Monthly Archives: December 2010

10 Dec

cash and prizes

Who taught: Dwayne Johnson

Junk in the trunk? (source: http://forums.techguy.org/)

There is a new movie in theaters, called “Faster.” Dwayne Johnson is starring in the movie. A few weeks ago, Jessy and I were watching Tonight show with Jay Leno. The first guest on the show was Dwayne Johnson. And, they of course talked about the movie and blah blah blah….  In the middle of their conversation, Dwayne used one expression that caught my attention, cash and prizes. When he said, it was pretty obvious that he meant “penis and testicles.” If you do not mind, let me do a simple anatomy of the expression.

cash -> penis, prizes -> testicles

Now, I have tried to find the etymology of this expression, asking myself, “Why? Why cash is penis and prizes are testicles?” I still cannot figure out. I do need your help here. Does anybody can tell me the etymology of this expression?

There are a few other expressions that have the same meaning.

1. twig and berries : Twig is of course penis and berries are testicles. This sounds really obvious if you can picture twig and berries and think of penis and testicles. They look similar, right?

2. Or simply you can use a word, junk.

Now, speaking of junk, there is another expression you might hear often. “Junk in the trunk” Let me ask you one thing now! Can you say the expression out loud? Well, hope you are not in the United States and there is no a women with junk in the trunk in front of you. If so, run now! She might kill you.

Why? junk in the trunk means simply a big butt. How big? I do not know. I guess it should be pretty obvious so that everyone can agree it is big. But, what if it is huge. Do we still say it ‘junk in the trunk’? Tricky question it is. You know what! To be able to catch those kind of small difference, you should be here in the U.S. and use the expressions as much as you can. Now, can you sat the expression out loud again? 🙂

08 Dec

as happy as a clam

Who taught: Sunjoo

Happy as a clam (source: http://www.civin.org/)

Do you remember the post I wrote about super salad? Let me take a moment to remind you of how important for you to be prepared for a few questions you should answer whenever you order food. A lot of those questions are very short and sometimes hard to understand if you do not know the context. One of them, of course, is “Soup or Salad.” We get this question almost always when my friends and I go to a restaurant to have dinner.

Whenever there is a time to choose soup or salad, my friend, Pat, always goes for a clam chowder soup. For those of you who may not know what chowder is. Chowder itself is a type of soup containing pieces of fish. For clam chowder, the fish is clam. In Pittsburgh, most of restaurants have only one kind of clam chowder soup. But, if you go to some other cities such as New York or Boston, they have two different types of clam chowder soups. One is Manhattan clam chowder and the other is New England clam chowder. I am not sure which clam chowder I get in Pittsburgh. I think it is Manhattan. Am I right?

Speaking of clam, I learned another expression from my friend, Sunjoo. The other day, she posted her status on Facebook, saying “breakfast in bed. happy as a clam.” As soon as I see this one, I instantly knew what it means even though I have never heard of this one before. I love this expression. Even hearing the expression makes me happy because I think of a clam having a big smile on its face. I now try to remember some other expressions that can be used to describe a big smile on someone’s face. There is one with ears in it. Can you help me out, my friends? By the way, I hope you are as happy as a clam today!

06 Dec

fan death

Who taught: Jake, Carol, Stan and Andrew

Fan Death (source: http://askakorean.blogspot.com)

Growing up in Korea, I have always been told from my parents, “Do not leave an electric fan run overnight. You could die.” Also, I swear I heard a few news reports, talking about possible deaths caused by an electric fan. Due to this, I have never doubted this so that every time I use an electric fan, I become very careful and always use a timer switch.

When I had dinner with my friends a few days ago, Jake asked me a question, “Hey Terry! So, do people die because of fans in Korea?” “Yes! In fact, my mother always told me to be careful with a fan every summer,” said I. Then, other friends started to ask me questions like, “Are you sure people would die because of fan?” I answered, “Yeah, that is what I heard and I am sure it is true.” They asked me again, “Why?” “I think I heard it is something to do with the lack of oxygen that can happen if a fan continuously running in a closed room,” said I.

