Tag Archives: christian

01 Jun

beard

Who taught: Christian

Beard (source: http://www.greatfunnypictures.com/)

Last week, there was a farewell party for Andrew’s last day at his work. He now moves on to the next chapter of his life. I wish him the best of luck. I am sure he will be very successful at his new work.
So, I was there and met many people who I have not been able to see for a while. As usual, we all talked about anything new or any recent news about each other. I, of course, mentioned about my move. As I mentioned my move, Christian asked me, “Where did you move into?” I said, “Regent Square.”

His following response was not what I expected at all. He said, “Oh… that is the gay neighborhood in Pittsburgh.”

Honestly, I was surprised because I did not know that at all. I said, “What? Really? But, my neighbors are all young married couples.”

Christian said, “Well, you never know. I have a few gay friends who live in that neighborhood. Your neighbors could be beards.”

At this point, I had to stop him to talk about what he just said. Can you catch what it is? Yeah! Beards! What the heck does beard mean? In general, beard means the collection of hair that grows on the chin, cheeks and neck, but not the upper lip, of human beings. Isn’t this what you think when you hear the word, beard?

Now, in the context of my conversation with Christian, it is obvious that he used beard to mean people, not the collection of hair. Also, he used it as he talked about gay people. Here is the definition for you!

a man or woman used as a cover by a gay partner.

Assuming that I am a gay and I live with my wife, Jessy. Then, who is a beard here? Jessy is a beard for me. Now, what if Jessy is also a gay and we live together. Then, we both are beards. That is what Christian meant. It was even more surprising to learn that people use beard to mean these people.

I had to think about its origin. Based on my research, people started to use this expression in 1960’s but there is no real etymology of it. Now, my guess is this. When you grow beard, then it covers your face which is the most important part of a human body and it is the part that really shows your identity. By having beard, you kind of cover your identity. What do you think? Don’t you think my assumption here is quite good?

Well, let’s make something clear here before I wrap up this post. Jessy and I are not beards and it does not matter whether Regent Square is a gay neighborhood or not to me and Christian. We are all people here on the earth.

14 Nov

nice meeting you vs. nice seeing you

Who taught: Jake, Carol and Mark

Nice to meet you. (source: funny-cats-pictures1.blogspot.com)

Last week, I had dinner together with Jake, Carol and Mark, watching Univ of Pitt’s football game. As I walked up to the second floor of the restaurant, I saw a big group of people and one of them was Christian who is also one of my old colleagues. I thought Jake, Carol and Mark were all together with Christian’s group and was kind of confused to see so many people that I do not know at all. Looking for them, I realized that they were not within the group. They were sitting separately and the group was for Python programming language discussion.

Like an hour later, Christian came to us to say hello and chatted with us. Then, as he about to leave, he told me, “Hey! See you, Terry!” Then, I said, “Sure, Nice meeting you!” As soon as I said it, Christian and Jake were like, “What? Did you just say, ‘nice meeting you’?” “Yeah, what is wrong?” said I.

Do you see any issue with it? I mean, the word, meet, means literally, “come together” or “get together.” With that said, the sentence I said was perfectly fine. Don’t you agree? Well… Jake explained to me, “People say ‘nice meeting you’ when they meet for the first time.” He continued, “If you already know someone and you get to meet him/her again, you should say, ‘nice seeing you'” What the h**k?

Carol also told me a story of an episode of 30 rock, one of the famous tv shows in America, in which one lady tried to play a mind game with another guy, by trying to say “Nice meeting you,” even though she already met him beforehand. So, be careful with your choice of a word.

Another thing I want to point out is when to use “meeting” and when to use “to meet.” When you meet someone for the first time ever and introduce each other, then you should say, “Nice to meet you.” Then, you had a chat with him/her for a while and you need to say good bye to him/her as you leave the place, at that moment, you need to say, “Nice meeting you.” It is because ‘to verb’ implies the future whereas ‘verb + ing’ implies the past. Pretty complicated, huh? I am sure most American would not care this kind of subtle difference but that is the correct way. But, the point is do not make the same mistake I made. Sorry, Christian! I did not know that. Next time, I will remember to say, “nice seeing you.” It was really nice seeing you, Christian. Take care!