Monthly Archives: May 2011

27 May

jump through the hoops


 

Do you know OneRepublic? It is a rock band and I love it. My favorite song is this song called Good Life. Rhythm and lyrics are all great. If you listen to the song, you will hear the following line.

The hope is we have so much to feel good about.

What a great hope to have. We indeed do have so much to feel good about. The day we have today is amazing and cannot waste any second of it. Hope your day is great so far and be that way all the way. Even though it is not, hey… look at the bright side. Then, you will find so much for you to feel good about.

Today, I would like to share one expression that I hear very often these days. Almost every time I watch TV, I hear this one for some reason.

It is “Jump through the hoops.”

Let’s try to feel the expression as I always do! So, it is not one hoop but hoops which could be 10 or 20 or even more. Now, if you are the one who is going through 30 hoops continuously. How would you feel? Man, that would be tiring, right? Would you do it? I don’t think so. Now, what if I say, if you finish jumping or going through 30 hoops, I will wait for you in front of the last hoop to give you $1,000. Would you do it? Oh, yeah, I am sure you would do it. That is how I feel this expression. The definition of the expression is “to do a lot of extra things so you can have or do something you want.”

I was not able to find the origin of the expression but a lot of people assume that this expression should come from circus where animals are jumping through hoops to entertain people and they do get some treatment once they successfully finish it. Sounds correct to me! What do you think?

As a home owner, I feel like finding a good contractor requires jumping through a lot of hoops. What else would be a good example? Can you share some with us?

I am sure we will all have a lot of things to jump through the hoops in our lives but it is and will be a good life as long as you think it is. Everything in life depends on what we think it is, not what it is.

24 May

not a chance vs fat chance


 

Every year, there is a Super Bowl party that I attend. It is great and fun to watch the game with friends, eating food. But, what makes Super Bowl party even more fun? They are Super Bowl ads.

One of the funniest ad during 2011 Super Bowl game was Pepsi MAX. Pay attention to what the woman is saying as you watch, not the guy’s part.

She said, “Not a chance!” What does it mean? Ha.. Am I joking here? We all know what that means. It simply means “impossible or don’t even think about it.”

OK! How about this expression, fat chance? Can you guess? Assuming that you do not know or have never heard of it, it sounds like something has a lot of chance which is exactly opposite to ‘not a chance.” Don’t you agree?

About three days ago, I stumbled upon an article where I saw this expression. Since I have never heard of it before, I thought the expression means a lot of chance but then the context does not make sense at all. I was scratching my head. “This cannot be correct.” So, I had to look it up. Then, there was a surprise! You know what! It has the same meaning to ‘not a chance.’ Then, I was like, “That does not make sense at all. I’ve heard of a similar expression from my friends. They say fat lie or big fat lie which means a serious lie or the worst lie. Why? This fat chance is different.”

So, I researched a little more and it turns out whoever used this expression first used it sarcastically. That is why this expression is different from fat lie.

Another similar expression is slim chance. But, this one has a little different feeling. Slim chance suggests that there could be a chance but fat chance means there is no chance at all. So, once again, you should be able to feel these expressions and also it is important to show that your are being sort of sarcastic when you use ‘fat chance’ in your conversations which is tricky. Good luck!

19 May

dude-bro

Who taught: Kim

Dude-bro (source: http://bag-of-games.blogspot.com/)

Today’s expression must be a fairly new expression. Why? I do not know why but I just feel like it. My guess is that most people who are comparatively old may not know what this expression means.

Last Saturday, while I was checking Facebook, one status updated by Kim caught my eyes. It was a very short sentence.

She said, “DC is full of dude-bros.” Reading this short sentence, we should not have a problem to find out that she was in Washington, D.C. and she was talking about the people there, right? Now, what kind of people do dude-bros mean? Can you guess?

Let’s try a little bit of anatomy here.

1. Dude : It simply means a man and, as a matter of fact, this word has a very positive connotation. Based on my research, the origin of this word is from 1870s and people started to use this word to mean well-dressed city folk.

2. Bro : Come on! We all know this. This is a shortened version of brother. These days, people in almost every country love to shorten words and this is the best example of that practice. It is pretty safe that this word also does not have any bad connotation. People use this a lot to call their best friends. I call Andrew bro from another mother (BFAM). Very good, right?

But then, there comes a very interesting result. When these two words are combined to be dude-bro, it does not have a positive meaning. It sure applies to men.

Here is the definition I found.

