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Hello, I'm Jaining, and this is the English we speak.

And hello, I'm Neil.

What's that awful sound?

Are you referring to my violin playing?

This is my new hobby learning to play a new instrument.

But it sounds like you're murdering a cat.

Is there a cat in the studio? I get the message Jaying. I'm just trying to learn

another skill in case I lose my current job. I could make some money as a musician.

So you're adding another string to your bow? Am I? Is that what I need to

improve my violin playing? No, Neil, when we talk about having another string to your bow, we mean having an additional skill that can be used

if the first one doesn't work out. So think of another string as another skill. So how many strings

do you have, Neil?

Let me count while we hear some other examples of the phrase,

Another string to your bow.

Bookkeeping is another string to my bow. I've learned it in case I lose my job at the bank.

It looks like I'll never be a singer, but luckily I have another string to my bow dancing.

Jemma is so talented she has so many strings to her bow.

This is the English we speak from BBC Learning English and we're talking about the phrase another string to your bow which describes

having an additional skill to use if the first skill doesn't work out.

We can also say to have more than one string to your bow, to mean having lots of skills.

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