Teaching And Explaining Figures Of Speech, Puns, Metaphors

Teaching a language in its normal senses, tenses, words, etc., challenges the most talented teacher. However, figures of speech can defy logic. Why, in the middle of the ocean, would rats desert the only dry place for many miles? How many proverbs give an inch for a pound, using measuring systems the students never knew? How much explanation does it take for "horses for courses" or "that dog won't hunt"?

For those ThaiVisa members whose native language is not English, which figures of speech did you not understand?

It reminds me of the stranger who attended an evangelical Protestant church, and they started to sing the old gospel hymn tune that includes the line, "Here I raise my ebenezer." He looked for Ebenezer Scrooge in the congregation, being raised. Then they sang, "Gladly, the cross-eyed bear."