Author Archives: Terry

03 Mar

while the cat's away, mice will play.

Who taught: Ari and Andrew

All right, today is a new day. Let’s get to work! Today’s expression is “while the cat’s away, mice will play.”

A few days ago, I was having lunch with my friends at work. For some reason, we started to have a cat conversation.

And Ari asked me about my interpretation of the expression, “while the cat’s away, mice will play.”

My answer was “hmm…. I think it is that, if there is no people with power, then the others will rule the world.” I think I was pretty close, wasn’t I? Maybe not!

Then Andrew explained to me that this expression means “if there is no authority, things will go over the limit. For example, when there are no parents, children will go crazy like having a party. In that case, you can use the expression.”

And Ari (?) also told me, “the other example would be, if there is no Carl, the PS engineers would slack.” (FYI, Carl is my boss and I am in Professional Services department.) Now I totally understood the meaning of the expression.

But, to be clear, the PS engineers never slack but work hard even Carl is not around. Go, PS!!!

PS: I asked Jessica about her interpretation. She told me, “let’s say there are two bosses, one is higher than the other. When the higher one is not in the office, the lower one tries to act like he/she is the top boss in the office.” This sounds very similar to mine. No wonder why we are married!!

02 Mar

hold down the fort

Who taught: Andrew

When Andrew was going to take a long vacation, I came over to his desk to say “take care and see you later” and he told me “Sure, hold down the fort!” I did not know what that means and he told me it means like “take care of the place while I am gone since you will be in the office.”

And after a few months later, I was on vacation with Patrick, Rachel and Jessica. On Sunday, all of us except Rachel decided to go snowboarding and Rachel was going to stay in the cabin. So, when we leave the cabin, I said to Rachle, “hold down the fort!” Good job, Terry! You used it! haha.

02 Mar

do you want room for cream?

Where: coffee shop.

Well, it is kind of lame that I had hard time to understand what the employee is asking to me. But when I went to coffee shop to order a coffee, the employee asked me this question. I had to say, “Sorry??.” In Korea, I did not get this question at all. I think it is because the coffees are served with cream in it. Well I cannot remember exactly now.

So here in America, there is a separate stand where you can find a few different types of creams you can put into your coffee. You will find like “whole milk” or “half and half” on the stand. Then, once you get your coffee, you can put these into your coffee. I think if they do not ask the question to you and you do not ask them to leave a room for cream, they assume that you do not want to put cream in your coffee so that they give you a coffee full of the cup.

02 Mar

plastic or paper

Where: grocery shopping.

So this one looks so easy for Americans but actually it is not for foreigners especially who just started to learn English or try to use English. When I first came to the United States about 4 years ago, I went grocery shopping. When I try to pay, the employee asked me “Plastic or Paper.” What the heck? I had no idea what he was asking. All of it sudden, what is plastic or paper. It turns out they are asking me whether I want to have plastic bag or paper bag. I think they use a lot of short expressions to make everything faster. So brace yourself when you go shopping!!!