Monthly Archives: November 2010

12 Nov

Who is there? Mr. Yuk!

Mr. Yuk (source: wikipedia)

Who taught : Prof. E

Every country has a few famous children’s games. I used to play bunch of different games with my friends when I was young. Sometimes, my mother got upset because I spent too much time outside, playing. Living in the U.S., I found one game that is so easy to play and children also love. It is called “Knock Knock who’s there?” game. Have you ever played? It is very simple. Two players take turns to ask and answer. Let me give you an example.

Terry: Knock, Knock.
Jake: Who’s there?
Terry: Repeat
Jake: Repeat who?
Terry: Who Who Who!

As you see from the example above, it is important for the player who started with “Knock, Knock” to come up with a good connection in your answers, such as “Repeat” and “Who Who Who!” I am sure my American friends would add a few comments with much better examples.

Now, if I want to play this game with you, I would try this one.

Me: Knock Knock!

You: Who’s there?

Me: Mr. Yuk!

You: Mr. Yuk who?

Me: Mr. Yuk, Frowny face

Maybe, my American friends would not buy my answer but at least I tried. 🙂 You may notice two expressions in my example, “Mr. Yuk” and “Frowny face.” Yesterday, one of my colleagues, Professor. E, used these expressions in his lecture. I thought it was great. I am very happy to present “Mr. Yuk” because he is originally from Pittsburgh, PA.

Mr. Yuk is a trademarked graphic image, created by the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and widely employed in the United States in labeling of substances that are poisonous if ingested. (source: Wikipedia)

According to Wikipedia, Mr. Yuk is created by a 4th grade elementary school student. You know what I think. Sometimes, simple is better. How simple Mr. Yuk is. Yet, it is so easy to understand. Then, what is frowny face? It is basiclly one of the emoticons, indicating displeasure or unhappiness. I am very sure the frowny face emoticon is from Mr. Yuk.  Prof. E used these in relation to a bad programming practice, saying “You do not want to have frowny face, or Mr. Yuk.” Pretty good, huh?

10 Nov

what smile?

Hello, my friends! It is another day given to us. Hope you all enjoy today! You know what is one of the best ways to enjoy your day? It is smiling.

There are so many studies about the relationship between smile and health. I found 10 reasons to smile on the Internet. Out of 10, I really like these two.

1. Smiling is contagious.

2. Smiling lifts the face and makes you look younger.

Now, don’t you want to smile? To be able to smile, you should really try to think about the things that make you smile instead of the things that make you worry or stressful.

We all now know smiling is good. Well…. not really! It really depends on what kind of smile you have.

A few months ago, Jessy and I were surfing the web and found a video in which one guy just watching a camera with serious face and, all of a sudden, he makes a very strange smile. I am not sure why he is continuously making that look but this video got more than 200,000 hits. But then I noticed the title of the video, pedo smile. I had no idea what pedo smile is.

Of course, I researched about it as I have always done. Curious Terry… 🙂 Pedo is a short version of pedophile. Here is the definition of the word, pedophile.

an adult who is sexually attracted to children

I am pretty sure you get the idea of what “PEDO SMILE” means. This seems like a subjective term but I am sure we all can agree that the smile this guy has is pedo smile.

Today’s lesson! “Smile is good as long as it is not pedo.”

My American friends, are there any other smiles we should be away from? What do you call them, if there is any?

08 Nov

Big vs. bad

Big mouth. I mean literally. (source: www.ebaumsworld.com)

In the U.S., every year, there is a day we can have additional one more hour. It was yesterday. One hour is so much appreciated, especially on Sunday. We can sleep a little more. 🙂  How nice! But, this one hour is the hour we lost in Spring. Do you know what this system is called? It is day-light saving time. When I was young, we used to have the same system in Korea. I am not sure why but the Korean government named this system in English. Do you know what they called it? It was not day-light saving time. It was summer time. When I first got here in the U.S., I used to use “summer time,” meaning day-light saving time. But, many of my American friends did not quite get what I meant by summer time. So… is summer time really incorrect?

