Who taught: Jean

A week ago, Jean pinged me, saying “Do you know ‘pulling your leg’?” As soon as I heard the expression, my first interpretation was “I am out of this!” My example would be like “I do not think this is a good idea. I am pulling my leg here.” The reason why I thought that way is because of the expression of “put my foot in something!” It means you are really good at something. So, for example, since I have gone through two years and two months of the Korean Army time, I became to be pretty good at cooking Korean noodle. My friends who eat Korean noodle I cooked would say to me, “Terry! man, this noodle is awesome. You really put your foot in it!” Don’t you think so, my friends?

But, as it usually is the case, I was wrong. Jean gave me the context she was in when she used the “pull your leg” expression. She said, “I said to Ari that when she’s gone to have her baby, I was going to keep the window open all the time!” And, Ari told Jean, “I am sorry! I just do not like too bright.” And Jean told Ari, “It’s all right! I am just pulling your leg!” It turns out the expression is the same one to “I am joking or kidding!” So, I asked Jean about the reason why that expression is equivalent to “I am kidding!” She told me that it is because when you pull other person’s leg, it is totally intentional and when you joke, it is something you intend to say in that way.

Again, interesting mixture of words to make a total different meaning. What if I say, “I am just pushing your leg!” Would that be the same meaning?