All at sea?

[Torsten]

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Hello everyone. In case you are all at sea after reading Alan's essay on sea expressions, here is the place to discuss those idioms. I would be interested in hearing if there are similar expressions in your native language.

For example, in Russian there is the phrase море вопросов (a sea of questions) or море людей (an ocean of people). By the way, what do you think is the difference between the English words 'sea' and 'ocean'?

I look forward to your ideas.
Regards,
Torsten

http://www.english-test.net/newsletter/sea-expressions-84.html
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[Jamie (K)]

In English we say "a sea of questions" and "an ocean of people". There are quite a few others.

In English the word "ocean" basically means the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian or Arctic oceans. Anything smaller that is part of one of the oceans or is directly attached to it is a sea. If it's inland, it's a lake.

[Ramesh]

sir very goodafternoon my name is ramesh. I have one doubt not regarding to this essay what is that means for example if you give any lecture in somewhere that time i could not understand some sentence due to the reason of the some hard word.so how can i lead this problem. sir please dont say refer the dictionary and know the word bez at that time dictionary is not available.if i dont know the meaning of the word means i cannot understand the sentence so please kindly give the answer.please sir please give the answer to my question.
"And also i dont understand how to enter into the forum please give the guidence".
thanking you sir.

[Kitosdad]

Hello Ramesh, could you please state your question clearly. I'm sure that we can help you.

Kitos.
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[62freebird]

Hello everyon.

It is very fit for me about "all at sea" expression.
I have changed my role that I've never worked before. I have some practices with my co-worker for 1 month. I am nervous now because I'll work by myself from tomorrow. " I'm all at sea!"
Anyway we get the same meaning of that in Korean such as "물가에 있는 어린아이처럼" it means you are like young boy near the river, so it is very dangerous or unconfortable situation.

Regards

Brian.

[Daria25_]

Hi,Alan!Thank you very much for the essay.It is very helpful and informative!I have really enjoyed it.I am using these expressions with my students with great pleasure.Thank you once again. I am really greateful for your lessons!

[Rosette]

dear Alan,
I like all essays ,of course;
but I am 'at sea' regarding the purchase of your " essays"or short stories or whatever book;because I live in Algeria and our local money is not a hard currency as the "euro".
COULD I send you a cheque from Paris,where my daughter lives and then ,she could receive the book I paid for by post.
best regards,
rosette

[Najuib]

hello everyone
yes by the way iam realy in the sea in these dayes because my manager went to vacation .therfor iam alon in work now . so i have to cover all the job in site also in office .
in our native language we dont use this expression .others used .see each country has difrent words for use. thats all .see u .best regards
najuib from libya

[Hiwot]

HI, Ramesh

I understand your problem. I do have such problem too. I think while reading a second language, we do not need and expect to know each and every words written there. As far as I understand, not each word gives you a meaning alone. What you have to do is just try to understand the idea or the point rather than focusing the meaning of each and every words written there. Try to do just like how you read and understand something written by your native language. Since language is inter related with each other, through time you can understand even difficult words without referring to the dictionary. Don't bother yourself too much just to know the meaning of each words written there.
I leave the other for the language coaches. But this is what I understand as learning a second language.

Regards,

[Ayham]

thank you so much for your important expressions ,but you know the bigest problem for me is (SPEAKING ENGLISH FLUENTLY) DO YOU KNOW ANY ONE WHO IS NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER OR AMERICAN SPEAKER WHO CAN I STILL TALKIN WITH HIM ALL THE TIME ON MICROPHONE OR SOME THING LIKE THAT ANY WAY THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR BEAUTIFUAL E MAILS
IF YOU KNOW ANY ONE WHO CAN TALK TO ME ON SPECIALLY YAHOO MESSENGER (CONVERSATION) MY EMAILIS:ayhamaljayousi@yahoo.com
faithfully
dear ALAN TOWNEND
MANY THANKS
AYHAM MOHAMMED
SEA EXPRESSION:YOUR EYES LOOK BEAUTIFUL LIKE A SEA

[Hiwot]

Good day

Mr. Torsten,

I read the 'sea expressions' of Mr. Alan. It helped me to know idomes of sea. But I have a question. What about 'Sea Sand'. Can we make an idiomatic expression about it? If I am not wrong, I read some Bible words about 'Sea Sand' to denote which is extremely plenty or many or in a way that can not be countable. When we look at God's word He told to Abrham " I will make your ethnic /race like sea sand'. Please note that I never read the English Bible.The above is what I translated it in english. here is my native language " Zerhin ende bahir ashewa abezawalhu". So do we have an expression on Sea Sand

Regards,

[Catreena_Uae]

Hello everyone,

It was a great essay about sea expressions we can always learn from. I am pretty sure that there are similar idioms in my native Arabic language but they do not come to my mind at this moment. Any way, I do not work nowadays after graduation but I expect to be all at sea once I get a job as a translator, which sounds normal in most jobs nowadays. As for sea and ocean, it is very obvious and known for us as human being that the ocean is much bigger than the sea in terms of size and capacity..

Best Regards,

Meera

[Torsten]

[Nawar]

Very very interesting article!
Thanks!

[Anneelbe]

There is a "saying" in Hamburg, used by many tourguides:
They're talking about the St. Michaelis Church and what you'll see from the the spire
In German: Tagsüber das Häusermeer, abends das Lichtermeer und nachts garnichts_meer
Don't have any idea to translate that, but I'm sure some of you can

Anyhow, when I'm thinking about the "sea impressions" a phrase of a song comes to me ...cry me a river