Hi, James from www.engvid.com . E is about to - going "hi-yah!"

He's been practicing karate, it seems.

And he's breaking bread.

I don't know why he would do this, but it seems today's lesson is on business idioms

using bread.

So, let me clarify a little bit.

These idioms aren't just for business.

You can use them for other things, but I'm showing you how you can use these idioms in

a business setting.

Now, why am I doing this?

Idioms or phrases are sort of a shortcut.

What I mean is we can say long sentences about something, but sometimes by putting two or

three words together, or four, the meaning is given to someone much - much faster and

much clearer than if you gave many sentences.

So, today's lesson is to teach you how to communicate better with other people by speaking,

but also when they're communicating with you, what they're actually trying to say.

Okay?

That's why we're doing it.

Now, how we're going to do that?

We're going to look at some new vocabulary you may not know and then I'm going to give

you the idioms and tell you when a good time to use them is.

Alright?

So, let's go to the board and get started.

Shall we?

So, E, you're breaking bread all over the place.

Tsk Tsk Tsk, crazy, crazy, crazy.

Let's start with the vocabulary first, to make sure you understand the vocabulary, so

when I go through with the idioms or phrases, they'll be easy for you to understand.

So, the first one is "chaff".

Now, here's some wheat up here, okay.

Now, these little things up here and this here, it's no good.

What is wheat?

We use wheat to make bread.

Yes, we use rye and barley and other things, but a lot of times we use wheat to make bread.

And the chaff is a protective covering.

So, you can think - I've got this water here, and this plastic protects it.

That's like the chaff.

It's actually no good, just because we can't drink plastic.

But it does protect the water we want to keep.

That's what chaff is for wheat.

Dough.

Dough is when you take flour, a little bit of water, some salt.

You can use other things and you make bread.

You might have seen your mother take dough, put some flour and water together and then

roll it out and then put it in the oven to make bread.

Now, slice is usually a thin piece of something.

Specifically, when we talk about food, a slice could be a slice of an apple, where you take

a knife, you cut a piece - a thin piece of it that becomes a slice.

It's also the verb is actually "to slice" as well.

So, we slice as a verb - a piece of material can be a slice.

So, we can have a slice of apple or a slice of bread, cool?

So, that's the vocabulary we want to look at.

Now, let's go to the board and take a look at the idioms and phrases.

The first one I have it "separate the wheat from the chaff".

As I told you, the chaff is the protective coating.

It's also known as garbage or refuse.

Something you would throw away or something that's not good.

The wheat is valuable, because when we make bread, we use the wheat to make the bread.

So, when we separate the wheat from the chaff, we take the thing that is good away from the

thing that is bad.

And we want to keep the thing that is good, okay?

So, let's say you have ten people that you are looking to interview for a job, and you

might say, "Uh, they kind of look pretty good.

Why don't we give them a test, because as we give them the test, the ones that are good

will do on well on the test.

The ones who are bad won't do so well.

And we will separate the good candidates for the job from the bad ones", okay?

So, you can see how they would use that in business.

Rolling in dough.

Okay, so I told you before about dough.

It's when you take flour and water - that comes from wheat.

You mix it to make bread.

Well, before you do that, you have to roll it - and this is called a rolling pin - to

make it come flat to make the bread.

Well, rolling in dough also means to have a lot of money.

Because the word "dough" in English can be used for "money".

See, you're getting extra vocabulary.

So, if you have a lot of dough, you've got a lot of money.

If you're rolling in dough, you can imagine all of this is money and this is you.

And you're rolling in dough.

You're rich, okay?

So, first we start with the wheat, then we go to the dough before we make the bread.

But even when you have bread - oh, do you know what "bread" means as well?

This is interesting.

"Dough" means "dough" - oh sorry, "dough" means "money" and "bread" means "money".

If you hear someone say, "That costs a lot of bread".

No, they are not taking bread from the grocery store, going and giving it to someone.

It means "money".

So, "dough" means money and "bread" means money.

Please try to remember that as we go through the idioms and you'll go, "Oh my gosh, it

makes sense."

So, when we say "man does not live by bread alone".

Now, you might say, "What does that have to do with business?"

Well, a lot of people, if you're working, it's not just about the money.

For some people, it's about getting new opportunities at work to learn and to grow.

To have good social contacts, to be able to give input or give something to the company.

So, when someone says, "Man does not live by bread alone", they could be saying in business,

"Look, you pay me a lot of money, but the job is not interesting.

I'm not growing as a person.

I'm not making good contacts.

I'm not giving anything to the business, so I'm not happy.

So, yes, the money is nice, but I need more."

