Common American Phrases in Everyday Contexts: A Detailed Guide to Real-Life Conversation and Small Talk (Mcgraw-Hill Esl References)

I came to the United States as an adult engineering student with a F1 visa. I could read my textbooks in school, but I could hardly understand some of my American classmates/friends when they used some strange and incomplete expressions in their conversations. I had never seen these English expressions in my English textbooks. The things became worse after I graduated from school and joined the work force. Sometimes my American coworkers asked me some questions using some of these strange and incomplete sentences, and I had no idea for what they were asking for and how I should answer their questions properly.

I found this book, <>, about two weeks ago from the local library. After having read a few chapters, I realized that the strange and incomplete expressions, which I had difficults to follow, are "Common American Phrases". American people do not speak the whole sentences out, since these phrases are so common that everybody understands them. But these phrases are very difficult for an ESOL/ESL foreigner to follow.

I am so glad that I finally found this book.

I will positively be heistate to recommend this to other probable buyers becuase this book is composed of contents it is not helpful to learn English expression.
In addition, this book loses my common and prevalent idioms.
I don't like to recommend all of you to get this book.

...and also for those who have at least advanced or intermediate skill in English language. In my case I bought this book hoping to enrich my general conversational vocabulary. I have NOT achieved my personal goal since the book is full of most simple phrases that are very quickly learned from daily communication by anyone who lived in the US for more than 2 months (Thanks! Sorry 'bout that! See you! How you've been? and similar.)

However, I found this book to be particularly helpful in terms of idioms and expressions that are otherwise not clear to a non-native English speaker even in context (drop the ball, gone out the window, let's touch base tomorrow, and similar phrases.)
I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is new to the country and needs to master the American slang and daily communication.

I watched a lot of American Movies and Sitcoms. There are too much expressions that I cannot really understand ~! They are all composed of simple words,but when they are together, I just cannot get it. Like "Might as well","who do you think you are kidding",and tons of others....This book explains a lot to me. The entries in this book are really used very frequently in American Movies and on TV. I heard almost all of them before.It teaches me much more than my ESL classes !! ELS students ~buy it and Enjoy it !!

I have very intelligent adult students who are trying to improve their English. Most of them are from East Asian backgrounds. This book is very much enjoyed by my students because it gives them an insight into phrases that people use around them often. Most people don't realize how much they use these phrases. Moreover, we don't realize how strange they sound to non-native speakers.