29 Dec

rag

Who taught : Bob

Rag (source: http://inphotos.org/)

How was your Christmas, my friends? Hope yours was wonderful! Mine was great. It was so nice spending some time with family. Right before Christmas, I had two plumbing problems with my house. So, I hired a plumber to take care of them. Luckily, he came before Christmas and fixed them but, on the other hand, I experienced an embarrassing moment. Well, of course, it was related with a new English expression.

As he was working on rusted valves in my basement, he asked me a question, “Do you have a rag?” Sadly, I did not get it. Do you already know it? All right! Good for you! In my defense, I have never heard of this word, rag, yet. I thought he was talking about a rug. Well, I do have a rug but it does not make sense that he wants to have my rug to fix the valves. So, I said, “What? A rag?” I carefully enunciated the word. He said, “Yes, a rag. You know sort of cloth that is used to clean things. I need it to wipe some water and dirt here.” With that, I got what he meant.

I talked to myself, “Embarrassing but interesting. I have never questioned myself about an English word for Geol-Re (걸레) which is the Korean word for rag,” as I was walking up the stairs to get a rag.

Maybe I should clean my house more often and ask this question, “What is an English word for this tool?”, to myself every time I see a new tool. Don’t you think so? Also, one day, I should go through all of the tools I have in my shed and think about their English words. I am sure I won’t forget what rag is from now.

My American friends, feel free to try me later if I still know the word or not. 🙂

EDIT: Following up Phil’s feedback, I looked up the urbandictionary. I would not include all of the definitions here. (You can easily find them out by clicking here.) Also, after my initial post, Jason pointed out that Geol-Re(걸레) also means a slut in Korea. Interestingly, according to the urbandictionary, rag could mean a woman in the U.S. but not in a sense that she is a slut. When a woman have a period, they need to use a thing which is kind of similar to a rag. For this, when a woman is on her period, we can also say that she is on her rag. Keep in mind that this is considered to be offensive to women. So, my recommendation is do not use this expression to women. 

P.S.: I am not sure I will have a chance to write another post before the end of 2011. If not, I wish you a very Happy New Year! Don’t forget! Life is learning.

 

23 Aug

coin slot

Who taught : Andrew, Stan and Jean

Walking around the campus, I have a chance to take a look at a lot of vending machines. Let’s imagine you are thirsty and in front of a vending machine, what is the first thing you would do? Well, you would take a look at the beverages it has. And, see the price of the one you want to get. Then, what? You put a few coins into the coin slot, right? Pretty easy! But, that is not the coin slot I am talking about here.

Last week, I went out with my friends, Andrew, Stan and Jean to have dinner together. And… as always, I learned a very interesting thing. Coin slot could mean something else.

Coin Slot (source: cointalk.com)

Can you guess what it could be? OK! I will tell you the example Andrew told me. Suppose that you have an issue with your toilet and call a plumber to fix it. And, a few hours later, he comes into your house and it turns out that he is quite fat. (No offense to plumbers! I am sure Andrew used this example because of the position that he should make to fix the toilet.) Now… he is trying to diagnose the toilet to see what the issue is. What would be his position?

Yup! He should bend his upper body over to take a look at the toilet closer. You are now looking at his back. What if he is wearing low-rise pants??? What you can see now?

Yes, you can see the top of his ass crack. That is the coin slot I am talking about here.

Here is the definition I found on Urban Dictionary.

Term describing the top of the ass crack when it can be seen protuding from low worn pants. Usually associated with skanky old fat men and slutty girls trying to get some.

How many times have you seen this kind of coin slots in your life? As women start to wear a lot of low-rise jeans and short t-shirts, I think we have a lot more chances to see the coin slot. Not sure it is a good thing or not. But I like this expression. Whoever used this expression first must be very creative. My last word! Do not really try to put some coins in that coin slot! 🙂