While we are discussing this, Stan looked it up on Wikipedia using his iPhone and started to read what he found which I have never tried to look up. He said, “Fan death is an urban legend prevailing in South Korea in which an electric fan left running overnight in a closed room can cause the death of those inside.”

Here comes the funny thing which my friends really enjoyed!

As soon as I heard it, I said, “See! It is true. That is exactly what I heard.” Well, as I said it, my friends started to laugh. Do you know why?

Well, apparently, I did not know what ‘Urban Legend’ means. Thus, I thought Wikipedia describes a true story of the fan death. It did not take a long time for Andrew to ask me, “Terry! Do you know what urban legend is?”

Here is the definition for you!

A modern myth. A frightening untrue story in which the storyteller insists it is true, but has no evidence to back up.

Before I argue about whether the fan death is really a urban legend or not, I have my own theory about why the fan death became a big issue in Korea. I think Korean government tried to encourage media to talk about this to make people not turn on their fans overnight so that they can reduce overall electric power usage during summer. Back in 1980’s, Korea was still kind of poor in comparison to these days.

I have done a few researches about this fan death and found this blog post which includes a scientific theory to support the fan death.

Here is the science of how a fan could kill. Remember the conditions under which Fan Deaths happen – summer (=heat), enclosed room, fan directly on the body. An electric fan cools your body in two ways: by pushing cooler air onto your body, and by allowing your sweat to dry rapidly and take away heat in that process. But clearly, the fan does not generate the cool air on its own, unlike an air conditioner. And eventually — especially if you are a passed-out drunk who is already somewhat dehydrated from the alcohol — your body will run out of water to turn into sweat. So what happens when it is very hot, but the entire room is enclosed such that no cool air comes in from outside, and you have no more sweat to cool your body with? Basically, the entire room turns into a gigantic turbo oven. Turbo oven is a conventional oven that has a fan inside that continues to blow air onto the food. This oven is known to cook at lower temperature than a regular oven, yet cook more quickly. Similarly, in a heated room without an outside source of airflow, very hot air is constantly pushed directly to your body, which is a far more effective way of raising your body temperature rather than “baking” in hot air. If you get enough of this, you would die – of hyperthermia, or abnormally high body temperature. (Source: http://askakorean.blogspot.com/)

Would you still think the fan death is an urban legend? I think it is not.

02 Dec

lifestyle, swing, swinger

Who taught: Jake

Swing (source: www.impawards.com)

To be honest, today’s post is one of the most shocking expressions I have ever learned. Lifestyle…. What does this word mean to you? My dictionary says it is “a manner of living that reflects the person’s values and attitudes.” And… that is exactly what I thought of whenever I hear the word, lifestyle.

OK, how about “swing”? What does it mean?  Here, I have a few different definitions.

1. Verb : move in a curve or arc

2. Noun : mechanical device used as a plaything to support someone swinging back and forth. (I am sure you used to enjoy this when you were young. Maybe, you still like it?)

3. Noun : a style of jazz played by big bands popular in the 1930s; flowing rhythms but less complex than later styles of jazz

So far so good. Nothing special, right? Now here is another one.

engage freely in promiscuous sex, often with the husband or wife of one’s friends

Knowing this definition, you would easily find out what “swinger” means? In plain English, it is simply “a person who dates/sleeps with multiple people at the same time.” When I first heard that expression from Jake, I had no idea about what it means. I thought it is basically a baseball player who swings a lot. In fact, this is one of the definitions of swinger but I doubt people would use the word in that context. In many times, people use “swinger” to mean someone who sleeps with many people at the same time. Now, going back to my original question, what is up with the word, lifestyle?

Well, another way of saying you are a swinger is, “I am in the lifestyle.” It is more like a way of describing the culture of swingers. Interesting thing I found from Urban Dictionary is that you can be in the lifestyle but that does not mean that you are actually swapping your wives or husbands. If you actually do that, then you should say, “I am active in the lifestyle.”

So, today’s lesson: You want to be careful with the word swing and lifestyle. For example, you mean to say, “I like swing,” but you make a mistake to say, “I like to swing.” Oops! It could be awkward. What do you think, my American friends?

01 Dec

brother from another mother

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!