Author Archives: Terry

24 May

play hookie

Who taught: Phil

Dog playing hooky

This morning, I got a text message from one of the golf courses I have been. A while ago, I subscribed for their text message service. It reads, “play hookie and golf!” It was weird that the golf course is encouraging me to play hookie for golf. The definition of the expression is

To miss school or work without suitable excuse, for example, saying you are sick or you have a death in your family.

“Play hooky” is also the same thing you can use. It is just a different spelling but the same pronunciation. Not sure which one is more common though? As always, I was very curious about the origin of the expression. Here is the one I found which sounds very reasonable.

The first printed use of the phrase is 1848 and it is related to the 19th-century phrase “hooky-crooky,” which means “dishonest or underhanded.” The parent of this phrase is “by hook or by crook,” meaning “by any means necessary.” (source : word detective)

Then, my question is do you guys still use “by hook or by crook” expression?

When you use this, you should be really careful with your pronunciation or spelling if you are writing this because there is also another expression, “nookie.” Nookie means sexual intercourse and knowing the meaning of nookie, you can easily figure out what “play nookie” would mean, right? Well, who knows? There might be some people who play hookie to play nookie. I found very funny cartoon from the Internet. You know, even your dog plays hooky. 🙂 I have to be honest. Days like today are very hard to resist to play hookie! Have you ever played hookie? I guess the answer would be yes, right?

27 Apr

acquired taste

Who taught: Patrick

When I first started this blog, I thought I would be in short of new expressions pretty soon. Well, I was totally wrong. Guess what? New posts will go on almost forever. There are so many expressions. But, you must not expect too much at your first attempt, right? One a day! Then it will be 365 a year. We will get there sometime. Besides, it is so fun to learn something we do not know, isn’t it?

Every time I sit down to write a new post, I feel so thankful to all of my friends who always try to help me out with new expressions. You know what I think? People are still so nice and kind in the world! And, if anyone tries to do his/her best, help comes along. There is a good expression for this. “God helps those who help themselves!” Similar expression would be “Someone up there likes me!” Korean equivalent : 하늘은 스스로 돕는 자를 돕는다. (Ha-Neul-Eun-Su-Su-Ro-Dop-Neun-Ja-Reul-Dop-Neun-Da) This Korean equivalent is literally the same as the English one. I think this is the first one that Korean and English ones are exactly the same.

When my brother and sister-in-law visited us, they were so surprised by how much Jessy and I have been changed, especially, by the food we are eating. Frankly, most of the Korean people cannot get away from Korean food for a long time. So, it was not a surprise that they were trying to go to a Korean restaurant as many as possible in the U.S. But, Jessy and I were totally fine with all of the American food. You know, spaghetti, fries, burgers, pizza, subs, etc. You know what I really like now? It is ROOT BEER! When I first saw it, I thought it is a kind of beer because I had never seen it before I got to the U.S. And, the taste was… hmm…. how should I put it??? It was like drinking melted toothpaste. Frankly, it was so gross. I was not able to understand how people could even drink it. But, now, I love it. So, I can say, “Root beer is my acquired taste!” One thing I learned from Patrick is that you can use this expression for people. For example, at first, you did not like Patrick but, as time goes by, you become to like Patrick more and more and eventually you totally like Patrick. Then, you can say, “Patrick is an acquired taste to me!” (Pat, Don’t worry! You have always been my best friend. You are not an acquired taste to me 🙂 )

So, if you are not an American, what is your acquired taste in the U.S.? Or, maybe should I ask, “WHO is your acquired taste?”

BTW, if you go to Korea, try silkworm pupae or Kimchi as much as possible. I guarantee it will be your acquired taste soon.

07 Apr

keep up with the Joneses

Who taught: Jake

One of the big issues in Korea is education. Most parents are having a hard time and work hard to meet the cost that they spend on their children’s education. Even many of new married couples postpone to have a baby mostly because of the huge cost of education which will be incurred by having a child. Based on the CIA world factbook, South Korea ranked in 219th out of 223 countries in children per women rate (1.21). Are you curious about United States’ rank? It is 126th (2.05). Surprise, isn’t it?

Why there is that much cost? It is because of private education system. Almost all of the children go to at least two private institutes after their regular school hours to learn so many stuff, such as music instruments, languages, Taekwondo, etc. This situation is getting worse as they become teenagers. Parents need to hire private tutors for their children, mostly for mathematics, English, science, etc. Well, maybe you could say I would not do the same thing for my children? It is hard because if your children do not do the same thing with what other children do, they cannot make friends. Well, I think there is another reason. Parents do not want to fall behind what others do for their children. They would like to give their children at least the same opportunities that other children get.

There is an expression for this case in English. “Keep up with the Joneses!” Here…. the Joneses is an abstract word for representing the neighbors. For example, if your neighbors or friends bought a new luxurious German sedan like bimmer(BMW), then you feel like you should buy Mercedes. Well, if you actually bought a Mercedes for that reason, you are really keeping up with the Joneses. There is another similar expression that you can use. “Peer pressure!” I guess most parents feel peer pressure and, to keep up with the Joneses, spend a lot of money for their children’s education. Speaking of comparison of you and your neighbors, there is also very good one you can use. This expression is really common and you would hear this many times in America. I actually heard this expression today over lunch from my friends. “Grass is greener!” The full one is “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence!” I guess you can get what it means by reading it. Yup, it means “for some reason, everything your neighbor has looks a lot better than what you have.” I know! We all do not want to admit it but it always sounds true. Even you have the same thing your friends have, you always feel like the ones your friends have better than yours. What a life! But, if we can learn how to be satisfied with what we have, we will be a lot more happier than now. Let’s pray, shall we? What? You do not want to pray. Hmm.. I really suggest you to go to church this Sunday.

