Monthly Archives: June 2010

22 Jun

skid down the street

Correction (June/23/2010) : The expression is “Skipping down the street.”

Who taught: Pat and Stan

Lightning bugs

One of the things I find very pleasing in the U.S. is lightning bugs. I remember I saw many of them in Korea when I was young. But, as most of the cities become very industrialized, the number of lightning bugs decreased and eventually they are all gone, I think. But, in Pittsburgh, there are so many of them you can see this time of the year, which makes me want to take a walk at night. When I say so many, I really mean it. As you walk, you can easily catch them and they are not afraid of people at all. Considering the fact that Pittsburgh is the 22nd biggest metropolitan area, it is really amazing to see that many of lightning bugs. I feel like I am looking at fireworks every night. Speaking of lightning bugs, there is a story related with them in Korea. In the old days, people catch and put them into some sort of jar to use as a light to save the cost of buying oils. I am not sure how far back it goes, though. Does anybody know, if you happen to be a Korean reader of this blog?

This morning, I met Pat and Stan on my way to the office. As always, I said to them, “How are you?” with my happy face. (I mean I am really happy all the time. There are so many things I am grateful for.) Then, Pat told me, “T-Bone, You look so happy.” “Yeah, It is Tuesday, not Monday. Isn’t it so good?” I said. Then, Pat said, ” Man, you are skidding down the streets.”

Well, I did not quite get it. I had to ask, “Skidding down the streets? What does it mean?” Pat said, “Well, you know, people are skidding or sliding down the streets when they are happy. Think about the way of sliding the streets!”

Well, that is right! It is another way of describing that you are quite happy or excited. So, are you going to skid down the streets to work tomorrow? You should because you have got something to work on today!

21 Jun

twist arm

Who taught: Carol and Jake

Harley Davidson

One of the things I find really annoying in America is the sound of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. It really bothers me when anyone passes my house riding it at night when I try to focus on writing a new post. One just passed by my house. Please, somebody stop it!

This morning, I met Carol and Jake on my way to the office. Oh, did I tell you that? I walk to the office since it is really close to my house. It is like 10 minutes walking. It is so convenient! Anyway, during our Monday morning conversation, they told me one expression they thought during the weekend to tell me today. “Twist your arm?” Well, when I first heard it, I thought it would be like someone trying to hurt another person. You know like TAE KWON DO. Carol told me, “Close but you can use this expression more sarcastically. For example, if Jake asked me to go to ice cream store, then I could say like, ‘if you twist my arm!””

So, the definition of the expression I found is

to persuade someone to do something that they do not want to do

I personally have a good example. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I went mountain biking last Saturday. Pat was supposed to join but he told me he could not in Saturday Moring. Then, I sent text messages a few times, trying to make him change his mind to join. So, basically what happened was I tried to twist his arm to go to mountain biking with me but he eventually did not. Pat, it was the best mountain biking ever. You should have come. The more I think about the expression, I feel like the person whose arm get twisted is still a little bit interested in the thing he/she is supposed to do or he/she has no specific preference for something. Thus, if someone really asks him/her to do something, he/she would do it because by twisting his/her arm, he/she actually does something eventually. Am I right?

I am sure you would have similar experiences in you life. So, try to use this next time if you are in this kind of situation.

Arggggggg!! Another Harley-Davidson just passed by again! Dang! I hate that sound. It is so loud!

20 Jun

taco wheel

Who taught: Carl

Definitely, I am going through American childhood. Yesterday morning, I went mountain biking with my friends for the first time in my life. It was about 1 hour and 30 minutes riding. All the way, I was following them. The scariest part of it was downhill. Sometimes, it is so steep and there are so many tree roots I need to go over which makes me hard to maneuver the bike. Also, there are so many steep hills on my side that, if I make a small mistake, I can easily fall down. Isn’t it scary? One big tip for you! If you mountain bike, you do need to wear bike gloves. Due to the lack of gloves, I get two blisters on my thumbs, one on each. Can you picture me having two bandages on my thumbs right now, typing this post in front of my computer? Yeah, that is what is happening now. Poor Terry! 🙂

Yummy Taco

But, one good thing was I did not wreck my bike. My friends told me that there are high chances that the first time mountain biker would wreck his/her bike. (Even though I add ‘her’ here, I strongly doubt that mountain bike is a sport that women like or enjoy. Am I right?) After the first round of bike was done, Carl, my boss, told me, “Terry! You did good for your first time. You did not taco your wheel.” I asked, “What is taco wheel?” I guess you can kind of understand it if you think about the shape of taco. Oh, I just realized that I have not had any tacos at all when I was back in Korea. Here is the definition of taco from the Wikipedia.

a traditional Mexican dish composed of a corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, chicken, seafood, vegetables and cheese, allowing for great versatility and variety. A taco is generally eaten without utensils and is often accompanied by garnishes such as salsa, cilantro, tomatoes, onions and lettuce.

Mexican food is so popular in the U.S. now. So, if you come to America, you should try to find a good Mexican restaurant or safe bet would be Chipotle. You should be able to find a Chipotle in any of the big cities.

So, if you taco your wheel, it means basically you got your wheel totally wrecked. This is an example of biking jargon. There must be a lot more than this. Do you know any?

