Hello everyone!
Welcome to Idiom 100, where we learn 100 commonly used idioms by native English speakers.
All of the explanations are in English, but don't worry.
Hang in there, study hard, listen carefully and soon you'll be using these idioms in your daily conversations.
Is everyone ready? Let's begin.
Hello everyone! Nice to see you.
Today's idiom is: blessing in disguise.
Blessing in disguise.
Alright, so let's break down the meaning of the words in this idiom.
First, we have 'blessing', which means kind of good luck.
Something good is a blessing.
Alright, and the second word is 'disguise' and disguise is kind of a costume,
something that makes you look different from what you are, right?
At Halloween, we wear a disguise or a costume and you change to be a vampire or something different, yeah, a disguise.
Alright, so let's imagine a picture and in this imagination, in this picture, we have a big box, okay?
And the box has a sign.
The sign says, 'You're fired.'
You're fired, yeah. You lost your job.
Okay, the box says, 'You're fired.'
And, oh no, it's a disguise, it's a costume and we're gonna take off the disguise and in the box it says,
'You have free time for a vacation to Hawaii.'
Alright, so the outside of the box said, 'You're fired,' and we took off the disguise and it's a blessing, right?
It says, 'Free time for a vacation.'
Yeah, it was a blessing in disguise.
Alright, so let's listen to some examples and try to understand how to use this idiom.
Hey, I’m sorry you didn’t get the house that you wanted!
Yeah, but it turns out it was rat infested, so it was a blessing in disguise.
Alright, so what's this mean?
So, they didn't get the house, maybe another family paid a higher price and they got the house.
So, it seems very sad and unfortunate, right?
Aw, so the disguise, 'Aw, we didn't get the house,' right?
But, look underneath and the blessing, the good thing, it's actually good they didn't get the house,
because it had lots of rats in the house. It was rat-infested.
Right, so if they got the house, it would be really bad.
They have rats everywhere.
So, actually it was a blessing in disguise.
At first, they were disappointed and then they heard about the rats, 'Ah, whew. We're lucky we didn't get the house.'
Yeah, it was a blessing in disguise.
Alright, so let's listen to the second example.
I'm sorry your vacation plans fell through and got ruined!
Thanks, but actually it was a blessing in disguise, because a hurricane had hit Hawaii and all the passengers were stuck at Narita.
Right, so... okay, so they wanted to go to Hawaii, but they couldn't go and they were disappointed,
but that was the disguise and the blessing was they didn't get stuck at Narita, like everyone else, because of the hurricane.
Right, so they thought, 'Oh, we can't go to Hawaii, but if we went we would be stuck at Narita, so it's a good thing we didn't go.'
Alright, so 'blessing in disguise' is a very useful idiom to use when something bad happens and you're disappointed,
but later on, you realize you're lucky it happened or didn't happen.
Yeah, in the end, it was a good thing that it happened like it did, yeah?
So, for example, in the first example, you didn't get the house: misfortune, but later, you don't have rats. It's a good thing.
Or, you didn't go to Hawaii and later, you didn't get stuck at Narita because of the hurricane, right?
So, to say it's a blessing in disguise is to say that it was a bad thing, but later you can see it was a good thing, alright?
So, let's try using it next time you have such a situation in your life and I'll see you around next time.