Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[mwey]

Please explain to me what this mean? Thanks in advance.

Mark

[Nef]

On the other hand

Think of a coin. It has two sides. If you "flip" the coin (toss it up and let it land), you may be looking at the the side that you didn't see first. This is the literal meaning of "on the flip side," but the expression doesn't have to be literal.

For instance, you can say something like:
"He talks a lot but, on the flip side, he is never boring."
"Learning a new language is hard but, on the flip side, it can be very useful."

[LucentShade]

In informal conversation, "on the flip side" can also mean "later" or "after an important event. If two soldiers go into a battle, one might say to the other, "See you on the flip side." [=after the battle] It's sort of an old expression--I think it might be based on LP single records, which had a popular song on Side "A" and another, less famous song on Side "B," -- both side B and the song were sometimes called "flip sides."