White suburban males, usually 16-25 years of age, hailing from anywhere, USA. Characterized by their love of College football, pickup trucks/SUVs, beer, cut off khaki cargo shorts, light pink polo brand shirts (with collar “popped”), abercrombie & fitch, hollister gear, and trucker hats.

I am sure you can imagine how they should look like. When I first found this definition, I was shocked. Do you know why? Here is the deal. So, when I first got to the U.S., I saw those people in many places like New York and DC. And, I strongly believed that I should follow those fashion styles. I actually did it.

Basically, I used to be one of dude-bros.

Today’s lesson: Do not try to mimic other people’s fashions. Try to create your own! Being dude or bro is fine but you do not want to be dude and bro together. 🙂

13 May

rug vs carpet

Rug (source: cb2.com)

For the first time in my life, I bought a rug for the living room. When I was trying to buy, shopping around online which means I did not see it physically, I used this word, a rug.

But, when it was delivered to my house which means I was able to see it physically, I kept calling it a carpet. So, I had to ask myself. What happened? Why do I call it a carpet from the moment that I can really see it physically? Here is my thought about the reason.

So, in Korea, my parents used to put a rug in the living room in front of a sofa every winter. When it comes to that time, my mother called me and my brother, saying “Boys! It is the time to put the carpet down in the living room.” I hated that time because we need to pull it out from the storage and clean and put it down. Well, the point is that she has been using the English word, carpet, all the time to mean, I think, a rug.

Actually, that makes me ask another question. What is the difference between a rug and a carpet? Is it the size? I bought a 4’*6′ rug. Can I also call it a carpet?

I am confused. I feel like carpet should cover the whole floor, not part of it. My friends, I need your help here.

Speaking of carpet, I learned an expression that is related with a carpet but it has nothing to do with meaning a carpet. Let me give you an example when I can use this one. Suppose that you are my son and you managed to drive my car without telling me and got an accident. I would be totally unhappy about it, right? Then, as you got home back, I will definitely call you. Here is the moment that you can use this expression. What you can say is “Oh no! I am sure my father calls me on the carpet for the accident.”

CAN YOU FEEL IT? I guess not.

It means “to question someone for his/her action.” No wonder why these days people like wood floor, not carpet, huh? 🙂

11 May

neighbor vs neighborhood

Who taught: Jake

 

Neighborhood (source: http://www.websiteneighbors.com/)

Yesterday evening, there was a farewell party for Carol because it was her last day at her current work. She will be starting her new chapter in her life as a Rails developer of a new startup. (For those of you who are not familiar with Rails, simply speaking, it is a programming language that is used to create a new web site or application such as Twitter.)

 

You know what is the most fun part of being a software developer or engineer? You get to see a cool or ugly stuff right away in front of your eyes. Anything you develop does not tell a lie. If there is any problem in your code, it complains. If everything is fine, even though this does not guarantee it is perfect, it at least shows a happy face. There is no poker face in your code. Not everything in life is in this way.

Anyway, Carol! Good luck and congratulations again!

As I was talking to Jake in the party, we talked about my new house. And, Kara was with us while we were talking about the house. She actually lives in the same neighborhood where my new house is.

Did you notice that I used ‘neighborhood’ here? When I write, I can find a correct word but, yesterday, I said, “Kara! Finally, we live in the same neighbor.”

As Jake heard this, he said, “Terry. You should say ‘neighborhood’ instead of neighbor. Neighbor means a person or people who live right next to your house. It could be on your righthand side or lefthand side. Or, front or back. They are your neighbors.”

So, that means I cannot have a lot of neighbors unless they have a huge family with a huge house. 🙂 This is another case where I can write correctly but I make mistakes all the time when I speak. I just forget to add “hood” at the end.

Why? I think it is because of culture. In Korea, when I say a Korean word, “ėīė›ƒ(Yi-Ut),” it could cover many people who live in the same neighborhood. Korean people have a tendency to maintain very tight relationships with their neighbors. There is a Korean saying in this context, “ėīė›ƒė‚ŽėīŒ(Yi-Ut-Sa-Chon).” Literal translation into English is “neighbor cousin,” meaning neighbors are like cousins or even closer than your cousins.

So, here is my conclusion that I would like to think of when it comes to the comparison of neighbor and neighborhood. I will think of a person or people when I think of the word, neighbor, whereas I will think of area or land when I need to think of neighborhood.

Better way to remember these two words correctly is asking these questions to myself all the time to train my brain.

Where is your neighborhood? vs. Who are your neighbors? Can you feel it?