Monthly Archives: August 2010

09 Aug

break a leg

Who taught: Ashka

Break a leg (Source: http://www.risingsunofnihon.com)

One of the good ways of learning English is reading good and well-written articles. In that sense, I have a very good article that you can read today. My friend, Jerome, posted this on his facebook and I think this is really worth reading and at least spend sometime to think about it.

Last Friday, I sent an email to my friends at my previous company to say good bye. Almost all of them responded me, wishing me good luck. Once again, thank you, my friends! I wish the best of luck to you too.

Ashka also responded but, in her email, she did not say “good luck.” Instead, she said, “break a leg!!!”

Well, to be honest, I had no idea about what it would mean. The only guess I had was like, “Do your best till you break your leg!”

But, ironically, this expression means, “Good luck!” There is a dedicated wikipedia page for this expression. On the page, you can find so many different theories of the etymology of the expression. Among them, I think the second one, Bowing, makes most sense.

For your information, here is the second etymology, Bowing.

This theory is thought to be an extension of the Traditional Theory. For the curtain call, when actors bow or curtsy, they place one foot behind the other and bend at the knee, “breaking” the line of the leg. In theatre, pleased audiences may applaud in which time encore bows sometimes occur. On Broadway this is considered the highest compliment to an actor.

Which one do you think makes most sense?

And…. I think you should be careful using this expression to any non-native English speakers. They would think you are crazy when you use this. For example, if your non-native English speaker friend is about to do interview and you say, “Break a leg!”, they would be like, “What? Do you really want me to break my leg? I cannot go to the interview. What are you saying there?”

Don’t you think so? This would really happen. But, Ashka, I know what you mean. Thank you so much wishing me luck! I will do my best out there and I will miss you. Let me know when you are around the town so that we could hang out!

08 Aug

my girls

Who taught: Jake, Andrew and Ari.

Know Your Girls (Source: Yoplait)

Last Friday was my last day at my company and I went out to a Mexican restaurant to have lunch together with some of my friends. I cannot remember how we got into but we talked about picking up children from daycare center. Ari has two beautiful girls and they all go to the same daycare center. “Jake! If you want, you can always pick up my girls,” said Ari.

Now, do you find any issue with this sentence? Not really, right? It is just a simple sentence that Jake can pick up Ari’s girls from the daycare center. But, Andrew and Jake started to laugh and Ari and I were not sure why? “Hey, what is wrong with that saying?” said I. Andrew said, “Girls could mean something else.” I said, “What? Really? What do they mean?”

What do you think they would mean? Tell you what! You would not be able to figure out easily. They mean breast of women. Once we heard that, Ari said, “No! I did not know that meaning! Jake, if you do that, I will slap you. I meant my children.” I was pretty surprised by the fact that they could mean those. 🙂 Wow! I would have not known that at all.

One good example of the usage of this expression is, I think, the breast cancer campaign done my Yoplait. The title of the campaign was “know your girls!”

So, here is my question! What if a man says my girls? Does it have any meaning in some context? You know like balls?

04 Aug

not a big fan of it

What is the best way to express disagreement?

Well, you could say, “I don’t like it.” or even simpler, “No!” But, is this really a good way of conversation? I guess not. So, what other alternatives we would have? For example, you and you friends are talking about a TV show such as The Office. Well, your friends really like it but you think it is a dumb show. (I am not saying the show is really dumb. It is very fun to watch.) What would you say? If you are really close to your friends, it would be fine for you to say like, “Well, I do not like it. That show is stupid.” But, if you are not really close to them, I think you should use some other expressions like, “Well, I am not a big fan of it. I think the story is not really great.” Or, “I am not that into it. I think Mad Men is better.” (Mad Men is also a very great show. You should watch it too.)

