Whenever I meet my friend A, it takes a while before he gets the ball rolling. He wastes a lot of time beating around the bush, to the point where I sometimes think he’s lost for words. However, once the ice is broken, he speaks fluently, but often you have to wait for the message to get across. Sometimes, I’m sitting on the edge of my chair, until he finally gets to his point.
Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to speaking with a lot of idioms. Below the surface, there’s much more work to be done to achieve a natural, idiomatic sound in both speaking and writing. One of these problems is using chunk phrases—connecting a couple of words together like a single word.
Even though my friend A doesn’t speak any other language, I sometimes admire him for remembering some of the Latin phrases from our school days—ones I had forgotten decades ago. Therefore, I have no reason to throw him under the bus, but often I can’t resist pulling his leg about his inability to cut to the chase.