Monthly Archives: March 2010

31 Mar

fruits in phrases – Is apple winner?

From Monday till today of this week, my company has provided free lunches. During the lunch time, we also had sort of meetings. In the meetings, Scott made a series of presentations about our new consulting services. I found a very interesting one from the meetings. He used the same expression a few times, “Golden Nugget.” In the context, I believe it was supposed to mean something like “real good core value of a company.” Am I right? I will let our other Professional Services team members add their thoughts on this. Then, my curiosity killed me so that I had to look it up in a dictionary. Then, I found the following from the urban dictionary.

The First piece of excrement that comes of out after a long constipation allowing the persons bowels to empty.

Oh no! so gross! I hope he did not mean this one in the meetings. (Wait! Nobody laughed when he said this.) I was not able to find any other good definitions as I felt from the meeting. Which one is more correct and used by people?

Speaking of the expressions I heard from the company meetings, the other day, I heard this one, “low-hanging fruit.” This means some sort of goal or target you can achieve easily. I can guess the origin of the expression. Thinking of an apple tree, it is a lot easier to pick the low-hanging ones from the tree. Any fruits hung high, it requires a ladder and a lot of efforts.

But, then I had to make sure if this one is really safe for me to use in the future meetings I would participate. So, I looked it up. You know what I found in the urban dictionary. Check this out!

Girls who are somewhat hot – but not too hot, and who often work in posiitons of high public interaction but with low-barriers-to-entry, thus making them open and attractive targets on the one hand, but often self conscious and/or harboring self esteem issues on the other. This, as a whole, makes them susceptible and quite receptive to any overtures from the opposite sex. I.e., They are the easiest of fruit to pick.

What is wrong with the urban dictionary? Is this really something I can rely on? Andrew! I do not think urban dict is my friend any more. –)

Oh, there are other expressions that have fruits in it.

1. big apple : easy one! New York City! I have no idea about the origin of this one. Does anybody know?

2. apple bottom : I learned this one from Jessy. When she was working at a clothing store, there was a jeans brand. It was “apple bottom jeans.” They are for women. Can you guess what this means? Yeah, it describes women’s butt. But, not all of them. It should be looking good from back. I know it is personal. For example, all of the male coworkers of Jessy said, “Jessy, I do not think you have apple bottom.” Well, honey, I do think you have. You got THE apple bottom! ๐Ÿ™‚

I guess apple is the Gold medal list when it comes to the expressions with fruits in it???

30 Mar

dillydally

Who taught: Pete

This coming Thursday, my friends and I will play basketball after work. To organize this, I sent an email to them and, in the email, I used the expression I learned from Pete, “Let’s get this show on the road!” A few hours later, Pete came to my desk to help me out to fix the broken Korean issue in my blog and we fixed it. Yay! Then, I had to ask him, “So what do you think about my usage?” Pete told me, “Well, it is more suitable to use the expression when people are with you now to do something and they are dilly dally.” Well….. He suddenly realized that ‘dilly dally’ is something I would not know. Definitely, I did not know. He started to give me some other similar type of expressions. I think they are really useful. You would hear these kind of expressions a lot in America!

1. dilly-dally : messing around, waisting time.

Example : “Come on guys! You are so dilly-dally! Let’s get this show on the road! Get off your ass!”

Korean equivalent : ๊พธ๋ฌผ๊พธ๋ฌผ (Ggu mul Ggu mul)

2. pitter-patter: hurry up!

Example : “We gotta pitter-patter!” (I guess you can use just as it is like “Pitter patter!”)

Korean equivalent : ๋นจ๋ž‘ ๋นจ๋ž‘ (Bbal lang bbal lang)ย  This one is very special for Korean. You will hear this one so many times in Korea because Korean people are always busy and want to do something fast. One thing I had a real hard time when I first got to the U.S. was the slowness of any kind of services. For example, I went to the DMV to get the driver’s license test. Well, I had to wait for an hour or so. In Korea, this would never happen. If they are this much slow, people are going crazy and almost blow the place. So, if you go to Korea and if someone is very slow to serve you, say “Hey! Bbal lang bbal lang!” with very angry face. They will get it! ๐Ÿ™‚

3. wishy-washy : indecisive or ineffective

Example : Well you will see this in newspapers so many times when they describe any politicians who is not decisive in some area or topic.

