18 Oct

smooch

Who taught: Kara and Jake

smooch

smooch

In everyday life here in the U.S., I hear a lot of words I had never even seen when I was studying English in Korea. I am very positive it is because my focus of the study was literary English.

So, I would say colloquial English can be a whole different animal for you to experience once you live in a English-speaking country.

Maybe it is only me. But, many of those words used colloquially sound very funny.

A few days ago, it was Jake’s birthday. Well, that’s what Facebook told me. On his timeline, Kara said, “Bday smooch!”

I thought to myself, “Hmm… smooch. that sounds funny. What does it mean?” One of the things I do when I hear or see a new word is try not to look it up before I really think about what it could mean.

My guess with regard to this word was that it is simply a way to call your close friend. You know, like “dude” or “buddy.”

Being pretty positive about my guess, I also wrote on Jake’s timeline, “Happy Bday smooch! What’s smooch?”

I know what you guys are thinking now. What a mistake! Two days ago, I caught up with my friends including Jake and he asked for me to actually smooch him. Of course, I did not. Get your mind out of the gutter! Can you guess what it means? Let me give you a hint. It is an onomatopoeic word, I believe. So, when would you hear the sound that is very similar to “smooch.” Too hard? All right, here is another hint. Think about your lips when you kiss your boy friend or girl friend very loudly with a lot of love. Now, you get it?

It simply means “a loud kiss” or “to kiss loudly.”

Let me tell you again to make sure there is no misunderstanding. I did not smooch Jake. 🙂 One suggestion for you! Why don’t you smooch your loved one today? When you do, pay attention to the sound. That may help you to remember the word.

Have fun, guys, smooching!

03 May

make out

Who taught: Emily

Making out(source: http://www.toothpastefordinner.com)

Two days ago, Jessy and I went to a restaurant to have lunch together with my friends. We were late because Jessy had a headache and, thus, we needed to stop by a grocery store to buy painkillers.

As we walked around the grocery store to find painkillers, Emily texted me. Here is what she sent.

“Stop making out in the car and get in here. I’m hungry! :)”

Frankly, I did not know what she meant by making out in the car. Besides, I was trying to get to the restaurant as soon as possible. So, instead of texting her, asking what she meant, I just sent a text, “Sorry! Will be there soon.”

If you are a native English speaker, you may imagine what happened in the restaurant. All of my friends were like, “What? Terry did not deny making out in the car. What the heck!” Yeah yeah yeah! They had to laugh. At least, I made my friends happy for a few minutes, right?

So, as Jessy and I got into the restaurant and sat in chairs, Emily had to ask me this question, “Terry! Tell me… Do you know what ‘making out’ means?”

I said, “No! not really.” Then, they were all like, “Oh, that is why.. At least your response now makes sense.”

The thing is we did not really go into details about what it really means. You know what my guess was? I thought making out in the car means having a sex in the car, which can happen in many cases. Don’t you agree?

Then, I had to look it up on Urban Dictionary after I got back home. Interestingly, it means just a long kiss, especially french kiss. But, I still think that is kind of weird. I mean, once you got into a long french kiss, how could you keep yourself from having a sex? I think that making out should mean “having a long kiss and eventually end up having a sex.”

To make it clear, we did not make out in the car on that day. I mean just on that day. 🙂