Monthly Archives: August 2011

30 Aug

gullible

Who taught: Dexter and Jake

Gulls (source: http://animals.howstuffworks.com/)

I believe in people, especially my friends. How about you?

One of the caveats of believing friends too much is that they can trick me so easily. One time Jake and I hang out, he pointed out a part of the ceiling of the restaurant with his finger, saying “Look! There is some letter written on the ceiling.” I looked at it but could not find it. He continued to say it again and again and I still tried to find the letter.

After a few tries, I realized that something must be wrong, looking back at him. He started to smile, saying “Oh, T-bone! I like you. You are so gullible.”

What is gullible? Here is the definition.

Easily deceived of cheated.

Looking at the word, gullible, you might be able to guess that this is from another word, “gull,” right?

What is gull, then? Gull mainly means two things. First, it means any aquatic bird of the genus Larus  and related genera, such asL. canus. For your reference, I inserted a photo of it. I am not sure about the U.S. but, in Korea, people believe that gulls are kind of representative of cheating. Having this impression, let me tell you another definition of gull. Gull, as a verb, means “deceive or cheat.” Perfect, right?

Why don’t you try this? Gulls are almost everywhere these days, especially where there is a river or beach. So, when you see them next time, why don’t you try to trick your friends and, as you got them, say this, “Oh man! You are so gullible.”

Good luck! Hope they are as gullible as I am!

26 Aug

coaster

Who taught: Pat and Jessy

Coaster (source: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/)

When Jessy and I first arrived to the U.S., Jessy was not even able to order food because her English was not that good.

Now, after more than 5 years, she is a lot better. Sometimes, I am amazed by her English. Many people think if someone lives in the U.S., he or she should be able to speak English really good. This is not necessarily true.

Jessy did work hard. She has watched a few TV shows over and over, trying to memorize all of the possible mostly-used sentences. (I mean it was really over and over and over.) Also, whenever she has a free time, she tries to read books that are written in English. Finally, she really tris to spend a lot of time with American friends so that she speaks English as much as she can. All of these are not easy to do and need a strong commitment.

Jessy! I am proud of you!

As a result, these days, she even knows words or expressions that I have no idea about.

For example, she knows English words that are mainly used in kitchen. One example is coaster. Do you know what it is? Usually, “coast” means the part of the land near the sea or the edge of the land, right? In this context, coaster should mean what? It means a ship used to carry cargo along the coast. What does then coaster mean in house? There is no coast in house. Why people use this word to mean something in a house?

Whenever you have guests in your place, you are supposed to give them food and drink.

For drinks, especially cold drinks that are in cups or glasses, you are not placing them on table without a coaster. Actually, that is one thing I have noticed here in the U.S. It looks like it is a kind of manner to use a coster when you put cold drinks on a table.

By now, you should know what coaster is, right? To be clear, here is the definition in this context.

a protective disc or mat for glasses or bottles.

In fact, you will hear this word mostly in this context. Almost all of the restaurants in the U.S. use coasters every time they serve drinks. Also, your guests might ask a coster to use for their drinks. So, buy those for your house.

Do you know why people use coaster to mean this mat or disc? It is because you, as a host, turn around the egde (coast) of the table to put these on the table. Interesting, isn’t it?

Anyway, I am not sure you need to ask where a coaster is before you put your glass on a table when you visit your friends’ house? Is it one of the manners to have in the U.S.? That is what I felt.

24 Aug

heavy foot

Who taught: Tami

Heavy Foot (source: http://www.redbubble.com/)

Last weekend, I drove down to Blacksburg, VA with Jessy and my brother-in-law’s family to help their move. It takes 6 hours from Pittsburgh, PA to Blacksburg, VA. 6 hours are not bad in the U.S. to drive but it is still hard for me to drive alone. So, I let Jessy drive for 2 – 3 hours.

Well, during those hours, I wanted to take a short sleep but could not. Why? Because she drives aggressively. She also displays some road rage. I had to try to calm her down. And, at the same time, I was tightly holding on.

