Hearts, Livers and Kidneys, They Just Aren’t All Equal in the English Language

American Idioms are what has got to make learning English really tough.  One of my favorite people whose native tongue is Chinese thinks the phrase is “When push goes to shovel.”  It makes more sense to her especially since she did not know what a shove was to begin with.

I was having lunch with someone whose English skills are still developing when another person at the table said, “Bless her heart, she was trying to lose weight and then covered her salad in blue cheese dressing,” about someone who was not there. My non-American friend asked me if blue cheese dressing was bad for your heart.  I tried to explain that yes it was, but that was not why the other woman was saying, “Bless her heart.”

That conversation led us to the idiom, “Her heart was in the right place, but…” This phrase also confused my foreign friend.  “How do you know where someone’s heart is?” she asked.

After explaining that we were not really talking about peoples’ actual hearts, but their intentions we just made things worse.  It really got me thinking about how Southern women feel perfectly comfortable saying something nasty about someone by including “their heart” in the conversation.

There are so many wonderful idioms using “heart” such as “to win someone’s heart,” “take heart,” or “to warm the cockles of someone’s heart.”  But saying ones “Heart was in the right place,” usually means something did not go well even though that was not ones original intent.

Since I am not fluent in any other language I am wondering if other cultures bring people’s hearts into the conversation or are other body parts mentioned?  Really our liver is almost as important as our hearts, why does it not get any play in the catch phrase lineup?

Somehow our hearts were associated with love and therefore won out in the organ Olympics, but our kidneys are pretty darn important and most of us have two of them.  You would think that because of sheer number they would garner some respect, but I have never heard anyone say, “Cross my kidney and hope to die.”

One thing is for sure if a Southerner is Talking About Your Heart It Might Be An Insult.  Really, if I wanted to talk badly about someone I am more likely to discuss their colon or prostrate, at least it might sound more polite than calling them an outright ass.

For me, I would be happy to accept your blessings if I sneezed or something, but please leave my heart out of it, especially if you are southern.