Korean equivalent : ์šฐ์œ ๋ถ€๋‹จ (Woo yoo bu dan) This one is originated from Chinese.

4. roly-poly : little overweight (?) Not sure this means someone really overweight or someone like chubby. By hearing it, I feel like this is more like chubby, right?

Korean equivalent : ํฌ๋™ํฌ๋™ (Po dong Po dong) I would say this is not really insulting to anyone. Especially, if a baby is a little chubby, you can use it to the baby like “Oh, your baby is Po dong Po dong!”

5. willy-nilly : all over the place in a bad way

Example : I cannot come up with one. Could you provide one?

Korean equivalent : ์˜ค์ง€๋ž– ๋„“๋‹ค(O zi rab Neol Da) This is hard to pronounce. Don’t try it! ๐Ÿ™‚

So, I think these expressions are onomatopoeic words or mimetic words. Am I right? There must be so many more than these. You should all help me out! And, also, can I make up by myself like…. hmm ….. “ding dang”? I have not decided what it should mean.

29 Mar

bun in the oven

Who taught: Brian, Andrew and Jean

Christian, Jean and Andew's Handcrafted Card for Ari

Yesterday, my friend Ari gave a birth to her second little girl, Maia. To celebrate,Christian, Jean and Andrew made a real cute card for her. The theme of the card was “The Adventures of Maya the bee.” I am pretty sure she will love the card. After they are done making the card, each of us write simple message to her. You know what I wrote. ๐Ÿ™‚ “No bun in the oven any more! Congrats! from Terry”

There are a few expressions that have something to do with babies or babies in it I learned from my friends.

1. Bun in the oven : A few days ago, Brian came to me, asking “Hey Terry, Do you know what does ‘bun in the oven’ mean?” I was basically like, “It does not sound very special because it is not a surprise at all seeing a bun in the oven. Does it even have any special meaning?” “You can use it to Ari”, Brian told. At that moment, I finally got the picture of “bun in the oven” and was able to connect it to a pregnant woman. I thought this is really perfect expression for describing women’s being pregnant. Very funny one! I really like this expression. But, I had to make sure whether this is not insulting to women or not and asked him. He said, “No! It is just another way of saying being pregnant.” Man, I like it. Awesome! Jean also told me, “You can also say like ‘got one in the oven’.” But I like “bun in the oven” better.

For your better understanding, here is a picture I found from the Internet. So cute, isn’t it? You can use this expression to a pregnant women like, “Oh, you’ve got the bun in the oven!” Wait! Can I use it to a woman who is at the early stage of pregnancy. I do not think so, right? Also, I am curious whether anybody wear this costume for a Halloween party. Maybe I should do for this year’s Halloween day. Oops! I exposed my secret here ๐Ÿ™‚

2. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater : This one! Andrew used this one to me two times. I guess this one is a little more straightforward than the previous one, right? This means “should be careful when you try to get rid of any inessential things because you might also throw the important thing together.” What would be a good example for this? Hmm… I think…. If I were a congressman, I would have used this expression to the President Obama when he was trying to rush to change the health care system. “Mr. President! I know it is important to change the system for the future. But, we do not want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, right?” What do you think about my example? Is it good? And do you have any other expressions where there is babies in it or related with babies? Please share them with us!

28 Mar

prepositions in english – You gotta feel it!

Yesterday, Jessy and I went to Borders. (For the people who do not know what Borders is. In America, it is hard to find small bookstores around a town. There are two major bookstore brands. One is Barnes & Noble and the other one is Borders. They are almost like one of the places people make an appointment to meet up and hang around. Barnes & Noble has Starbucks coffee shop in it whereas Borders has Seattle’s best coffee. Funny thing is Starbucks bought Seattle’s best a few years ago.) Well, back to the main point! So, I was reading a magazine and, in the magazine, I found the following quotes by Albert Einstein.

Common sense is a collection of prejudices acquired by the age of 18.

Interestingly, from the church bulletin I got today, there was a story about a result done by Gallup’s 2008 Values and Beliefs survey.

