Who taught: Andrew, Jean and Vincent

Brother from another mother (source: cheezburger.com)

Once again, it has been a while! I was in Philly to visit one of my friends during Thanksgiving weekend. How have you all been? I hope everything goes well with you. As you know, I am in Pittsburgh. Last night, it snowed. And I am sure it will continuously snow from today. That means it is officially winter here in Pittsburgh. How about where you live? Is it Winter or Summer? Either way, hope you have a great time!

Yesterday, I had dinner together with my friends. Jean said, “There is a potluck party in the company next week. I am sorry you are not invited. I wish you were also there.” (FYI, it is the company that I used to work.) Oh, have I told you about what “potluck” means? One of the things I really like in the U.S. is this culture of potluck. Here is the definition of potluck on Wikipedia.

a gathering of people where each person or group of people contributes a dish of food to be shared among the group.

What do you think? It is great in a sense that the host of a party does not need to worry about food too much but, at the same time, many people can enjoy different kinds of food. This is not very typical in Korea. Every time there is a party, the host needs to prepare most of the food and it is quite challenging.

Moving on, as Jean said it, Andrew said to me something very fast so that I was not able to get it perfectly. So, I said, “What? What did you say?” “Terry, you are my brother from another mother,” said Andrew. Jean said, “The most important thing of this expression is that you need to speak very fast since it rhymes.” What does it mean? I am sure you can guess it very easily. It means:

a good friend that you have known almost your whole life. The word “brother” is used because the friend is extremely close to you to the point that he is almost like your brother–but from a different mother. (source: Urban Dictionary)

There is an expression with the same meaning in Korean. It is “불알친구 (Bul-al-Chin-Gu).” Literal translation into English is “Friend of Testicles.” Why there is testicles here? Well, when you are really really young like one year old. Who cares you wear any clothing or not. And, you and your friend have grown up together being friends from that age. Then, you can call him 불알친구. One caveat here is that this only applies to men, as you may notice. 🙂 I am not sure we have another expression for women. I do not think we have any? Hmm.. Interesting. Now, I have trouble to find Korean words. Ironic!