goody two-shoes, there's no rhyme or reason, I can see the writing on the wall
hey guys! what's up? it's Kelly again and welcome back to my youtube channel!
for today's video I'm going to be talking about phrases we use in the u.s.
that will probably confuse some Germans. So let's just get right to it!
Hindsight is twenty-twenty - in the u.s. we use this phrase to basically mean
that you can see the right solution to a problem once the events have already
passed. so if I make a bad decision and I'm complaining to my mom about it she
might say to me well Kelly hindsight is twenty-twenty to mean hey you made the
best decision you could at the time with the information you had but now that
it's in the past and you're looking back on it
of course you're seeing it much more clearly. and that's because 20/20 of
course means that you have perfect vision. well that probably doesn't mean
anything to a German because they have a totally different measurement system for
vision so 20/20 is meaningless to them. in fact I don't think they really have a
measurement for perfect vision like we do unless it's like zero. Cross your T's and dot
your i's - so when you're writing a sentence in cursive you always have to
go back and cross all of your T's and dot all of your I's because otherwise
you would be constantly lifting your pen from the paper to do that as you're
writing the T or the I and that completely negates the purpose of
writing in cursive so to tell someone hey make sure you cross all your T's and
dot your i's you're basically telling them hey make sure you pay attention to
the details, or maybe you're saying make sure you go back and check your work, or
maybe you're saying it make sure you put the finishing touches on something. this
probably just doesn't mean anything to Germans because they don't have a phrase
like this. the devil is beating his wife - this is a phrase that's more commonly
used in the southern United States and it's used to describe a sun shower... you
know when it's like sunny out but it's also somehow still raining. whenever
there is a sun shower and someone says "oh the devil's beating his wife" it
means that the devil is so mad at God for creating such a beautiful day that
he started beating his wife usually with a walking stick... I don't know why
it's so specific... and the rain are her tears. but to be fair, I don't think a lot
of Americans know this phrase not just Germans. built like a brick shithouse or
built like a brick outhouse. I've actually heard two somewhat conflicting
definitions for this phrase. whenever I would hear someone say "oh she's built
like a brick outhouse" that to me means she's really strong, she's muscular, she's
well-built...because when I think of something made
of brick I think of something very sturdy but somewhat recently I heard
someone define it a little differently. they said no, when you say she's built
like a brick outhouse you're saying she's really pretty,
she's high-quality, she's well built which is probably where the two
definitions somewhat converge and that's because usually outhouses were made of
like rotting wood and if you have a brick outhouse you have a very fancy and
well built outhouse. in German, they just don't have this outhouse phrase. to say
someone's really strong and muscular you would say they're built like a dresser
and there's no confusing that phrase. the peanut gallery - this phrase refers to a
group of seats in the theater that are as far away from the stage as possible,
otherwise known as the cheap seats, where attendees were known to just get a
little bit more rowdy with their open criticism of the show. today it's used to
mean a group of people who perhaps are a little overly critical of something. so
say you're in a meeting and your boss gives some news that just isn't
well-received by all of the attendees and everybody starts openly vocalizing
their opinions... he might say something like all right that's enough from the
peanut gallery to mean like "alright stop complaining". like white on rice - I've
used this phrase a couple of times with some Germans and other non-Americans
and every time their reaction is to think that it's like a racist phrase
but it's not. it refers specifically to the food white rice and it's meant to
represent the closeness of something so if you say something like "she's all over
it like white on rice" you're meaning she's covering a situation so closely
that she's like the color white on rice. and my last phrase is to cut a rug this
is slang from the early 20th century and it means to dance so vigorously that
it looks like your shoes are cutting gashes into the carpet or the rug. in
German, they don't have the same phrase "cut a rug" but they do have something
very similar. when translated their phrase is basically to dance your soles
raw. soles meaning the bottom of your shoes of course and to dance your soles
raw means to dance very vigorously. alright guys! that's all I've got for you
today! I hope you enjoyed this video and if you did give it a big thumbs up and
go ahead and click Subscribe! if you know of any phrases that you think might
confuse a German go ahead and put them in the comments because I'd be really
interested to read them! and thank you so much to all of my patreon my Kelly's
crew patrons you guys are amazing. if you're interested in my patreon campaign
check out the link I'll put it in the description below. you'll get access to
exclusive content that only my patrons can see. I'm gonna go skedaddle and cut a
rug and dance my way to some coffee so I'll see you guys later bye!