Beating Around the Bush

Recently, I heard a great misinterpretation of the beloved idiom "beating around the bush". A student used an example to explain what he thought it meant. The following example, although humourous on many levels, is also educational and serves to illustrate just how easily an English learner can suddenly create confusion, unintentionally, because of a small mistake in interpretation, accent, tone etc. The story goes as follows:
One time our friend we'll call Rafael had a bad case of stomach trouble. It was so bad that he didn't know which side had to come out first #1 or #2. His dilemma was whether to use the urinal or public toilet (enough said). He asked me whether his ordeal could be expressed idiomatically as "beating around the bush." Rafael reasoned that he had to make a decision between one of the two processes but didn't want to disappoint the other one. So somehow he had to placate one of the two needed functions and by so doing delaying its turn. Ultimately, Rafael chose to "hold it". So the act of trying to "trick" his colon into "thinking" it's needs weren't so urgent (i.e., wait until getting home) satisfied, in essence, the spirit of the idiom.
Well in a very humourous way, I would even tend to agree...haha.

Homework: Can you think of any double meanings that can be construed from this story?
Next: This is not "Omitable"

Should or Have to?

It was brought to my attention recently that a large number of Japanese English Language Learners often confuse the modals, should and have to. Having worked with many Japanese students for years now, I was initially skeptical about this generality since I had never noticed it before and always thought of myself as a keen observer of tendencies particular to certain groups of Learners. The individual who brought this point up is herself Japanese and admitted to often being confused as to how to use should and have to, properly. So we decided to conduct a quick unscientific survey and sequestered three other Japanese English Learners and asked them "what is the difference between should vs. have to?". And as Mama predicted, all three of them thought that should was used for certainty/necessity/obligation while have to was used for advice/opinion. I don't want to suggest that my 5 minutes of research should be taken as Law but maybe there is something to it. So, if a Japanese ESL student says to you: "I have to phone home since I should work overtime" don't misunderstand, your boss is not living with them. Now you know.