09 May 2011 ice skating idioms

In this episode, The Teacher introduces you to three idiomatic phrases connected with
skating.

1. Get your skates on.

2. Skating on thin ice.

3. Skating over something.

The script:

Hello, I’m a very interesting and intelligent man.

And today I’m getting together with the sport of ice skating.

I bet you’ve never been taught by the sport of ice skating before! I’m going to the latest Mr Bean movie.

Oh no, I’m going to be late!

What’s that you say? I’d better get my skates on?

In English, if we want someone to hurry up, we can say ‘get your skates on.’

Get your skates on.

Get your skates on. Good idea…
Oh, wow, argh, no, ahh!!!

Oh, doesn’t look very safe, does it? Looks like I’ll be skating on thin ice.

In English, if someone is doing something risky or dangerous, we can say they’re skating on
thin ice.

Skating on thin ice.

Like that time I took my boss’s wife out for dinner. I really was skating on thin ice.

Yes, for some reason he wasn’t very happy that I took his wife out for a… romantic dinner.

But he never spoke to me directly about it. He didn’t really deal with the issue at all. He just skated over it.

In English, if someone fails to deal with an issue, we say they are skating over it.

Skating over something.

Argh!!! Oh dear. This is not very good at all. Argh!!!

My self-talk: