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Torsten Learning Coach

Joined: 25 Sep 2003 Posts: 17788 Location: EU
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#3 (permalink) Sat Jan 26, 2013 9:07 am We all need to paddle our own canoe. |
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For the record if you don't manage, you find yourself up a creek without a paddle. _________________ English as a Second Language You can read my ESL story Present Simple |
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Alan Co-founder

Joined: 27 Sep 2003 Posts: 17284 Location: UK
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#4 (permalink) Sat Jan 26, 2013 16:48 pm We all need to paddle our own canoe. |
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Quote: | up a creek without a paddle. | ...which I'd say is also a much more commonly used idiom....
I'd understand the expression 'paddle one's own canoe' to be a reference to someone being independent (i.e. not needing anyone's help). |
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Esl_Expert I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 26 Dec 2008 Posts: 1344 Location: Rhode Island, USA
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#5 (permalink) Sat Jul 27, 2013 19:58 pm We all need to paddle our own canoe. |
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ESL expert, did you think the English equivalent of "полная жопа "? If you don't speak in Russan as me, but its translation was there. It is good that you didn't write it because you could have received from Our Tort that: you have a potty mouth. _________________ Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. |
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Kati Svaby I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 26 Nov 2009 Posts: 6286 Location: Hungary
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#6 (permalink) Thu Aug 01, 2013 11:42 am We all need to paddle our own canoe. |
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Kati Svaby wrote: | It is good that you didn't write it because you could have received from Our Tort that: you have a potty mouth. |
I'm no ESL expert, but if you want to use potty language the expression would be:
Up shit creek _________________ "He who tries to establish his point by much yelling shows that his reasoning is weak"
-Jodi Ann Arias |
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Our Tort System I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 24 May 2010 Posts: 3886 Location: The big apple
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#7 (permalink) Thu Aug 01, 2013 13:22 pm We all need to paddle our own canoe. |
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Please activate Javascript in your browser to listen to this audio recording | 51 Listened |
I 've written for ESL Expert, and not for you, and for my own pleasure. I didn't know the word creek so I tried to understand everything. Alan wrote:"For the record if you don't manage, you find yourself up a creek without a paddle." creek = a small area of water where the sea flows into the land. AmE:a small river or stream up the creek (without paddle)=in a difficult, bad situation. This sentence was an additional riddle. What can it mean? I found: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/up+the+creek up the creek (without a paddle) and up a creek; up shit creek Inf. Fig. in an awkward position with no easy way out. I'm sort of up the creek and don't know what to do. You are up a creek! You got yourself into it, so get yourself out.
As ESL Expert enigmatic answer was a further riddle. In this dictionary I received the answer.Why did she put points in front of 'the creek'???
The Free dictionary gave the answer. I learned the expression of "potty language" from you, you used this expression for a teacher who wanted to teach an informal expression which exists in the English.
How could I read a modern book if I didn't know these kinds of expressions.
For example:J. D. Salinger:The Catcher in the Rye
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Up the creek without paddle = I know what a difficult situation is to be without paddle not in figurative sense.Long ago happened that I was sunbathing on the beach of the Danube after lunch. Nobody was on the beach. Once I saw that a boat without paddle drifted very quickly on the Danube, and a little girl- about 10 -cried for help! I jumped immediately in the water, and I could reach the boat, but only I couldn't draw back only I stopped it and tried to reassure the scared to death little girl. She reassured. For our luck the ferrymen saw this unlucky situation and they turned on the motor and came to save us. It was terrible because it wasn't a creek but a running river and I could be only an anchor and, a psychologist but nothing else. The bank was so deserted, and it was the end of the village that the ferrymen wouldn't have noticed us I don't know what had happened with us.
Since this little girl could be 40 but when we see each other we are laughing because all thing comes to life again. _________________ Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. |
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Kati Svaby I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 26 Nov 2009 Posts: 6286 Location: Hungary
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#8 (permalink) Thu Aug 01, 2013 14:28 pm We all need to paddle our own canoe. |
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Please activate Javascript in your browser to listen to this audio recording | 46 Listened |
I didn't know that it is an idiom:
(just) for the record 1 used to show that you want what you are saying to be officially written down and remembered. -Just for the record I would like to clarify something my colleague said earlier.
2 used to emphasize a point that you are making, so that the person you are speaking to takes notice And, for the record, he would be the last person I'd ask. _________________ Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. |
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Kati Svaby I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 26 Nov 2009 Posts: 6286 Location: Hungary
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What does pass the buck mean? | he was just skin and bone |