Tian, the intern, has been pointing out my language choices these past few weeks. It’s kind of odd, I feel like my word choices have been put under a microscope. It’s interesting I’ve spent considerable amount of time living with non-native speakers but this was the first time I ever realized just how many times i use idioms in my everyday speech.

At one point this week, she asked me something (I don’t remember what it was…) but I responded with, “Fat chance!”

Then there was just awkward silence…”Ah, Lisa, was does ‘fat chance’ mean?…Does that mean there is a good chance?”

I responded by saying, “No, it’s when you don’t have a much chance at all?” She said, then do you mean a slim chance?

I had to think about it…I continued on…”Well, slim chance means you have a small chance but fat chance means you have no chance at all!” She started laughing. Really? Slim chance is small chance, but fat chance is no chance? That doesn’t make any sense.

We laughed at the silliness of this.

But I sincerely felt bad. I should have known better. When communicating with someone who’s second language is English it’s best to avoid using idioms. Especially when you are stage and audience members can’t stop you to ask you to explain.