Now, let’s talk about big vs bad! If you see someone who really really loves to talk, you know, boast about himself/herself and talk about other people, usually bad things, what would you call him/her? Let me give you a hint? What part of body is he/she using when he/she talks? Haha.. I know… It is too easy for you. You can call him/her “big mouth.” I mean, if someone just cannot stop talking about all the people, then you can even call him/her “gigantic mouth.”

How about badmouth? When would you use it? Pretty easy, right? Well, when I first heard the expression, I thought it means smelly mouth. You know if someone did not brush his/her teeth and tries to talk, you can smell. But, badmouth has nothing to do with smell. In fact, it means criticizing. For example, if you do not like a TV show, you can badmouth it. I like these mouth expressions because they are very intuitive and easy to use although you do not want to be the subject of these expressions. 🙂 It would be a lot easier to learn English if the expressions are all like these, right? I am sure so many people out there would agree with me.

But once again, if something is too easy, then it is not really fun anymore. You should really enjoy challenges.

04 Nov

blue vs red

Who taught: Emily and David

Flag of South Korea (source: wikipedia)

As a South Korean, I am very fond of blue and red colors because the flag of South Korea has TAEGUK in the center which has blue and red colors to represent yin and yang. (For that reason, it is also called TAE-GEUK-GI.) Blue is yin and red is yang. Looking at the flag, you can tell the blue and red colors are tightly connected to each other. This represents a continuous movement within infinity, the two merging as one. (source: Wikipedia)

Two days ago, there was a midterm election in the U.S. from which new U.S. Senate and House of Representatives members were selected. (Some states also elected new governors.) I was very interested in finding out the result. Not surprisingly, it was a big win by the Republican party, GOP (Grand Old Party), over the Democratic party. One of the most interesting outcomes was related with Pennsylvania (PA) state where I live. Historically, PA has been considered as a Democratic stronghold. For this reason, people call PA a “blue state with red center.” Do you know why? The identified color of the Democratic party is blue whereas that of the Republican is red. In the center of PA, a very rural area with a very low population density, people are all republicans whereas most of the people other than the center are democrats. But, this time, Republican candidates swept PA. Especially, governor and senator were from the Republican party.

After the election, my friend Emily and David updated their facebook status, saying “PA is going Red.” Now, without knowing the context mentioned above, no one would be able to understand what it means. Or maybe, people might think PA is gonna be in debt since “being in the red” means being in debt. Don’t you think?

So, to sum it up, it was very interesting for me to see the conflict between Red and Blue in the U.S.

But, I am sure that the new leaders, regardless of their parties, will work together, just like yin and yang of TAEGEUK, so that the country is really moving up to the infinity and beyond like a soaring eagle.

02 Nov

set the tone

Who taught : Andrew

Set the tone (source: shannonstanley.wordpress.com)

Have you ever played team sports such as soccer, baseball, basketball, etc? I strongly believe it is one of the best ways to learn how to collaborate with other people. One of the interesting things I have noticed by participating in team sports is that one person can make a big difference in terms of team performance.

When I was in Korea, I was in a soccer team. The team was not good at all at first but, a few months later, we were able to recruit one player who used to play soccer all the time in many of different soccer teams. He knew how to play a better soccer. As we all practiced and played together, we all got better. But  the main reason why we were able to beat many other teams was not that he was a good player but that he had an ability to organize the whole team.

A few weeks ago, Andrew and I were talking about his ultimate frisbee team. I said, “So, how is your ultimate frisbee these days?” He said, “That is very interesting question. So….. when I first got to know about my team members, I thought the team would lose a lot because the players are not that great compared to other teams. But, we did really good and won many games.” “Why?” said I. He answered, “Interestingly, it was because of one lady. She is a good player but, more importantly, she is amazingly good at organizing the team. She basically set the tone for the team and games. We all followed her and, as a result, won the games.”

That is right! There is an expression, “set the tone.” The meaning of the expression is to establish a particular mood. Well, if you set the tone correctly, then the outcome should usually be good, I believe, just like the soccer player I mentioned earlier. But it is also possible to set the tone in a bad way. Are you a person who sets the tone? If so, you would want to set the optimistic tone. I am sure there are so many ways to set the tone. What else do we have? Do you have any good examples you have done, setting the tone? Actually, you can set the tone for your day every day? Let’s do it, shall we? Am I setting the tone here? 🙂