Let's do lunch

By Shin Freedman

While en route to Europe, I met a young man who struck up a conversation with me. A graduate student at a southern U.S. university, he confided that his greatest challenge in mastering English was understanding idioms. His native language was Finnish, and while he managed his academic work without issue, the casual idioms of daily English conversation proved much more perplexing.

His predicament took me back to my own days as a young English learner. I, too, struggled with idioms, often stumbling in ways that could be comical. I recalled one particular incident when I told a friend that it was raining “dogs and cats.” She laughed, leaving me baffled. Only after a few days did I realize I had inverted the expression “raining cats and dogs.” Language bloopers like this were common, and while embarrassing, they were also humbling lessons that language is more than just vocabulary and grammar — it’s cultural nuance.

There was another time when an Argentinean colleague described a winter road as “covered with dark ice.” It struck me that he had mixed up “dark ice” with “black ice,” an expression that can be particularly tricky for non-native speakers. Gently, I corrected him, explaining the concept of “black ice” — a term that has specific meaning in English but is not as literal as it sounds. Reflecting on these moments made me empathize deeply with my Finnish companion’s struggles.

In truth, I’ve had countless such mix-ups myself. English idioms are challenging even for proficient English speakers whose first language is not English. This struggle doesn’t reflect a lack of intelligence or ignorance, as some might mistakenly think. Instead, it’s a reminder of how language and culture are intricately tied together, and some phrases seem nonsensical if you really stop to think about them.

One phrase that puzzled my Finnish seatmate was “Let’s do lunch.” He explained that he took this expression at face value, assuming his friend meant to plan an actual lunch together. Patiently, he waited for the invitation, but it never materialized. Eventually, he concluded that either his friend had forgotten the promise, or perhaps he didn’t mean it at all. This was a disappointment because, in his culture, suggesting lunch would imply an authentic intention to meet and share a meal. For many English learners, phrases like “Let’s do lunch” seem bafflingly casual — almost a broken promise. This phrase is often more a gesture of politeness than a true commitment.

Now, as a senior with diminishing eyesight, I still stumble upon such expressions, often with amusing consequences. Recently, while attempting some needlework, I found it hard to thread a needle. Frustrated, I called out to my grandchild for help, saying, “Could you do this for me? The ear of the needle is too narrow!” My family chuckled, and my grandchild kindly corrected me, “Halmoni, it’s called the eye of the needle, not the ear!” We all had a good laugh at my slipup.

Perhaps next time I plan to “do lunch” with a friend, I’ll ask her to pick up a pack of needles with bigger eyes for me. Through these moments, I’ve come to realize that learning idioms is not just about memorizing phrases but also about embracing the quirks and humor in language. For myself, every misstep offers a new lesson and, sometimes, a shared laugh along the way.

Shin Freedman ([email protected]) is an author, a writer and an educator.