Monthly Archives: November 2010

26 Nov

meat market

Meat market (source: Wikipedia)

Hi, my friends! How have you been? It has been a while. As you may know, yesterday was Thanksgiving day which is one of the national holidays in the U.S. Thus, I had some time off from my work and writing blog posts. Officially, I am still on Thanksgiving holiday vacation. I am sure this is the only holiday that exists in the U.S. in November. Canadian one is in October and Korean Chusuk(추석) which is vevy similar to American Thanksgiving is usually in September. The thing I really like about this holiday is that it is all about family. Almost all of the families in the U.S. get together and give thanks together and eat together. The most famous food is of course Turkey but people also eat stuffing and pumpkin pie. They are all delicious. Hope you can get to eat them sometime in the future. Now, do you know what day is today, the day after Thanksgiving? It is “Black Friday.” Do you know why? It is because stores have huge discounts and, as a result, people spend a lot of money, shopping. Then, stores, or companies, can make huge profit so that they can be in the black, not in the red. Many stores open very early like 3:00 am. To get the best deal, people actually sleep in front of stores. It is an amazing thing to see. I believe people try to be prepared for Christmas. You know, buying presents to give out on Christmas time.

Since we are talking about shopping, let me introduce one very interesting expression which I really like. “Meat market” Haha…. I know… what is up with the expression? It is a meat market where people buy different kinds of meats, right? Well, this expression means something else too. Can you guess what it would be? OK! Let me write a little bit differently. “Meet market” As you can notice, this is exactly the same pronunciation. So, when you say “meat market,” you actually means “meet market.” The question is what is that place? It is the place that people just go and randomly meet other people to eventually have sex. In that sense, meat market makes sense. We, people, are all meat, or flesh. I, of course, never been to. Honestly, I am not sure this market does really exist or not. Does it exist, my American friends? If so, you should introduce the place to me. I am not saying I am interested in meeting people. I am just being curious. 🙂 Jessy! It is true. 🙂

22 Nov

caboose

Who taught: Kelly

A few months ago, Jessy and I went camping with Phil and Kelly. I think I mentioned this in one of my old posts. This morning, I suddenly remembered one expression Kelly used at that time. When we had a meeting to discuss what we need to prepare, she said, “We have OJs. So, that is good.” Hmm…. I did not quite get it. When I hear OJ, I think of only one thing(?), OJ Simpson. I heard so many times about him even when I was in Korea. But, it does not make sense Kelly’s saying OJ in the preparation of camping. Do you know what OJ is in this context? It is Orange Juice. I thought this is just an expression people use when they speak. But, I actually found one orange juice bottle in a market which has “O.J.” written on its label. Now, I am curious whether people say like “CJ” for cranberry juice or “LA” for lemonade. I have never heard of. Do you guys use it that way?

Do you know what is one of the most amazing things in the  U.S.? It is train. Why? It is really really long. One time, I tried to count number of cars that are pulled by one locomotive. How many? It was more than 100. Imagine that you have to cross railroad but there was a train passing by so that you have to wait! Wait for that long train could take more than 10 minutes. Not just because it is long but also it goes really slow.

Caboose (source: wikipedia)

A few weeks ago, Jessy and I was watching a TV show and, in the show, one guy said, “She’s got great caboose.” From the context, it sounded like he meant her breast. You know, b**bs. But, as we watch it longer, we realized that that was not what he meant. So, I looked it up. You know what I found. It is actually a type of railroad car in which crew members can take a rest. Thus, caboose is always located at the end of a train. Also, this is not really common anymore due to the development of faster locomotives. So, a lot of times, you can find diverse kind of cabooses in railroad museums. But, then what did he mean in the show? Well, he meant butt. Why? I have no idea. The only guess I can take is butt is something you can see in the back and also, as I said, caboose is located always in the back of a train. What do you think, my American friends? Would you agree with me? If you agree, say, “Terry has nice caboose.” (Jessy have always been teasing me that I do not really have a real butt. 🙁 )

19 Nov

over my head

Who taught: Pat

Yesterday, I had this year’s first Thanksgiving dinner with my students and colleagues. Also, there was a small lecture about the history of Thanksgiving given by my boss. During the lecture, I learned about one lady whose name is Sarah Josepha Hale.

She is very famous among Americans not because of Thanksgiving but because of her nursery rhyme, “Mary had a Little Lamb.” But, very few would think of her on Thanksgiving day. I think she deserves to be remembered. Why? Because she was the one who spent 40 years writing to congressmen and five presidents to persuade them to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. And, finally, in 1863, President Lincoln did declare Thanksgiving a national holiday because of her letter.

Can you believe it? For 40 years! To five presidents! She was pretty persistent, wasn’t she? But, the point is she achieved her goal eventually.

