ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

鑽牛角尖 - 每日一辭(英)  

鑽牛角尖

To waste time on an insoluble or insignificant (雞毛蒜皮) problem

Split hairs

Beat a dead horse / Flag a dead horse

The way teachers teach English in Taiwan, especially English grammar, is teaching the students to split hairs on applying unwonted (冷僻) and awkward (奇怪彆扭的) usage, and diagramming a sentence down to the nth degree (到极點, 极端地), rather than teaching the students the essence of learning the language. 

I get impatient with people beating a dead horse when discussing unwonted and awkward usage and grammar.

Written by Elisa English

On August 10th, 2013