I kind of like this sort of expression. You know, using some of the food or any object to describe some situations. I guess we all can make one as long as it is reasonable and acceptable by other people. Here is a challenge for you! What is your own expression with food in it?

17 Jun

pull What?

Who taught: Andrew, Pat, Ari and Jean

The first ultimate frisbee in my life! That’s right. I played it today with my friends. To be honest, I thought it would be easy but it is not. It is hard physically as well as technically. Nothing is easy in the world! Don’t you agree? But, that is why it is good to be alive. I mean you gotta love challenges because, at the end of the day, you, not anybody else in the world, are the one who would feel accomplishments if you overcome all of the challenges.

Andrew told me the rules of this game. Instead of my explaining here, I will give you a good link about the game for you in case you are really interested in. One of the rules is very similar to the American football. If one team scores, then each team lines up in their own sides of the field and the team which just scored throws the disc from its side to the other side. For this one, a team member who is good at throwing the disc takes the action. Andrew called this action, “pulling.” Patrick and I were curious about it. “Hey, why is it pulling, not pushing or throwing?” “I think it is because most people do backside throw and it looks like you pull the disc from inside of your body,” Andrew said. It sounds reasonable. Then, hearing that, I said, “All right! Let’s pull out!” “T-Bone! Pull out is different from pull,” Andrew told me. At that moment, I remembered that I had a very similar conversation with Jean and Ari before.

About one year ago, all of the techies in my company went to a retreat together. During a break, we were having a small talk about getting older. No offense to older people than me! But, I now started to have gray hairs and Ari noticed that I have a few of them. “Hey, Terry! You have gray hairs there,” she said. “I know, every time I found them, I ask Jessy to pull them out,” I said. Well, at that moment, Jean said, “I think pull out is not really good to use there.” We were like, “Why? What is wrong with pull out?” “It actually has a different meaning,” Jean said. Well, it turns out pull out has a very very different meaning. Here is the definition for you I found from the Urban Dictionary.

A form of birth control practiced by idiot couples to prevent pregnancy.

It is also called “Pull Out (Withdrawl) Method”.

I do not want to put too explicit ones here but there are bunch of different definitions in the Urban Dictionary and, interestingly, every single of them is the same. The only difference is the degree of explicitness. If you still cannot understand the meaning of it, here is the link for you!

So, to me, it sounds like it is not a good idea to use “pull out” expression. Am I correct? When do you use that expression except for this meaning? In addition, what kind of expression should I use to describe the action of removing my gray hairs? Maybe, take out?

16 Jun

camping story 2

who taught: Andrew, Jake, Jean and Carol

Public Bathhouse (ëĒŠėš•íƒ•)

One time, I was in Paris, the capital of fashion. (Some may argue that New York City is the capital of fashion.) As I walking around the city, I found very familiar language written on a bag that a woman was carrying. It was Korean. (She was not a Korean or Asian at all.) It says, “ė„œėš¸ ëĒŠėš•íƒ•.” If I would translate it into English, it would be like, “Seoul Public Bathhouse.” Here, most of American friends would be curious about public bathhouse. It is a place where all of the people pay and go in to take baths together. I mean people share spa and sauna, etc. And, of course, they are all naked. People go there with their coworkers or friends to have some time together, relaxing and, at the same time, taking baths. I bet it sounds weird to you, my American friends, right? But, there are so many other countries having this kind of place in the world. So, who want to go to the place with me? Andrew? Oh, maybe you, Pat! Well, going back to the story, to Korean people, it is weird to carry any bags with “Public Bathhouse” on them. But, I am pretty sure it would look cool for foreigners to have those bags with foreign language written on. In fact, you would be surprised, if you were in Korea, that how many people wear clothings with English on them. I am pretty sure that some of the expressions or words are not really correct and some may even worse than incorrect.

Men's restroom sign in China

Speaking of wrong expressions in non-English speaking countries, I ran into this interesting article today about wrong translation. One of the examples is a restroom sign. As you can see in the picture here, there is “Male Man” on the door of men’s restroom. I wonder whether there is “Female Man” or “Female Woman” on the door of ladies’ restroom. This would happen because of the thinking process of a person who is in charge of the signs to translate to English based on the meaning of his/her own native language. Now, if you were in front of the door, looking at the sign, what would be your reaction? I know! You would be like, “Wow, what is going on here? Male Man?” Andrew! What would be your correction here?

Have you gone camping? I mean the real “camping” camping. You know… bring your own tent and sleeping bag. When you get to the camping site, what is the first thing you would do? Let me guess! Build a tent, right? Well, do you also know that you can say “pitch a tent.” A few weeks ago, Andrew asked me a question to me, “Hey, Terry! Do you know what ‘pitch a tent’ means?” Well, I actually thought ‘build a tent’ but I knew that it should have another meaning. “Think about the shape of the tent if you already built it,” Andrew said to help me out.

So, what do you think it is? Here is the definition I found from the Urban Dictionary.

To have an erection while lying down so that the sheets covering you pop up like a tent with a pole in the middle.

That is right! That is what it means. But, I doubt you would use this expression for this meaning at all. I mean how many times you would see this situation and, even if you see it, would you dare to say it? But, again, it is always good to know just in case 🙂

Actually, you know what? You could find some guys in Korean public bathhouse, pitching a tent because some guys really fall into sleep in the place and you know…. that could happen. So, that would be the time you can really use the expression.