Yes, “it kills me” is an English expression too. “It kills me that there are so many ways to use this one expression” – meaning, it makes me laugh or it’s surprising to me. Often, it’s ironic, like “this thing is bad for me but makes me laugh anyway.” LIke, “It kills me that she simply cannot show up on time to anything.” Like, it’s bad and it’s bad for me, but I laugh anyway.

This is where I’m tempted to pretend that I knew we did it in Lesson 400…but actually I forgot. The meaning I presented in this one is very similar to that of 400, but just slightly different. There’s yet another way to use “hold up” that I didn’t even include in any of these, and that is “to stay strong emotionally after a trauma.” So if someone has died, you can ask the spouse or kids, “How are you holding up?” meaning, “How are you doing after this trauma?” Same after a car crash – someone might be afraid to drive or have nightmares after getting into a bad car crash: “How are you holding up?” is a way of expressing concern.

I don’t quite get what “hold up” means here. To hold up means to stay strong in conditions of adversity. You might mean that it’s difficult for some people to hold up (emotionally?) when they face prejudices. In that case, you might say: “For some people, it’s difficult to hold up emotionally in countries with strong prejudices or cultural differences.”