sunday dinner at Browns Hill Bible Chapel
Who taught : Emily, Rachel and Liz
Cake for Leah and Zac's farewell dinner made by Mandie
When I knew that I am coming to the U.S., my father asked one of his friends who is a missionary from the U.S. to find out the church for me to go. He recommended Browns Hill Bible Chapel to my father and me. Since then, Jessy and I are going to the chapel and it has been such a blessing for us. If you are interested in coming, please tell me. We should go together.
A few weeks later from our first visit to the chapel, Debby asked Jessy and me after the church service, “Hey, do you guys want to have dinner together?” I responded, “OK! What time do you want to meet? Maybe around 5:30 pm?” She said, “No, it is now!” “But you said dinner,” I asked again. She then realized and explained to us, “Oh.. we use dinner for Sunday lunch.” I was quite surprised. I have always thought dinner is a meal we eat in the evening. Do you guys really use dinner, meaning lunch or something?
And, yesterday, we had a special Sunday dinner after the service at church to say good bye to our friends, Leah and Zac. They are moving to Spain because of Zac’s new job. They will be staying there for about 5 years and COME BACK to PGH. Right, Zac? They have to because we all miss them so much and I am pretty sure they will miss us too.
Right before the dinner, I was talking to some friends and Emily and Liz were talking to other friends. But we were pretty close. And for some reason, I felt that Emily and Liz were talking about me. When I looked at them, they were like, “Nothing! How did you know we are talking about you.” I said, “I do not know! I just felt it.”
Then, we sat down together to have dinner and Rachel was right next to me. So, I said to Rachel, “Hey, Rachel. You know what happened? Emily and Liz made fun of me.” And Emily said, “No, we did not! We were just teasing you.” At that time, I was kind of confused and thought about the previous post about “Popular VS Famous.” Again, make fun of someone and tease someone have the same meaning in English-Korean dictionary. Thus, it is hard to find out the proper usage of them in a proper context.
So, here is what I learned. Tease is pretty much same act as making fun of but it does not really involve a bad intention.
Am I right? I am still kind of confused. This kind of subtle difference in expressions is so hard to catch.
When my relatives ask If I want to come to dinner I always have to ask them to clarify. Back home and a long time ago dinner meant lunch and supper was the meal at the end of the day. Now dinner is used fairly interchangeably among them so I always have to ask.
Well, maybe around 20 or 30 years later, people would not use dinner for lunch anymore.
Yes, they are nearly the same, but teasing is not necessarily mean. To make fun of someone is usually mean. Intentions are important.
Thanks, Emily! This difference is really good to know because I used to think making fun of someone is the same as teasing someone.
On my mother’s side of the family, Sunday dinner was usually at 1 or 2pm. It’s like that on holidays too. On normal weekdays and Saturdays, the afternoon meal is “lunch” and the evening meal is “dinner” but for some reason they always stuck to having Sunday dinner in the early PM.
When your friends were talking about you, were your “ears burning”? That’s what it’s called when someone is being talked about… so say you and I were talking about Phil, and then he walked over. We’d say “oh your ears must have been burning, we were just talking about you!”
There’s also “speak of the devil”, but that one isn’t quite as nice. Say you and I were talking about how annoyed we were with Phil, and then we saw him coming our way. I could say to you (usually quietly) “and speak of the devil…” You can also use that one in a teasing way, like at a party or something. It’s a little more flirty/playful. The nuances are so hard to describe!
I like ears burning expression. I think we have very similar one in Korea. I will write about it later. 🙂 The nuances are indeed hard to understand too.
It’s common for special holiday ‘dinners’ to be held in the early afternoon. Like Thanksgiving for example. You eat early so you can watch the football game and have 2nds, 3rds, and 4ths before going to bed!
Haha! That is awesome! I would like to have that kind great days, having 2nds, 3rds, and even 4ths. Speaking of holidays, I miss my family! —
I would like to exchange links with your site englishfromfriends.com
Is this possible?
sure, it is!