What's the best way to help your child learn to speak a foreign language? One option is an immersion school, where teachers avoid speaking English. Also, did you ever play padiddle while riding in a car? It's a game that's supposed to help courting couples get closer. Plus, what your signature says about you, what to call that last hors d'oeuvre on a plate, sitting on your tuchus, alphabet riddles, old camp songs, soup to nuts, and the weather-related phrase Who let the hawk out?FULL DETAILSWhat does your signature say about you? http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/signing-off-the-slow-death-of-the-signature-in-a-pin-code-world/251934/ In today's world of PIN-codes and electronic communication, maybe not so much.What's a tasteful way to refer to one's rear end? Tushie and tush come from the Yiddish word tuchus. The Yiddish word tuchus, also spelled tochis and tochas, is venerated by some, but regarded by others, including The New York Times http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/06/words-that-the-new-york-times-will-not-print/57884/, as "insufficiently elegant."Grant has a handful of alphabet riddles for the young ones. What did the alphabet's love note say? U R A Q T!Ever play padiddle in the car? You know, that game where you slap the ceiling when someone's rear light is out? Padiddle, also known as perdiddle and padoodle, go back to the 1940s, and were traditionally kissing games. There's even more about such games, including slug bug, in an earlier episode. http://www.waywordradio.org/road-trip/Next time you're in Texas, be on the lookout for instances to drop this colloquialism: He didn't have enough hair on his chest to make a wig for a grape!Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game called Word Scouts. In order to earn your badge, you'll have to know the architectural term Bauhaus, and the flower that's also a past tense verb. The phrases Who let the hawk out? and The hawk is flying tonight, both mean "there's a chilly wind blowing." This saying is almost exclusive to the African-American community, and is associated with that Windy City, Chicago.What's the difference between a lawyer and an attorney? None, really. In the past, though, the word attorney could also refer more generally to a person you "turned to" to represent you, regardless of whether that person had legal training.How would you fare in a quiz of idiom meanings? If you're looking to bone up on these colloquial expressions, the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms http://www.amazon.com/American-Heritage-Dictionary-Idioms/dp/039572774X is a good place to start.What do you call the last appetizer on a plate--the one everyone's too embarrassed to reach for? That last piece has been variously known as the manners bit or manners piece, a reference to the fact that it's considered polite to not empty a plate, assuring the hosts that they provided sufficient fare. In Spanish, the last remaining morsel that everyone's too bashful to take is called la verguenza, or "the embarrassment."What was your favorite camp song? If it sounds like nonsensical scat singing, it may date back to a radio character named Buddy Bear who sang in scat on the Buddy Bear show in 1946. How does the alphabet get to work? Why, the L, of course! Among some African-Americans, the term "Hannah" means "the sun." This sense is memorialized in the lyrics of "Go Down Old Hannah," a work song from the 1930s. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv3Qt_ZCsu4 One writer said of this haunting melody: "About 3 o'clock on a long summer day, the sun forgets to move and stops, so then the men sing this song." The great folklorist Alan Lomax http://www.loc.gov/folklife/lomax/ also made recordings of prison workers singing this song.Twitter is a great way to discover new words. Just search with #newword, and you'll find gems like holus-bolus http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/holus-bolus, meaning the whole thing (e.g. he ate the whole turkey, or he ate the turkey holus-bolus).If something is described as soup to nuts, it's "the whole thing" or it "runs the gamut." The phrase refers to an old-fashioned way of dining, beginning with soup and ending with nuts for dessert. The ancient Romans used an analogous expression in Latin: ab ovo usque ad malum, literally, "from the egg to the apple." Martha reads a poem by former U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan called "The Long Up." http://archives.newyorker.com/default.aspx?iid=46998&startpage=page0000031--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! 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