So, this Thanksgiving day, you should talk about her to your family or friends and remember her.

A few months ago, I was having some chats about work with Pat using IM. I cannot remember exactly what we talked about but I mentioned about something I did for a customer which was kind of crazy stuff to make things work. As I said this story, he said, “Man, that is over my head.” I did not quite get it. So, I had to ask him. He said, “It is like something hard to understand or beyond my ability.”

To remember this expression, I decided to draw a picture in my imagination. If something is located directly over my head, then I cannot see it at all or cannot see what is happening there. That is what I think of whenever I hear the expression. Or the other way would be trying to find something, you think, very hard to understand like physics, then connect this expression with it. Then you would not forget it at all. Do you know how hard to remember and eventually use a single expression? It is pretty hard. Personally, I would like to make up my own expression, “over my brain.” But I am sure that expression does not exist yet. But, I can try to use more and more until most people use it for 40 years just like Sarah Joseph Hale did. 🙂

17 Nov

the name of the game

Who taught: James

This cannot be true. NO NAME?? (source: crunchberry.org)

In the United States, there are two major communication tools that are used in many companies. One is email and the other one is IM(Instant Messenger). Back when I was in Korea, most of the companies did not like the usage of IM at work. They believed that it is used only for informal chats with friends or coworkers and not for work. Thus, they thought it is really bad for work productivity. Some companies actually blocked a few most common IMs. Not sure how it looks like these days in Korea.

But, in the U.S., IM is one of the critical parts of the communications at work. I have used it so many times to share ideas with my coworkers or even to give updates of my work to my boss, etc.

A few days ago, I had a chance to talk to James using IM. He is my friend and works for the company that I used to work. We had a chance to talk about some sort of work-related stuff. One point I said, “We had to get the things out the door for the customers.” He said, “That is the name of the game.” When he said that, I kind of felt what he meant by it but was also puzzled. So, I had to ask him to make sure what I thought was correct or not, “What is the name of the game? Are you saying ‘Get the things out the door’ is another game or something?” “Oh, no, it is an expression,” said he.

Here is his explanation about the expression, the name of the game.

The essential part or quality necessary for the success of an enterprise or the fulfillment of a goal because when you’re trying to make up games, you try to name them whatever the main point is

To make it easier for you to understand, the name of the game is pretty much the same as “the way the game is played.” One of the best situations you may use this expression is when you really try to play any kind of game with your friends. You can simply say, “So… does everybody know the name of the game?” (I am kind of afraid this would sound like I am really asking whether they know literally the name of the game, though.) Am I right, my American friends? I am going to use this one next time I play a game with Andrew or play squash with Phil.

14 Nov

nice meeting you vs. nice seeing you

Who taught: Jake, Carol and Mark

Nice to meet you. (source: funny-cats-pictures1.blogspot.com)

Last week, I had dinner together with Jake, Carol and Mark, watching Univ of Pitt’s football game. As I walked up to the second floor of the restaurant, I saw a big group of people and one of them was Christian who is also one of my old colleagues. I thought Jake, Carol and Mark were all together with Christian’s group and was kind of confused to see so many people that I do not know at all. Looking for them, I realized that they were not within the group. They were sitting separately and the group was for Python programming language discussion.

Like an hour later, Christian came to us to say hello and chatted with us. Then, as he about to leave, he told me, “Hey! See you, Terry!” Then, I said, “Sure, Nice meeting you!” As soon as I said it, Christian and Jake were like, “What? Did you just say, ‘nice meeting you’?” “Yeah, what is wrong?” said I.

Do you see any issue with it? I mean, the word, meet, means literally, “come together” or “get together.” With that said, the sentence I said was perfectly fine. Don’t you agree? Well… Jake explained to me, “People say ‘nice meeting you’ when they meet for the first time.” He continued, “If you already know someone and you get to meet him/her again, you should say, ‘nice seeing you'” What the h**k?

Carol also told me a story of an episode of 30 rock, one of the famous tv shows in America, in which one lady tried to play a mind game with another guy, by trying to say “Nice meeting you,” even though she already met him beforehand. So, be careful with your choice of a word.

Another thing I want to point out is when to use “meeting” and when to use “to meet.” When you meet someone for the first time ever and introduce each other, then you should say, “Nice to meet you.” Then, you had a chat with him/her for a while and you need to say good bye to him/her as you leave the place, at that moment, you need to say, “Nice meeting you.” It is because ‘to verb’ implies the future whereas ‘verb + ing’ implies the past. Pretty complicated, huh? I am sure most American would not care this kind of subtle difference but that is the correct way. But, the point is do not make the same mistake I made. Sorry, Christian! I did not know that. Next time, I will remember to say, “nice seeing you.” It was really nice seeing you, Christian. Take care!