Easy tiger!
| Rob: | Hello, I'm Rob. And here comes Helen. Wow, she's changed her hair colour! It looks, well, different. Hi Helen I like your hair. | ||||||||
| Helen: | Don't say a word! | ||||||||
| Rob: | Whoa! | ||||||||
| Helen: | I don't want to talk about it. | ||||||||
| Rob: | About what? The fact you dyed your hair? | ||||||||
| Helen: | Enough! | ||||||||
| Rob: | Whoa! Easy tiger! | ||||||||
| Helen: | I do not look like a tiger! | ||||||||
| Rob: | I never said you did. It's just an expression. Though come to think of it, your hair is kind of stripy orange now. (Helen starts sobbing) | ||||||||
| Rob: | OK, you really don't look like a tiger though. I said "easy tiger!" which is just a way of saying "calm down". | ||||||||
| Helen: | It's all the hairdresser's fault. He told me I would look beautiful with copper highlights, then he did this to me. Now I have orange stripes, I look like a jungle animal. | ||||||||
| Rob: | No, you don't look like a jungle animal. Listen to me. We say "easy tiger" when we want someone to calm down, to not get over-emotional, or not to rush into something. | ||||||||
| Helen: | Oh. You're talking about tigers because of the way I'm behaving, not because of my hair? | ||||||||
| Rob: | That's right. It's an expression that's usually used in informal situations, between friends. Here are some more examples. | ||||||||
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| Helen: | I understand. Maybe my hair is not so bad after all. | ||||||||
| Rob: | No, it's just unusual. It doesn't make you look like a tiger ... I'd say more of an orangutan than a tiger ... | ||||||||
| Helen: | What! An orangutan! | ||||||||
| Rob: | Orangutans are very handsome creatures; they're a kind of rich auburn-copper colour. | ||||||||
| Helen: | How dare you! | ||||||||
| Rob: | Don't bare your teeth like that, that's scary. Please ... (Sound of a real growling tiger!) | ||||||||
| Rob: | Easy tiger, easy! (Tiger growling and huge roar). |