It was a rough time. As soon as we decided to take a break, I took the key away from her. 🙂

After the long and tiring weekend, there is an orientation for the new students. When I had lunch with my colleagues, I talked about how much I was afraid of Jessy’s driving to Tami. As she heard the story, she said, “So, Jessy got a heavy foot, right?”

One good news! I was able to feel the expression right away. How about you? Can you feel it? We, mostly, use our right foot to push the accelerator, right. Now, imagine your right foot is fat and heavy like an elephant’s foot, it would be really hard to slow your car down, right? What a great expression! I like it a lot. So, when someone uses heavy foot, think about an elephant foot. You will never forget what it means.

Hope you all do not have a heavy foot. Let’s slow down and calm down when driving, shall we?

P.S.: I will do my best to take care of Jessy only when she is driving. Most of the time, she takes care of me. 🙂

18 Aug

will-call

WILL-CALL (source: http://fieldnotesbrand.com/)

Oh boy! It is official! Pirates lose every time I go to the ballpark to watch a game. Yesterday, I went to the PNC Park with my friends and Jessy. They won two previous games but they lost yesterday when Jessy and I were there. But, I will support the Pirates no matter what because I am not a fair weather fan.

Knowing that my friends are visiting and they want to see a MLB game, I bought tickets online. As I was filling the required information out, I noticed that  there was only one option for the delivery type and it was “WILL-CALL.”  (I believe there should be a lot more options but all the other options were not available because I only had two more days to the game.)

When I first saw this “WILL-CALL,” I thought they WILL CALL me to discuss how they are going to deliver the tickets. Thus, I decided to wait for one day. Nothing happened. Well, I gotta do something to make sure that I get the tickets before the game. So, I called the Pirates’ customer service, asking this simple question, “What does this WILL-CALL  mean as the delivery type?”

My initial guess was totally off. However, it is not too far off according to its origin or history. Here is the history of the expression I got from Wikipedia.

In the days before the telephone, the phrase “I will call on you” was commonly used to mean that someone will visit you, or speak to you. The phrase has since largely fallen into disuse, with the word “call” being much more commonly associated with the telephone than speaking to someone in person. The term “will call”, however, has stuck, and means that the customer “will call on” the company to pick up the tickets or merchandise, as opposed to having the items delivered to them.

Even with this origin, the real meaning as of now is the box office that customers pick up their pre-purchased tickets. It does not even mean that the customer WILL CALL the box office. Instead, it means the physical box office. Oh, well, I actually did call.

So, one advice, if you hear or see “WILL-CALL” in the context of purchasing tickets, that does not mean you call someone or they will call you. It just means the box office or you need to pick up your tickets from the box-office.

Good luck with your shopping!

16 Aug

play by ear

Who taught: Phil

Play by ear (source : http://www.iphoneappsdude.com/)

Phil and I are close friends and hang out often. We play soccer and squash together and sometimes work at Commonplace coffee and also eat. Last week, we were talking about having dinner together and play a board game afterward in my place. Since he was also expecting his friends’ visit, he was not able to confirm whether he could make it or not.

As we were talking about, what I said to him was, “Let’s play by ear. You can come by with your friends if they are fine. Call or text me on Saturday.”

As I used the expression, “play by ear,” Phil told me that it was a perfect usage of it. So happy to hear that! However, that made me think. I have been using this expression for a while but never really thought about its origin.

The following definition that I found from The Phrase Finder explains a lot.

Initially, this referred to the playing of music without reference to printed notation. More recently it is also used figuratively to mean ‘handle a situation in an impromptu manner’, i.e. without reference to pre-determined rules or guidelines.

Not surprisingly, if you google ‘play by ear,’ you will see many images that says like how to play piano by ear, etc.

FYI, the first record of its usage is in an 1839 edition of The Edinburgh Review.

And, people in the U.S. started to use this expression in the 20th century in the context of sports to describe players who did something in an unplanned way.

So, what do you think? My usage was pretty good there, wasn’t it? But, in reality, I am not a big fan of playing things by ear. I want things really really well organized. The more you play things by ear, the higher things would go not as you want. So, a piece of advice: Plan things ahead and play by the plan!