Recently we’ve been working very hard to develop new conversation curriculum for our English school. During discussions about what to include we started talking about our favourite idioms and which idioms are EASY to teach as well as EASY to use in daily conversation. Coincidentally both Derek from Smith’s school of English Tsukaguchi and Adrian from Smith’s School of English Hirakata had the same favourite idiom! They both said it’s the idiom that they most frequently teach and students seem to love it. Derek from Tsukaguchi said that the meaning is EASY for students to understand and Adrian from Hirakata said that once taught, students really enjoy using it. What is this EASY idiom? Which idiom could be so EASY and fun that it was chosen by two different teachers at random? I’m sure the picture has already given you a hint. This idiom is: a piece of cake. When we say something is “a piece of cake”, we mean that it is easy to do, just like a single piece of cake is easy to eat! As an example of how easy this idiom is to use, read the following sentences:
It is EASY to reserve a hotel room online thanks to all the great websites.
Riding a tricycle is EASY because you don’t have to balance.
Finding good food to eat in Kawanishi is EASY because there are so many good restaurants.
Now replace the word “easy” with the idiom “a piece of cake”. Easy? Yup.
This is the type of discussion which is necessary in developing the best possible curriculum for our students. Before any new lessons can be presented to students, they must be gone over with a fine tooth comb by a team of teachers. Editing is absolutely one of my favourite jobs. I love contributing to the creation of something new and beautiful (to my mind, English curriculum is in fact beautiful!) and which will help our students to achieve their (and my) goals.
Edward Iwaskow, Smith’s School of English Otsu
Chiharu has written the Japanese version of this article. She didn’t translate , but rather wrote her own interpretation! Read it in Japanese at the following link: JAPANESE VERSION
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