70 percent of Americans believe divorce is morally acceptable. That’s an 11-point increase from seven years ago. Two generations of high divorce rates have made divorce the norm in America.

So, basically, a social symptom has been happening for a while makes a big impact on a social common sense, or social norm. It was just my two cents on an issue of the social change. (Good usage of “just my two cents“! Huh!)

OK…. So… Today’s topic. It is a preposition. I am pretty sure that preposition is one of the hardest things in learning or using English. Why is it hard? I think it is because for non-native English speakers it is hard to feel them when they hear or speak. Like in, on, at, over, through, etc….. Having said that, let me take one example of prepositions with time stuff! What if I say the following to my friends.

I was thinking about going to Washington, D.C. to enjoy cherry blossom festival sometime __ April 2010 and I finally decided to go __ April 3, 2010 and will be staying there __ April 5, 2010.

What would you put in the first, second and third empty places? I am not talking about grammar. Growing up in South Korea, I was basically forced to memorize all of those grammars. It did not work out well. So, before you think about the grammar of English, you should be able to feel. I mean if you ask these kind of questions to American people, they will fill them out really easily. But then, if you ask, “Why did you choose those prepositions respectively?” Most of them would say, “I don’t know. I just feel that is correct.” Funny but it is true. If you do not feel each of them and just try to memorize the grammar, you will find yourself thinking too much to pick the correct ones from your brain every time you speak. That is what makes you really hard to speak.

A few examples I try to have some feelings whenever I happened to use them in English are;

1. on : you should feel this one like something specific or like fixed. In other words, something is stuck with something.

2. in : it feels like I am in some sort of long hallway. I can still see the starting point and the ending point of the hallway but still not that as much specific as “on”

3. through : I think something very sharp and long like an arrow. At the same time, I feel more emphasis on the finishing point with the sharp edge just like the arrow. Something starts from a specific point and ends with a sharp point.

“OK! now what would you put in the empty places in the sentence?” I know this would be easy for many of you but they are just a few out of so many. So, try to think some sort of images when you hear or use the prepositions so that it almost like stuck in you mind. And, try to pay attention what American people actually use in their sentences and mimic them. Hope this could improve your proper usage of prepositions!

I am curious how American friends think. “Do you also have those feelings when you use prepositions?”

26 Mar

down the rabbit hole

Who taught: Sangeetha and Alex

I feel like I have gone a long series about “animals in phrases.” In fact, there are so many phrases where you can find animals in it in American English. You know what the most popular animal is. I think it is “horse.” I mentioned about this to Jake and he told me he thinks it is because of American history of being with horses long time.

Let me summarize the expressions that have horse in it I learned!

1. You can lead a horse to water, but you canโ€™t make him drink

2. from the horseโ€™s mouth

3. Donโ€™t look a gift horse in the mouth

4. Trojan horse

5. hung like a ho…. (This is still very embarrassing to say even I mentioned it in my previous post! So,I am adding dots instead of the full one here.)

I learned another useful one with animal in it today. It is “down the rabbit hole” This expression can be used when you are about to do something hard or something you do not know how it will end or progress. So, let’s say you are going to get married! Then, I would say, “Well, my friend, you are about to go down the rabbit hole! Good luck with that!” Don’t get me wrong, though! I am saying you should take marriage very seriously and be prepared for so many different aspects of it. Don’t you agree?

The other thing I learned the other day is “make a mountain out of molehill” This is one of the expressions I actually get the meaning as I hear it for the first time. What do you think? Can you get it? It means basically “exaggerate.” For example, you have some bad experiences with your customer at your work today and, because of it, you are worried about you might be getting into a big trouble. Then, I would say “Come on, don’t make a mountain out of the molehill! It is not that important. Just, get over it! It could happen to anybody.” One thing I like about this expression is that this one has got rhyme when you speak. Try it now! Come on, say it to you! Can you feel it? I think that is another fun part of learning English or maybe different languages.

So, don’t be afraid of getting into a new thing. It is all yours. My friend Andrew says “You cannot get it with that attitude! Hey, Believe it and achieve it!” So, my friend out there, “Believe it and Achieve it!” Learning English is fun!! Yay!!

Good night and have a great weekend! ….. and see you soon!