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preaching to the choir

preaching to the choir

Date: Jun 15 2017

Themes: Celebrity, Music, Pop Culture

Quote

1. Quote - Listen to the quote and guess what the slang means.

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“I have to ask myself, ‘How am I going to create real change and not just… preach to the choir anymore?’”

—Singer Miley Cyrus, speaking about political involvement (Billboard)

Definition

1. Definition - Study the definition.

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trying to convince someone who already believes or understands; telling people about something they already know

2. Use - Learn how the slang is used.

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Do you and your family agree on most things? What about you and your friends? In any group, there will be some different opinions, but usually, friends have similar likes and dislikes. For example, if you liked the new Wonder Woman movie, your friends probably did, too. You can tell them all about how great it was, but if they already agree with you, you’re not convincing them to like it any better. You’re just preaching to the choir.

We use the expression preaching to the choir to talk about telling a group of people something they already believe or agree with. The expression comes from the Christian church. The preacher is the person who delivers the sermon. The choir is the group of people who sing for the church. They already agree with the preacher, so if he tells them something, he is not changing their minds or giving them a new opinion. We use this expression quite often to talk about politics. If you and your friends all already agree politically, then anytime you discuss politics, you are preaching to the choir. You are not telling anyone something that they don’t agree with.

Singer Miley Cyrus hopes that her new album can create a political conversation. She wants to reach out to people whose opinions are different from hers, not just preach to the choir.

What is a topic that you and your friends disagree about?

Examples

1. Examples - Hear some example sentences.

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“I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but you need to practice a lot if you want to improve your English.”

“My husband and I agree about everything, so whenever I talk to him, it’s like I’m preaching to the choir.”

“A lot of politicians just preach to the choir when they should be reaching out to people who don’t agree with them.”

Winners

1. Winners - See who guessed the slang definition correctly.

water14 do something that returns no useful result
by water14
a2020 Just talk and not to do anything.
by a2020

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Comments

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Sid_indore

Sid_indore

India

Well me and my friends have very different taste of movies so everytime i discuss about new movies i just dont preach to the choir.

03:06 PM Jun 16 2017 |

Seiyfk

Seiyfk

Turkey

Especially Mothers and Fathers ..yes Parents are preaching to choir always to their children but they wont listen their parents ..


it will never change ) 

11:02 PM Jun 15 2017 |

1 person likes this

asef

asef

Afghanistan

Paola cleri broke up with her boyfriend sometimes back as her boyfriend always cheated her, So since begging of Jun 2017 she was on dating with a new boyfriend Mike, Now her old boyfriend frequently calling Paola and asking her for friendship showing that he is very loyal to her, So her old boyfriend is preaching to the choir.   



No need for flattery now Paola already knew that her old boy friend is not an honest person she was always cheated by him . 

08:47 AM Jun 15 2017 |

lira_

lira_

Russian Federation

I recently had the discussion with my freind on some topic we don’t agree on so I was trying to defend my statements and it was not as easy as just preaching to the choir.

06:08 AM Jun 15 2017 |

1 person likes this

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