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Giving a Hand
Jaime, a new immigrant (移民) of the USA, was going; to watch his daughter's first show in a school play. His daughter, Carol, was five years old. She was a student at the local public school. Carol did not have a very big role in the school play. She was just playing a rain cloud in a play about the drought in California. Carol had just one line. Her line was, "I am sad enough to cry about how dry the state is."
Jaime and his wife made sure to arrive early so that they could get a, good seat to watch the show. They found seats in the front row. Before the show began, the schoolmaster made an introductory speech. The speech was about how hard the students and teachers worked together to make the play possible. At the end of the speech, the schoolmaster said, "Let's give the school staff a hand."
Jaime，whose English was not very good, stood up when the schoolmaster said this. He knew that when people said "to give someone a hand", they meant they needed help. Jaime always wanted to help, especially at his daughter's school. Jaime thought maybe they needed help backstage.
Jaime's wife put her arm in front of her husband. "Where are you going?" she asked in a low voice. "They need a hand," Jaime replied. His wife explained that "to give someone a hand" could also mean to applaud (鼓掌) someone. When you applaud someone, you clap your hands after their performance. You are not supposed to stand up and try to help others. "They don't need help. They just want us to clap," Jaime's wife explained. Jaime felt a little embarrassed. He sat back down and began clapping along with the rest of the audience.
Jaime thought to himself that someone needed to give the English language a hand. How could one phrase mean two different things? He meant the English language needed help.
