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Reader question: Please explain “rough and ready”, as in this sentence: She learned rough and ready English from her customers, or the foreign tourists. My comments: Though her English isn’t polished, it’s fluent and adequate. If she were, say, a vendor selling pins, badges, handkerchiefs and other souvenirs to tourists, then she would have lots of chances to talk to English speakers. That is how she learned and practiced English. Though her English is rough, as in rough diamonds, her words and phrases are well chosen and they make sense. And she is fluent, unlike most English learners who don’t have much of a chance to actually speak. As an English learner myself, I remember in the early years, I, like most of my fellow students, spoke haltingly and hesitantly, making all sorts of grammatical errors along the way. My English then was rough, and – decidedly – not ready. Anyways, rough and ready means rough, as in unpolished and unrefined, but ready, meaning useful and serviceable. This English idiom reminds me of Mr. Peggotty, the rough and ready fisherman in David Copperfield written by Charles Dickens. “Glad to see you, sir,” said Mr. Peggotty. “You’ll find us rough, sir, but you’ll find us ready.” By that, Mr. Peggotty means to say that they may be unrefined and uneducated, but they’re hospitable and are always ready to help. | 
