The paint the town red.

BBC Learning English The English We Speak 13 March 2012

To paint the town red.

"마을을 빨갛게 만들자." 
이게 무슨 말이지? 새마을 운동이라도 하자는건가?
백날 직역 해 봤자 이 숙어의 진짜 뜻은 알 수가 없다. 

"재미나게 놀자", "신나는 시간을 보내자" 가 이 숙어의 진짜 뜻.
2002년 한일 월드컵 당시 전국민이 빨갛게 전국을 물들였을 때를 생각해보면
쉽게 기억될 수 있을 것 같다.

 

1. tews_62_paint_the_town_red_audio_120313_tews_62_paint_town_.mp3

Will: Hello! I'm Will. It's Friday night - time to have fun! This is the Burning Swan - my favourite pub. I'm just waiting for Li. Oh there she is. My goodness! What is she wearing this time? 

Li: Hi Will.

Will: Hi Li! Nice... blue overalls^[각주:1]!

Li: Thank you, these are new overalls, I bought them especially for tonight.

Will: Right. Okay. Li, I don't really follow fashion, but in London at least, denim overalls are really just for builders and painters and carpenters. 

Li: Yes! Right, where do we start, Will? 

Will: Eh? What? What are you doing?

Li: It's definitely very dull^[각주:2] in here. 

Will: Why have you got a can of paint?

Li: That wall especially. Shall we?

Will: Li? What are you doing? She's finally gone mad. Li!

Li: What's the matter?

Will: Look, you can't just walk into places and start repainting their walls! Don't! I love that brown colour! 

Li: Didn't you want it to be red?

Will: No! No-one wants it to be red!

Li: But you said that tonight we'd paint the town red - starting with this pub!

Will: It's an expression!

Li: Not again!

Will: It means that we'll go out and have a really exciting, crazy time. We'll paint the town red - it just means we'll have fun, not actually paint things. Let's listen to some examples.

• It's my daughter's birthday today. She's gone out with her friends. I expect they'll paint the town red!

• Go on, come out with me tonight, let's paint the town red!

• We had a crazy night on Saturday, we painted the town red.

Li: So now, Will, tell me about all this crazy fun we're meant to have. What's your idea of painting the town red?

Will: Well we drink, we dance, we laugh loudly, we meet people, we stay up all night.

Li: Hmm. I'd still rather just paint. Let's just do this one wall.

Will: No, Li, stop, stop we'll get arrested. 

Li: Isn't that colour so much better?

Will: No! No! Look, stop it! You'll ruin our night out!

Li: It's beautiful! 

Will: Li! Stop!


그나저나... 저 Li 라는 사람은 영국인 아닌가?? 저렇게 말을 잘하면서 맨날 이런 숙어하나 못알아듣고... 
어쨌건...어김없이 엉터리 작문을 통해 문장을 외워보도록 하자. 

Today I`ll going to football stadium. I`ll paint the town red!!!
FC Seoul had a fantastic game on last weekend. I painted the town red.

매번 exicited 나 have fun 같은 틀에 박힌 표현만 쓰는 것보다
to paint the town red 같은 표현을 써보는 것이 영어실력을 향상시키는 데에는 효과적일 것이다!


OK!! Let`s paint the town red!!!! 

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