Grisel, one of Wandsworth's Language Club members in London explains how informal language learning has helped her, particularly in learning about idioms. For example, for non-English speakers, telling someone to "break a leg" would be a horrible thing to say but in English it is another way to say “good luck”.
No one knows for certain how this phrase originated but one explanation is that it was used in the English theatre in Shakespeare's time when 'breaking a leg' referred to an actor taking a bow at the end of the play.
