Monthly Archives: August 2012

31 Aug

pooped

Who taught: Kelly, Phil, Amber and Tami

pooped

pooped

Let me ask you a question, my non-native English speaking friends! When you are tired, what you do say? I know I know… It’s a dumb question. You have said and would say “I am tired,” right?

Have you ever tried some other ones?

To be honest, I personally have not used any other expressions than “tired” because I do not know them until two days ago.

Two days ago, I invited my friends, Phil and Kelly, to my house to have dinner together. It was perfect to grill. We had a great evening together, eating steaks and talking about how long it has been since we met for the first time five years ago. It is so precious to have wonderful friends. Thank you, Phil and Kelly, for always being there! It’s been so awesome and I am sure we will have great friendship for a long time. One day, when we are all over 80, we will have a lot to talk about. Hope that day would come very slowly! 🙂

So, it was a long weekday and naturally, after dinner, we all felt tired. At that moment, Kelly said, “Oh… I am pooped.”

When I heard, it was pretty clear what she really meant but I wanted to make sure. “What did you say, Kelly? Pooped? P O O P?,” I said.

What would you think when you heard someone says, “I am pooped?” The first thing I had in my mind was that someone really threw poop at Kelly and she got covered with poop. Oh no… that’s terrible, right?

But, it turns out that’s just another expression to mean “tired.” Why? I do not know but I also heard from Tami and Amber that people also say “I am too pooped to pop” and that expression is from the old cartoon, “Tho Popples.”

I have never seen that cartoon and I feel like I should watch it to be able to fully understand and feel this expression. If you can find any video of the cartoon where any character uses this specific expression, please share it with us?

I am sure we all feel pooped by the end of today but thankfully it is Friday. TGIF! Hope you get to enjoy a beautiful weekend! See you next week, my friends!

28 Aug

pack rat

Who taught : Sujata

pack rat

pack rat

While working at a government agency in Korea, I used to write a lot of reports. I mean really really a lot. Almost every process requires one or more reports in Korea. One big difference here in the U.S. is that there are so many things that can be done simply by sending emails. So much easier but that does not mean that you do not need to worry about how and what to write.

I am still working on it but it has gotten better. My colleague professor, Sujata, and I communicate a lot through emails. Yesterday, she sent me an email and she said, “I am quite a pack-rat.” Even with the context, I was not able to understand what “pack-rat” means. So, I had to look it up.

Here is the first definition that I found.

Any of various small North American rodents of the genus Neotoma that collect in or around their nests a great variety of small objects. Also called trade rat, wood rat.

With this definition, can you guess what Sujata actually meant? I believe you could. When this expression is used to describe a person, that means that person collects a lot of small and miscellaneous things, like keeping emails all the time.

Well, I am a pack rat too because I rarely delete my emails that I received or sent. How about you?

There is a similar one, hoarder. So…. I am not sure which one is worse, hoarder or pack rat. I think hoarder is worse. Can you enlighten me, my American friends?

P.S.: Today’s post is my 300th post. Some of my friends have suggested me to publish a book out of the posts that I have written so far. I thought I do not have enough posts but 300? That’s quite a lot. What do you think? Do you think I should go for it?

23 Aug

slumlord

Who taught: Tami

slumlord

slumlord

Today’s expression is hot. Very hot! Today was the last day of the orientation for new students of the program where I teach. After everything is done with the orientation, we had lunch together. My colleague, Tami, told me this expression, slumlord. When she first said, the first thing that came to my mind was a lord of a slum. As you may know, a slum is a neighborhood or district where poor people live and thus nothing is really managed properly.

That made me guess that a slumlord is a boss of a slum gang. Well, I was not quite right.

Just like South Korea, people, especially students, rent a room or a house in the U.S. And, a person who owns a house that you are renting is your landlord.

Now, you take only “lord” part from landlord and combine it with “slum” where most houses are falling apart.

Houses in the U.S. are pretty old and if you do not manage them well enough, they can fall apart very quickly in a way that it is like a house in a slum.

Some landlords buy a lot of houses and rent them to make profit. In attempting to maximize their profit, some of them  do nothing to manage their houses. Hence, they are getting more and more similar to houses in a slum.

In fact, there are some neighborhoods in Pittsburgh where you can see those kind of houses and there is always a sign in front of those houses, “For Rent.”

There is one house in my neighborhood and that house does not look good at all. I would be very uncomfortable living in that house.

I want to find out who is the slumlord owning that house. He should do some work on that house.

Oh, actually, this word reminds me of one of my old posts, “Robber Barons.”

14 Aug

gastropub

Where taught: Meat and Potatoes

gastropub, a new word to be added into Webster dictionary

gastropub

During the last weekend, my friends, Jason and Ashley, from Buffalo visited us. We had a great time together, taking a short trip to D.C. and going to a baseball game in Pittsburgh.

Yesterday, while walking from PNC Park to a parking lot, we were passing by a restaurant called Meat and Potatoes. This place is considered to be one of the best restaurants in Pittsburgh. I have never been to but am planning to go soon.

Right in front of the restaurant, there was a street sign that they put on and it says “Meat and Potatoes, Gastropub.”

When I saw that sign, I thought, “Hmm.. gastropub? That’s a new word for me.” Because it sounds interesting, I was able to remember the word till this Morning.

Sometimes, new words just want me to remember by showing themselves more than one time within a very short time period. Well, that is exactly what happened this Morning.

We all were watching Today show this Morning and they were talking about new English words to be added into Webster dictionary in 2012. Coincidentally, gastropub was one of them.

How can I forget this word? I am sure you have a pretty good idea that this word means a restaurant that serves also beers or liquors. That’s pretty much what it means. But, to be more precise, the definition that Webster will use is as follows.

a pub, bar, or tavern that also offers meals of high quality.

It is a combined word of gastronomy and pub. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had this kind of experience all the time to learn new words? They will definitely stick.

Hey, my friends! I will let you know whether the restaurant is really what it claims to be after I eat food there.

07 Aug

cotton swab

Who taught: Jessica

cotton swab

cotton swab

There are things that I have been using in my entire life. Yet, I have never tried to find what they are in English. Look around, my friends! You will see a lot of them.

Jessy usually picks me up from the school after I am done for a day. A few days ago, she came to the school to pick me up as usual. However, she bought one thing at a local drug store on her way. She bought a package of cotton swabs.

Well, I did not care what she bought. As we are going back to home, she asked, “Do you know what Myun-Bong(ë©´ë´‰) is in English?”

I thought about it for a little while and said, “cotton pole,” because I simply tried to translate Korean into English and pole means “Bong(ë´‰).” Am I right? Don’t you think I am?

I guess I was half-correct. 🙂

Honestly, that was my first time to hear the word, “swab.” In my defense, I have not been to hospitals that many.

So, why don’t you look around and see whether you can find English words for things you see around you?

I guess it is time to go to a drug store to learn English.