Tie one on

It's a party with a man passed out upside down on a sofa. He tied one on for sure.

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Idiom: Tie one on

Alcohol is one of the great social lubricants in the world.

Students everywhere understand that when you go out to tie one on, the more you drink, the better your second language becomes.


When you tie one on, you get drunk.


The idiom tie one on may come from cowboys tying up their horses in front of a bar, but the origin is not known.

While getting drunk, you become more fluent in a foreign language.

That is a known scientific fact.

I say this tongue in cheek.

When learning a language, people want to know both how to speak in a sophisticated manner and understand the common vernacular.

The funny thing is, you can learn both in a bar.

Go out with any scientist, tie one on, and you will be able to speak to them about anything.

When they begin using all their scientific jargon, you will understand precisely what they are talking about.

Twenty years ago, when I first came to Japan, I knew three Japanese words: konichiwa, sushi and kamikaze.

Now, konichiwa and sushi were quite useful.

Kamikaze, on the other hand, not so much.

However, when I went out to tie one on (I was much younger then), I never had any difficulty communicating with anyone.

Unfortunately, like all good things in this world, there is a drawback.

During the process of tying one on communication is enhanced.

Afterwards, though, all communication is forgotten the next day.

It’s one of the main reasons English language schools don’t serve alcohol.


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 69.

The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.



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