Monthly Archives: July 2010

20 Jul

spnning my wheels

Who taught : Colin

I have a question to you, my American friends. So, assuming that you are in a foreign country such as Korea and you are having a hard time to find a place where you need to go, you decided to ask one of the Korean people on street.

What would be the first question you ask? Is it “Excuse me! Do you speak English?” or “Excuse me! Can you speak English?”

Which one would you use? Just curious! Because I used to think it should be ‘Can you speak English?’ but now I think it would be ‘Do you speak English?’

Spinning wheels

Well, let’s go on to today’s expression. There is a Korean expression, 쳇바퀴돌다 (chet-ba-qui-dol-da). The translation would be ‘go around in circle.” The meaning of it is basically ‘waste time’ or ‘does not make any progress at all.’

Around a month ago, Colin came to me and said, “Hey, I just thought about a good expression for me. ‘Spinning my wheels’ I was working on something but was not able to make good progress yet. And, in this situation, I would say, ‘I am spinning my wheels on this issue’.” Well, this one was not hard for me to find out the meaning of it by hearing it. But, once I hear it, I realized that there is almost same expression for this one. This was pretty interesting. And, last week, James actully used this expression when he was in the same situation with one of work items he is taking care of.

Having written this blog, it is actually rare to find an English expression that has almost same one in Korean. Korea is located totally the other side of America on the earth. According to history, Korea made a treaty with America about trade in 1882. And it was the first time that Koreans are interacting with Americans. I doubt they can really easily understand each other back then. But, it would be interesting if the Korean expression originated from English or vice versa. Maybe the Korean one is from Chinese? Not sure!

19 Jul

tooth deep inside

Where : Dentist office

Last Friday, I went to a dentist office near my office. In U.S., the usual steps for you to see a doctor is as follows.

1. Call a doctor’s office or a hospital to make a reservation. (It is important to check your insurance to see whether the office or hospital is in network for the insurance.)

2. Go to the hospital/office on the day you made a reservation. (Even you go to the hospital on time, chances are you would need to wait for a while. Usually around 30 minutes or an hour. Also, you might need to fill bunch of documents up there. This would also take some time.)

3. Talk to a doctor/nurse and, if necessary, you need to take some exams.

4. Once everything is done, you usually just got out of the hospital/office without paying any money.

5. Around a month later, you will get bunch of mails about all those costs. (Here, you would be so surprised how much it would be without your insurance. Honestly, if you have any health issue when you do not have an insurance, you are in big trouble. You could be broke. It is beyond your imagination. So, when you come to U.S., always get any insurance just in case that you end up going to a hospital.)

So, about four years ago, I went to a dentist office in Korea to take care of my teeth as a preparation for moving to U.S. One of the things I had to do was putting a gold onlay in one of my back teeth. Unfortunately, a few days ago, it fell out and I lost it. I think I swallowed it and, by now, it would be flushed out to septic tank of my apt. 🙂

Well, that is why I went to the dentist office last Friday. And, as I sit down, a nurse asked me, “So which tooth do you have a problem?” I said, “The one deep inside!” Then, she said, “Oh, molar!” Well, at that moment, I realized that I did not know that word. Also, there are a few words you would like to know in relation to dentist office visit.

Inlays and Onlays

1. inlays : Dental inlays are used to treat teeth that have decay or damage lying within their indented top surfaces. They can also be used to replace old or damaged metal fillings.

2. onlays : Whereas dental inlays are designed to treat decay within the cusps, or top projections, of a tooth, onlays are used to treat decay that extends to one or more of the cusps. Onlays are placed in much the same way as inlays.

3. cavity (tooth decay) :  a disease wherein bacterial processes damage hard tooth structure. Korean equivalent : 충치(Chung-Chee)

This time, instead of putting gold onlay, the doctor told me that he is going to put a crown. In dentistry, crown is a type of dental restoration which completely caps or encircles a tooth or dental implant and is typically bonded to the tooth using a dental cement.

All of these words or expressions are hard to think about until you really get to the point that you need to visit a hospital or a doctor’s office. I remember when Jessy needs to see a doctor because of her issue with her uterus, she had to go through her dictionary to find out the names of women’s organs.

I need to go to the dentist office again this Thursday to treat it, which I really am reluctant to. Who likes going to dentist office? Are there any other words or expressions which are useful to know with regard to dentist office visit?

15 Jul

bumping uglies

Who taught : Andrew

Wow! My blog is featured in this blog, READABLE BLOG, and the author, Clarissa, said that I am a great example of an enthusiastic language learner who likes thinking about language. I don’t know what to say. Thank you!

Two days ago, Andrew asked me a question. “Terry, do you know what ‘bumping uglies’ means?” I was thinking and thinking….. but cannot even guess what it means. “So, uglies mean something really bad?” I asked. He said, “No, they are not bad. Actually, they could be good.” I tried a few things but I was not even get closer at all. Then, he showed me some actions to describe the expression. Then, I got it. Can you guess? Tell you what! If your mind is in the gutter, you would be able to guess but people like me cannot at all. You know, innocent people! 🙂 (Andrew, I am not saying your mind is in the gutter because you are American and you already know what it means.) Simply, it means “sex.” I was trying to find out its origin but was not successful. Some people say a rapper started to use it as an euphemism for sex. But I cannot buy it. (For some people who would not know ‘buy’ means here, it is the same as ‘believe’. So, I am saying I cannot believe it.)