24 Mar

just my two cents

Who taught: Mark, Shawn, Christian, Pete

When : in conference calls or meetings

As working as an applications engineer, having many conference calls or meetings is part of my daily life. There are a few expressions I have heard or used in the calls or meetings.

1. just my two cents

The other day, Mark came to my desk to let me know one expression he just heard from his conf call. “T-Bone, do you know what does my two cents mean?” Well, I had no idea. My first interpretation was ….”something cheap I have… like my speaker??” But, it means like “just my opinion.” Especially, if anyone want to throw his/her opinion very tentatively, he/she can use the expression.

“I think we should have happy hour every month in the company! But, it is just my two cents!”

I am curious about the origin. Is it originated from gamling? What if I use like “I am just putting my cent in” or “It is just my one cent!” Is it weird?

2. on the same page

This expression is the one I used a few times. I think this one would be something you can easily catch the meaning. You and your customers have the same understanding so that there is no confusion or conflict about anything discussed in the meeting. Usually, I use this expression when there is kind of unclear requirement item from customer and try to ask a question to them to make it clear. “To make sure we are on the same page…. does this item mean blah blah blah….??”

3. ring a bell

Today, Christian and Pete had a meeting and in the middle of the meeting, they used this expression. Since Pete sits very close to my desk, they talked to me. “Terry! We have an expression for your blog. It is ‘ring a bell’.” Even I knew this one already, I have never used this one before. This is the same as “can you remember it now?” Most often usage of this expression is like “Does it ring a bell with you?” Writing this post, I looked up the Internet and I saw there is a big discussion about the preposition (with or for). So can I also say, “Does it ring a bell for you?” What is your thought on this?

Do you have your favorite expressions you use a lot in calls or meetings? Oh, I remember Stacy use “at the end of the day” a lot. I will let somebody add comment about the expression.

By the way, I have today’s acronym for you. BFD!!! It is a short for “Big F..king Deal!” Yesterday, President Obama signed the new healthcare reform bill. After that, Vice President Biden was so excited that he whispered to the President, “This is a big f..king deal!” It is caught by some media and becomes a real BFD on the Internet. I guess Biden made himself BFD. This might be their political strategy to distract the public attention to the new bill. Smart Butt!! 😉 I do not want to use the ‘Ass’ one here.

22 Mar

Potatoes, eggs and cheeses

Where: restaurants.

Moving to foreign countries is hard in so many ways. One of the hardest parts is food. In America, if you go to a restaurant or bar, take a few minutes to look around to see what people are eating. I mean really closely and carefully. Chances are you will see potatoes, cheeses or eggs from almost any table. Or maybe you will see one of them from any person’s menu. So, today, I would like to share some of the scenarios with you so that you can have some ideas what you will go thourgh if you have to order any food in America.

1. Let’s say you order from a brunch place : Many of the menus would have eggs. The followings are the different types of eggs you can order. (scrambled, over-easy, over-hard, sunny-side up) My favourate is sunny-side up. What is yours?

2. Let’s say you order a burger from a bar : They might ask you whether if you like cheese or not. If your answer is yes, then “What kind of cheese do you want?” is the next question you would get. These are the most common cheeses you will see in American bars or restaurants. (American, Swiss, Cheddar and Provolone) Sometimes, I ask the server “What do you have?” to make sure I order one they have at the moment. My favourate is Provolone. What is yours? Oh, they also ask about your meat like “How would you like your berger?” Then it is actually the same thing when you order steaks. (Well done, medium well done, medium, medium rare or rare)

3. And, if you order any main menu in restaurants, there is usually a side. And it is mostly potato. Of course, they will ask you! Now, you should get the pattern! They will ask you like, “What kind of potato would you like?” There are french fries, home style fries, mashed potato or baked potato with sour cream. (Am I missing something?) 

If you order french fries separately as like an appetizer, they might also ask you, “Do you want cheese with it?” Then, if you say “Yes I do”, sometimes, they also ask you, “Do you want it to be on top of the fries or separate?” What? Still did not get it? They will ask you forever!

There is also sweet potato fries!! Yummy!

Sometimes, I wonder what would happen in America if there is no cheese and potato. It will be a chaos.

Oh…. I almost forgot. These days hot (spicy) food is getting famous in the U.S. So, if you go to any of Asian restaurants, they will ask you the spicy level. The question is “How spicy do you want?” It is a scale of 1 to 10. (1 is the mildest and 10 is the hottest!)

I thought about the reason of this continuous questions and selection process for ordering food. I think it is because of the culture and history of the U.S. America is the country of freedom. People love to choose and would like to have the freedom of selection. Let’s suppose that if you go to a restaurant and every menu has fixed ingredients. Thus, if get to pick only a food from the menu! I am pretty sure that restaurant will fail in America. Well, but this is only my opinion. I am curious about your thoughts on this.