I think people in America do use many expressions which are not direct. For example, if you just look up a dictionary to find out a verb to be used for disagreement, the word you can easily find would be “disagree.” Then, you can simply use it in conversations like, “I disagree.” or “I do not agree.” But, I am not sure it is really a good one to use, especially in business conversations. So, I would suggest to find and learn some of the expressions that can be used in situations where you need to say no or disagree.

In that sense, I think “I am not a big fan of it” is a good one. I have heard this expression a lot from my friends. My American friends! Do you have any other expressions you use a lot when you disagree with someone or you do not like something?

03 Aug

big 10/4

Who taught: James and Kerry

Truckers' slang

James and I sometimes go to a coffee place, called 61c Cafe, near our company. Their cappuccino is one of my favorites. I would say the best in Pittsburgh. A few days ago, we went to the coffee place and on our way back to the office, James told me one story about how he used one of the truck drivers’ slang in his email. When Kerry sent an email to James, James responded to him simply saying, “10/4.”

Truck drivers in America use CB radios and, when they use this, they use a lot of abbreviated expressions. 10/4 is one of them, meaning, “I got it.” or “Understood.” One good example of conversation that would happen James gave me is as follows.

1. A truck driver says, “Where is your 10/20?”

2. Another drive answers, “I am at Forbes Ave in Pittsburgh.”

3. Then the first driver says, “10/4. I will see you there.”

10/20 means location.

And, James told me that this expression known to almost all of the people in America so that everybody understands it.

So, next time if your wife calls you, trying to say like, “Hey, Honey! Where is your 10/20?” Or, every time she asks you to clean your feet before you go to bed, you can say “10/4!” But, you have to really clean them when you say 10/4. 🙂

There are some other ones you might like or even use later.

1. Big 10/4 : I completely agree.

2. 10/100 : I need to go to restroom to pee.

Oh! a pop quiz for you here! How about 10/200? Here is a hint for you! Read this post, then you would get to know the meaning of it. If you still cannot figure out, leave me a comment! 🙂

02 Aug

on your left

Who taught : Andrew and Stacy

PMS

Have I told you that Jessy is watching “Everybody Loves Raymond” show almost everyday these days. The only reason she bought this show was because it was the cheapest. But, as we watch together, we find that it is quite entertaining. When I was in Korea, I thought there is no tension between wife and husband’s mother (her mother-in-law) in America. But, watching the show, I realized that there is in America. I do not think it is as much as the one in Korea. This show has very funny stories about the tension. I would recommend you to watch this show. The tension between wife and her mother-in-law in Korea is pretty severe and, sometimes, it could become out of control and I do think people even get divorced due to this. Well, anyway, we were watching one episode this evening in which Raymond and Debra fight. In the middle of fighting, she said, “You think this is because of PMS.” Well, do you know what it is? It stands for premenstrual syndrome. And here is the full definition of it on wikipedia.

a collection of physical, psychological, and emotional symptoms related to a woman’s menstrual cycle.

Urban dictionary says it is basically men’s nightmare. Well, I guess it is good to know the expression as well as the syndrome. In the episode, Raymond was not good at reacting to Debra and that is why they were fighting. What is a man supposed to do when a woman is going through PMS every month?

Are there any other similar expressions?

Having a lunch together with Andrew and Stacy today, we talked about the situation that you find yourself in the middle of a race. What is happening is runners or bikers tell you something if you are in front of them and blocking them from their path. For example, imagine that you are walking on a narrow road and there is a runner behind you, she/he will shout to you like, “On your left!” if she/he wants to go through your left side. So, then which way should you move aside? It is easy, right? To the right! But, when it comes to the time that it really happens to you, it is hard to figure our and react quickly. This is one small cultural difference between America and Korea. In Korea, runners or bikers would not tell you anything and they will just pass by you any side they want to take.

So, if you are in America, you gotta have a good sense of direction, especially to right or left, when you walk on a road. 🙂 I am pretty sure you would have a hard time to figure out which side is right or left in English if things happen so fast.