What you said once becomes false now.  Fact is to be proved whereas truth is to be felt, realized. Fact is accepted from outward evidence but truth arises from your heart, from the centre of your own self. Truth becomes experience but fact becomes your data  and knowledge.

Reality and Truth
Truth that is different from or against what is known, perceived or accepted is reality.  What is hidden and not brought into light for a duration of time is reality.  We use this term when something is contradictory or different from the already known one.

Call your wife "your wife." That’s truth. Call your wife a beautiful angel. That’s a fact.  Call your wife the most innocent one (at the time of marriage) and the reality may be different that will come to light one day.

Example sentences:
1.It’s true that everything changes in course of time.
2.Tell me the fact. Is he really qualified for the job?
3. As a matter of fact, nobody believed in the news telecast by that channel.
4. I couldn’t digest the reality that many learned Ph.D guides are money-minded and Hitlers.
5. Many ads on shampoo gives assurance for hair growth but, in reality, they lead to hair fall.

“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”
- Mark Twain

It’s a million dollar question, isn’t it?

Today’s English
August 26th, 2017

Number Idioms in English
1.As easy as one- two- three = very simple and easy
A.E-learning has become as easy as one-two-three nowadays.
B.Booking movie ticket is as easy as one-two-three now, isn't it?

2.Million dollar question = very important but difficult question
A.Who is the next chief minister of Tamil Nadu? Oh no! It’s a million dollar question.
B.Whether the management  will consider your demand is a million dollar question.

3.A nine day’s wonder – a short time exciting thing or person
A.Thermacol experiment on water is a nine day’s wonder.
B.All celebrations in the modern life have become a nine day’s wonder.
C. Is your boyfriend just a nine day's wonder?

4.Behind the eight ball = in a difficult situation
A.Now he’s behind the eight ball.  He should deal with each ball with utmost care.
B.Please help me! I’m behind the eight ball now.

5.Nine times out of ten = almost every time
A.Nine times out of ten, she comes late to the office.
B.They failed nine times out of ten, still they had hopes to win.

(Girl : Nine times out of ten,  I have told you not to touch me here and there. Can’t you?

Boy: Just for enjoyment!

Girl: Don’t you know that it’s just a nine day’s wonder?

Boy: Take it easy! Can’t you?

Girl: First marriage, then I’m yours.  Then everything is as easy as one-two-three for you.

Boy: I can’t! I’m behind the eight ball now.

Girl: If not now, then when?

Boy: it’s a million dollar question!

Girl:…………..?!)