Monthly Archives: July 2011

11 Jul

wing it

Who taught: Seth

Just wing it (source: http://www.kikiquilts.com/)

One of the blogs I follow closely is Seth Godin’s blog. The thing I really like about his blog is that his posts are very short and concise yet they inspire me so much. Sometimes, his post is literally just five sentences but it still has impact on me. So, I strongly recommend to read his blog.

A few days ago, I was reading his post and found an interesting expression that I have never heard before. Here is his sentence.

How dare we, then, decide to just wing it?

Can you spot the expression here? It is “wing it.” If wing is a verb, as far as I know, it should mean “fly with wings.” Don’t you agree? Then, what is “it” here? Complicated… So, before we explore “it” further, let’s examine “wing” more to really feel this expression.

When you see a bird flying away from you with wings, what do you feel or think, in comparison with airplanes? Airplanes take a lot of preparations to be able to fly whereas birds just simply fly anytime and anywhere they want to fly with their wings. They seems like they do not need to even prepare anything to fly. (I don’t know they do need any sort of preparation to fly scientifically. I am just saying what we see and how we feel.)

Having said that, what would “wing it” means? It means do something (it) without any preparation. For example, you and your friend are in a classroom, talking about a quiz. You can say, “Dude, last night, I just slept and did not study anything. So, I will just wing it today.”

Seth said,

If you’re doing important work (and I’m hoping you are), then you owe it to your audience or your customers or your co-workers to learn everything you can. Feel free to ignore what you learn, but at least learn it.

Amen, Seth! I will do my best to learn it not wing it.

06 Jul

helicopter parent

Who taught: Sangeetha and Alex

Helicopter parents (source: http://morethangrades.com/)

Being a teacher, Sangeetha has a lot of experiences with many different parents. A few weeks ago, when we had dinner together, Sangeetha told me this expression, “Helicopter parent.” It sounds easy to guess what it means and I am sure you can also get what it means by just hearing it.

As a South Korean, I know what it is like in Korea. I could probably say that majority of Korean parents would be considered as helicopter parents. They would do anything for their children and, some times, it is gone too far. I am not sure what percentage of American parents are hovering over their children all the time.

If I were a parent, how would I be? I would care about them a lot.

This expression is pretty new. It is an early 21st century term and was coined by Dr. Foster W. Cline and Jim Fay. As I research about this expression, I learned another one which sounds like talking about parents who are trying to do even more for their children. It is lawnmower parents. The space between lawn and lawnmower is so close whereas helicopter requires a lot more space.

Also, all the acts done by helicopter parents or lawnmower parents are called to be “over-parenting.” Let me make my own expression here. How about “well-done parenting?”

If I had a choice, I would rather be a helicopter parent than a lawnmower parent. Also, I hope I can try to stay at medium-parenting. Rare-parenting or under-parenting sounds also not good. I guess being a parent is not an easy thing at all.

01 Jul

hazy and hazing

Who taught: Today show

Hazy morning (source: http://www.redbubble.com/)

Do you check weather often? How often? I usually check it at least one time per day, especially in the morning. One of the words I hear very often these days from a meteorologist is hazy. Do you know what haze is? Here is a definition for you.

an aggregation in the atmosphere of very fine, widely dispersed, solid or liquid particles, or both, giving the air an opalescent appearance that subdues colors.

It usually happens in summer morning and I kind of like it because it makes me feel kind of calm. So, till today, this has been the only definition that I know in relation to haze or hazy.

Well, of course, there is another definition. This is always hard. How come one word can mean two or more? Even worse is that they are totally different. I think ‘haze’ is a perfect example of this case.

Today, I heard a really sad news from NBC’s Today show. George Desdunes, a Cornell University sophomore, died on Feb 25, 2011. He was tied, duct-taped and forced by his friends to drink too much alcohol during a hazing ritual of a fraternity. I remember similar rituals existed in Korea when I was a college student. I have always thought why people force other people to do something, especially drinking. I do not understand at all.

Now, here is another definition of the word, haze, in this context.

to subject (freshmen, newcomers, etc.) to abusive or humiliating tricks and ridicule.

This definition tells me everything. It is ridiculous. This could be even worse than bullying. Hope this would stop soon!

I like hazy morning but hate night with hazing.