Monthly Archives: January 2012

06 Jan

muffler vs scarf

Who taught: Jake and John

Scarf handmade by my mother-in-law

My in-laws have been staying with me in the U.S. for about 3 and half months. My mother-in-law is a great cook when it comes to Korean food. Jessy and I have been enjoying a lot of good authentic Korean foods. She is also very good at knitting. A few days ago, I bought her one pound yarn and needles. In just two days, she had finished knitting one thing for me. It is a scarf. Actually, I am wearing it now. It is so warm that I can even feel her love.

Anyway, when I first saw the scarf. I was wondering… wondering about the correct English word for it. In Korean, it is 목도리(Mok-Do-Ree). And, people in Korea also call it muffler. They also use another English word, scarf. But, when Korean people say a scarf, it usually means a thing that is worn mostly by women and made of silk.

Influenced by this memory, I decided to use muffler instead of scarf when I uploaded the picture of it on my twitter and facebook. Not long after I put the picture along with the caption, “My mother-in-law made me a beautiful muffler. I love it,” on my twitter, Jake replied, asking whether I mean a muffler on a car. Jake meant to ask whether my mother-in-law made a part of a motor vehicle’s exhaust system, serving to muffle the sound of the vehicle, for me. Well, that would be so great if she could really make a new muffler in that sense. I will definitely put it on my car.

About 5 seconds later, John also replied to me on twitter, saying “A muffler belongs on a car. That looks like a scarf to me.” So, my conclusion from these replies is that people in the U.S. do not use muffler to mean scarf at all.

The thing that makes me still confused is that one of the definitions of muffler is a synonym of scarf. If you cannot believe it, google it.

So, what is happening? Do you guys think Jake and John are correct? Or, do you still say a muffler to mean a scarf? If not, come on….. I will make a complaint to all of the dictionaries to remove the definition. It is so confusing. Don’t you think, my non-native English friends? No fair!

03 Jan

dougie

Who taught: Sujin

It’s 2012. We have all said, “Happy New Year!,” to our family and friends for the last few days. Let me say something different. My friends, Happy New Day! I think we should all celebrate every day just like we treat a new year. Today is the last day of our life because tomorrow will be different from today and it will never be back. We should enjoy today and be happy every day. So, I wish you Happy New Day today!

Do you guys remember one of my old posts about boogie? Today’s expression sounds very similar to it but has a different meaning.

On new year’s eve, I was with my family and some of my friends. As soon as the clock hit 00:00, we all celebrated and hugged. After that, we were talking and watching TV. One of the songs he heard was Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO. Those guys danced like crazy. Watching their dancing, Sujin said something that I have never heard. She said, “Teach me dougie!”

I said, “What? Dougie? What is it?” She said, “It means dance.” At that time, I thought it would mean any dance. But, I was not quite right. After some research, I realized that it is a specific type of dance mostly by hiphop people. You might want to see the video here to learn the move. This hiphop group, Cali Swag District, even has a song called, Teach Me How To Dougie.

According to urbandictionary, it also means hip style. This is kind of questionable to me. For those people who like dougie dance, dougie would mean hip too. But, how about the people who do not like it? Would they also think dougie means cool or hip? Not sure.

What do you think, my friends? Can you help me out?

By the way, do you see a word, “swag,” in the group name, Cali Swag District? Actually, swag also means hip or cool. I believe this is pretty universal. Happy Swag Year to you!