To be honest, I kind of like this expression. It sounds very funny and cute, doesn’t it? I mean I can understand why there is ‘bumping’ but selection of ‘uglies’ is quite interesting here, representing reproductive organs. Why not bumping beauties or bumping things? And, if I say just ‘uglies’ in a sexual context, would people connect them as the organs? Always curious about the expression!! I have to say. Writing this blog is so much more fun than I thought it would be. Any non-native English speaker should try it. You will learn a lot more and faster. I guarantee!

14 Jul

haircut

Who taught: Andrew, Stan and Kara

Where it would be useful : hair salon

Mullet haircut

Yesterday, I went to a hair salon to get my hair cut. Price of haircut in America is pretty high compared to that of Korea. I used to pay around 8 – 10 dollars for my haircut in Korea. Here in America, it is around 25 dollars and that does not include tips. (This could go up way higher in other cities such as New York or San Francisco.) So, every time I get my hair cut, I need to pay around 30 dollars. To save money, I always get very short hair cut and let it grow for a while like 5 – 6 months. On average, I go to the hair salon around 3 times per year.

This morning, Andrew noticed that I got a haircut. “Hey, T-Bone! You got a haircut.” I answered, “Yeah! What do you think?” “Hmm… It looks like boy’s haircut. Too short!” said Andrew. I said, “Well, it is summer. And it was pretty long. Can you notice a line created by tanned part and untanned part due to the long hair in my back.” Andrew responded, “Why? Did you have a mullet hair style?”

Here, I had to ask, “What is that hair style?” Then, Stan showed me how that hair style looks like using his long hair.

Here is the definition of that hair style.

a hairstyle that is short at the front and sides, and long in the back.

Emo haircut

Andrew said, “It is also called ‘business in the front, party in the back’.” Isn’t that funny? Speaking of hair style, there is another one I learned from Kara. It is emo style. Emo itself is a style of rock music but it is different from the classic rock. Then, let’s think about the hair style all of the rock singers usually have. It is long, right? So, emo style is kind of long but a little different. Its look includes long side-swept bangs, sometimes covering one or both eyes. Well, you need to see the picture I am inserting here to have proper idea about it.

When you go to a hair salon, there are two equipment stylists use a lot. They are scissors and what? In Korea, I used to call it 바리깡(Ba-Ri-Ggang). Do you know why we call it Ba-Ri-Ggang? It is actually not from English but from French, sort of. The name of the French company which makes this equipment is “Bariquant de Marre.” The first part of the name is “Bariquant.” I do not know who first started to call it following its company name. But, interestingly, if you say Ba-Ri-Ggang in Korea, everybody understands what is means.

Well, so if you had a chance to get your hair cut in America and you do not want your stylist to use Ba-Ri-Ggang, you should say, “Please do not use hair clipper to cut the sides! I want you to use scissors instead.” These kind of expressions seems not really important to know but you could easily find out that you wish you already know these before you actually go into a hair salon to get a better haircut. Funny, isn’t it?

I am pretty sure there must be a lot more expressions related with haircut. Do you know any?

13 Jul

shotgun wedding

Whose story : Ashka

Wedding Kiss

Based on what I have observed till now, I think the following is a normal process for a couple get married in America.

1. Start to see each other.

2. Fall in love and spare a lot of time together.

3. Live together (This step could take a few years.)

4. If a couple is still together after a few years of living, then, at some point, a guy pops the question. (Or maybe a lady is the one who pops the question.)

5. Once they are engaged, they start to plan on wedding but it could also take around a year till they really have a wedding ceremony.

Again, this would not be typical case but I have seen bunch of couples going through these steps. Especially, it is very typical to take around a year from proposal to wedding. My friend, Ashka who just got engaged a few weeks ago, decided to have her wedding this coming Labor day (Sep 6th 2010) weekend. It is a quite short period from engagement to wedding. So, whenever she tells her friends that she is going to marry this Labor day weekend, they ask her, “What? That early! Don’t say this is a shotgun wedding! Is it?” Here is a very interesting expression, shotgun wedding! I personally think this is very American one because it indicates the use of a gun. You all know that people can buy guns in America. For your better understanding, here is a good definition I got from Ashka.

A shotgun wedding takes place when the girl gets pregnant while dating a boy and the boy is not too sure about marrying her. So, the father of the girl steps in and uses a shotgun to scare the boy and talk him into marrying his daughter. Basically saying you got her pregnant so you better marry her or I am going to shoot you!

Well, this is not happening now. But I do believe this used to happen in the past and it became an expression.

For the similar case, we, Korean, have a very different expression. 속도위반(Sok-Do-Wui-Ban) Its literal translation is “speed limit violation.” It originates from traffic law. If you violate speed limit, there is a higher chance that you can get into an accident. By accident, I mean a guy knocks a girl up. That is a big accident because there are not that many days a woman can get pregnant in a year. So, Korean people would say, “Is this marriage a Sok-Do-Wui-Ban or what?”, if a couple tries to marry all of a sudden. What a different expression for a similar situation! Isn’t it?

Ashka, many conguratulations on your wedding! Wish the best of luck in your life ahead! By the way, are you sure it is not a shotgun wedding or Sok-Do-Wui-Ban? 🙂