Who taught: Andrew

The other day, at the climbing wall, Andrew and I was working on one of the hardest ones. 🙂 When I almost got to the final piece of the climbing, he told me, “Stick a for in it!” I had to say, “What? what does it mean?” He told me this is something I can use when something is done or to be done. But then, I asked a question, “Why did you use it? Is it something related with cooking?” From that moment, many of my American friends over there started a discussion about its origin. “Is it because people used it when they check whether the potatoes are fully cooked or not.?” Then, I told my friends, “Yeah, that makes sense because you guys eat potatoes all the time, right?”

Then, there was also the other opinion, “No, maybe it is because we used to put fork into meat to check whether it is cooked properly or not.” Regarding that opinion, there was also a disagreement. “Aren’t we use like knife or something to check meat?” Well, we did not get the answer. But I am still curious. My guess is that it is because of potatoes. Do you have any thoughts on this?

I think there are so many expressions used by Americans without thinking about the origin or the reason. It totally makes sense because I would be the same if I speak Korean. I maybe the one who makes my friends think about those things because I ask bunch of questions, usually “why?” I feel like I am going through American childhood time.

Oh, funny thing is you can also use this expression for people, like “stick a fork in him!” But, I am confused about the meaning if I use the expression for people. Is it something I can use when someone fights against someone else and one person is winning and ready to hit the final punch, then we can use the expression?? Any good examples you have? Sigh… So hard. English is hard.

But if anything is easy, no fun of doing it! So I like learning English, especially from good friends. Thanks for bearing with me, my friends!