You can also see how that can be used for people in ordinary life, where we say, you

can have the basic necessities, which means the basic things you need like bread, water,

food.

But you need more than that to have a good life, okay?

Now, "break bread".

Notice how we had - we made the bread, we got the bread, now you're breaking bread.

Hi-yah!

That's what my man over here was doing.

What do we mean, "to break bread"?

Well, in many countries in the world, bread is what we call a staple, or an important

part of family life and families, they have bread.

In this particular case, and how we use it in business is - there are two ways.

When you say "to break bread", it means to get together and have a meal.

Share a meal together.

But it's not just eating.

It means to also, while we share this meal, have good conversation, share and connect.

Get closer together.

So, in business, clearly you want to have people break bread and meet.

There's also another meaning, and it's similar, but a little bit different and this difference

is important.

Sometimes, when you break bread with somebody, it's because you used to be enemies.

And now you're sitting down at the table and you're going to have a meal together, but

you're also saying, "With this meal, we will forget everything bad that happened before.

We will forgive this.

We will move forward as partners or friends."

So sometimes, with your enemies, you need to break bread with the enemy, which means

have that meal together and say, "Okay, whatever differences we had, we now say okay, forget

it.

We're moving forward as friends."

So, one is friends or family getting together, or colleagues or colleagues, co-workers eating

together, no problem.

The other one is when enemies say, "No more enemies, we shall now be friends."

Okay?

So, we've got "breaking bread".

So now that we've broken some bread, let's break the bread a little bit more.

And we're going to move up to number five.

We're going to go to "the greatest thing since sliced bread."

Now, if you live in the modern age, you have sliced bread, so you're like, "What's the

big deal?"

Well, a long time ago, bread was not sliced.

You always had to cut it with a knife, so you always had to have a knife to cut the

bread or to carry the bread.

Then somebody, some genius person, started slicing bread and saying, "Here, the bread

is in pieces already!"

Remember, we talked about "slice"?

And then it was easy, and they made sandwiches and carried the bread and everyone was so

happy.

It was the greatest invention ever!

So, when somebody says to you, "This is the greatest thing since sliced bread", they're

saying your idea is great.

So, here's an example you might think about.

James, what could he be possibly talking about?

Well, dododo.

Sorry, cell phone.

It's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

You can talk, take pictures, and communicate with other people.

Run a business off of it.

A good idea.

And that's what happens when you hear someone say, "This is the greatest thing since sliced

bread", they're saying the idea is a very good one.

Now that we've got this fantastic idea from number five, what does number six mean?

"Bread and butter".

Well, bread and butter are basics, because for most people in most cultures, you have

bread and then you will have butter and you put that butter on.

So, when we say this is a "bread and butter", I actually knew a guy named Ken.

Or, I still know Ken.

And he does karate.

He's a very good karate guy.

And he would say, "This is a bread and butter technique."

He meant it was a basic technique - hiyah! - but it worked, it really worked well.

So, if someone says to you - or when someone says to you, "This is my bread and butter",

it means this is where I get my basics from, this is where I am good, alright?

So, this is my bread and butter.

For when most people say, "This is my bread and butter", it's where I make my - excuse

me for a second - it's where I make my money from.

But if someone says to you "This is our bread and butter", it's the basic thing we make

our money from.

Number seven, "Know which side one's bread is buttered".

Funny, because we started with bread and butter here.

For most people, you don't put butter on both sides of the bread.

You put it on one side.

When someone says, "Know which side your bread is buttered", it means know who the people

you must be loyal to or know where you get your advantages from.

Because we all know when the butter is on one side of the bread, it tastes very good.

And the other side is dry.

So, if you have a choice between two people and one person has been very good to you in

the past and helped you a lot and is going to be beneficial in the future, that is the

person you should help or be loyal to, or know that is the side your bread is buttered

on.

They told you, it's about business, but you can also use these things for other situations

as well, just to remind you.

Number eight, from here, we talk about "somebody is toast".

And you might say, "What do you mean, 'somebody is toast'?"

Well, here's the funny thing.

You put dough in the oven.

It becomes bread, so you cook it.

But then, when you put in the toaster, you kind of burn it a little bit, but not too

much, because it goes brown and you burn it a little bit.

When we say "somebody is toast", because usually when it's done, it's complete, it's finished.

We say, and this isn't a good thing.

If you are toast, it means you're finished.

It means you've lost your job.

It means maybe you lost your relationship.

If something is toast, it's no good.

It is now ruined.

So, if your career is toast, you've got no career left.

You're out of a job.

IF your relationship is toast, your partner is leaving you, okay?