1. eat out
   Intransitive
   Meaning: eat at a restaurant
   Example: I don’t feel like cooking tonight.  How about we eat out?

Did you know that most Americans eat out 4-5 times a week?   How often do you eat out?   Do you like to cook?  Share your favorite recipe!

My favorite recipe:

Ingredients
Rice or Quinoa
1 can black beans or pre-cooked beans
Chicken
Peppers
Onions
Garlic salt seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Sriracha chili sauce
Chorizo (optional)

1. Cook 1 cup of rice in rice cooker (2 cups water per 1 cup rice)
2. Cut up 2 peppers and ¼ onion into long, thin slices, cut up 1-2 chicken breasts into cubes
3. Put a teaspoon of olive oil in pan.
4. Place peppers in pan—coat with olive oil and season with salt and pepper—simmer on low heat for 10 minutes
5. Put a teaspoon of olive oil in separate pan—add chicken and season with garlic salt— Add chorizo (optional)—Cook for 10 minutes or until chicken is browned.
6. Add beans to chicken—heat for 1-2 minutes
7. Add ingredients together and serve!  Mmm!

It takes two to tango: If two people were involved in a bad situation, both must be a little responsible.

Variety is the spice of life: You should try many different kinds of experiences, because trying different things keeps life interesting.

Every cloud has a silver lining: All ‘bad’ things come with some ‘good’ attached to them

People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones:  You should not criticize other people for having the same faults that you have.

Burn your bridges: To cutoff the way back to where you came from, making it impossible to retreat

Burning the midnight oil: Working late into the evening or through the night.

Water under the bridge: Something that belongs to the past and isn’t important or troubling any more.

Wear your heart on your sleeve: To display one’s feelings openly, rather than keep them private.

What goes around, comes around: Whatever you do in this life to other people, whether it is good or bad, the same will eventually return to you.

Two’s company, three’s a crowd: A way of asking a third person to leave because you want to be alone with someone.

1. sleep over
   Intransitive
   Meaning: stay somewhere for the night (intransitive)
   Example: You should sleep over tonight.  I don’t want you to drive in this weather!

My dad works for an airline, so because of that I fly stand-by, which means that I never have a confirmed seat on a flight.  I often go to the airport, and wait around all day until there is an empty seat on a flight.  As a result, there have been many times when I’ve had to sleep over at the airport.  I’m lucky that I can fall asleep easily!

1. sink in
   Intransitive
   Meaning: to be fully understood
   Example: I have to look over my notes and let everything sink in.

Did you know that the easier it is for you to pronounce a new English word, the quicker the word sinks into your vocabulary?  Does it take you a long time to learn a new word?  I hope that this phrasal verb sinks in!

Meet John!

John is a native English speaker from Texas with four years of experience teaching English in Thailand and Ecuador.  He has a degree in Sociology and Spanish, and loves hiking, the outdoors and Muay Thai.

1. get over something
   Transitive, Inseparable
   Meaning: recover from an illness, loss or difficulty / overcome a problem
   Example: I just got over the flu, and now my brother has it.

Some experts say that it takes half the amount of time you were in a relationship to get over a breakup.  For example, if you were in a 2-year relationship and broke up it might take 1 year to get over it.

Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He is all right now.

Being struck by lighting is a really shocking experience.

How do celebrities stay cool? They have many fans!

Why did the golfer bring two pair of pants to the game? In case he got a hole in one.

There is no egg in the eggplant,
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England,
French fries were not invented in France.

We sometimes take English for granted, but if we examine its paradoxes we find that:
Quicksand takes you down slowly,
Boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

If writers write, how come fingers don’t fing?
If the plural of tooth is teeth,
Shouldn’t the plural of phone booth be phone beeth?
If the teacher taught,
Why hasn’t the preacher praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables,
What the heck does a humanitarian eat?
Why do people recite at a play,
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways?
How can the weather be as hot as hell on one day,
And as cold as hell on another?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language where a house can burn up as it burns down,
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!

English was invented by people, not computers,
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn’t a race at all.)

That is why:
When the stars are out they are visible,
But when the lights are out they are invisible.
And why it is that when I wind up my watch
It starts,
But when I wind up this poem
It ends.

http://www.c4vct.com/kym/humor/esl.htm

Did you know that Shakespeare invented over 1500 English words?  Some of these words include: eyeball, alligator, generous, frugal, hurry, and lonely.

He also coined some popular phrases such as:

• “Fair play” (The Tempest) – Follow the rules, especially in competitions or sports.

• “All that glitters isn’t gold” (Merchant of Venice) – We usually use this phrase after we discover the fact that something that looks good turns out not to be that great.

• “Wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve” (Othello) – To be a hopeless romantic (or be open and honest about how you feel) is to wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve.

• “Break the ice” (The Taming of the Shrew) – Often when you meet someone for the first time, you “break the ice” by asking them questions about themselves.

• “A laughing stock” (The Merry Wives of Windsor) – To be a laughing stock is to be considered a joke by many people.

• “Too much of a good thing” (As You Like It) – It is said that “too much of a good thing” (i.e. money, love, food) is not necessarily good for you.

• “In a pickle” (The Tempest) – To be “in a pickle” is to be in trouble or a situation that you cannot easily get out of.
  (http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/word-lists/list-of-words-and-phrases-shakespeare-invented.html)

Are you in amazement?  The word “amazement” was also first introduced by Shakespeare!

For a list of some more words introduced into the English language by Shakespeare, visit: http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/resources/shakespeare-words/