Clichés are over-used words and expressions. Why not think of new ways to express your thoughts? Find new, modern, culturally apt examples to make your meaning clear. You’ve heard “It sells like hot cakes”. Hot cakes? Do you eat your cakes hot? Why don’t you say, “It sells like vuvuzelas at a football match or kaju barfi on Diwali eve”? Take an old expression and give it a twist, a new ending. Instead of “Laughter is the best medicine, try “Laughter may the best medicine but it is bitter when the joke is on you”. The idea is not to repeat what everyone says.
Here is a list of clichés (often-used descriptions) about clichés:
Clichés: each of them makes something easier, but all of them together make things very complicated
No one owns clichés
Clichés are never newClichés sound better in a foreign language
A cliché just describes the feeling or the pretended feeling, it does not change it
There is truth in every cliché
Avoid clichés like the plague [Ha, ha, that is a cliché!]

Now, pick at least 10 familiar expressions from the passage. Many are proverbs, but they are clichés too! Our English Teacher is called Robin
Our English teacher is called is Robin. After all, what’s in a name? He had learned that man cannot live by bread alone. He had married a woman who knew that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. He was fat.
Robin decided it was never too late to learn. He became an English teacher. He remembered his father’s comment: those who can, do; those who cannot, teach. Oh, he thought, there’s no fool like an old fool. He ignored his father, and took up ELT. He had heard that travel broadens the mind. He also found that it emptied the pocket. Never mind, he thought, the love of money is the root of all evil. After all, the best things in life are free! His inner voice said, name one! Robin responded with alacrity- health is better than wealth. Remember, you can’t take it with you when you die. The inner voice continued to torment him.- you haven’t any ‘it’ to take! All that glitters is not gold, Robin retorted. But you haven’t anything that glitters either, continued the voice. Robin didn’t rise to the bait this time.
Robin settled into a semi-comfortable rut. He tried his best- if a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. He was a stickler for punctuality: Robin was the early bird that catches the worm. His approach was not shared by the class, in spite of his telling them that early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. Their attitude was: better late than never. Robin’s encouragement of ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ always fell on deaf ears. There are none so deaf as those who will not hear, he thought.
Robin detested noise. Speech classes were anathema to him. ‘Silence is Golden’ he would shout, followed by ‘do as I say, not as I do’. He then explained: a still tongue makes a wise head, while empty vessels make the most sound. ‘Remember’ he said, thinking of grammatical accuracy, ‘least said, soonest mended’. By way of encouragement, he added, ‘ask a silly question, you’ll get a silly answer’.

With group work, Robin was out of depth. He didn’t understand the methodology, though he admitted that there was more than one way to skin a cat. Still, he gave it a try. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. He agreed that practice makes perfect. But practice in what? His students seemed to have adopted the motto ‘ignorance is bliss’. He lectured them to make hay while the sun shines, and strike while the iron is hot. As soon as he left the room, they put this into practice. It was a matter of when the cat is away, the mice will play.
CONTINUED…