Author Archives: Terry

01 Jul

icing on the cake

Who taught: Andrew

Mandie's cake! How cute is it?

Mandi, one of my church friends, has magical hands for making beautiful cakes. Every time there is an event at my church such as baby shower or farewell party, she brings a beautiful cake. A few days ago, there was Leah’s baby shower at the church in which Jessy participated. She took a picture of the cake Mandie brought and showed it to me. That was awesome. Amazing thing is she has 4 little children. How could she make a cake surrounded by 4 children? Well, she taught them really well. Every time she is trying to make a cake, she tells the children, “OK! if you guys are gentle and not touching the cake while mom is making it, I will put more and delicious icing on the cake. If not, I will not put any! Do you hear me?” Well, they hear really well and, based on their experiences, they know that mom is telling the truth. So, they become so quiet and watch her making cakes. Isn’t it awesome? Mandie, I think you should run a business, customized party cake business. I can set up the web site for you and we can be co-founders. What do you think?

For your better understanding, here is the definition of ICING.

Icing is a sweet substance made from powdered sugar that is used to cover and decorate cakes.

Yummy! I love great icing but the most important thing is the cake itself. I mean if the cake is not really good, what is the point of having a lot of icing on it. I think it is the worst cake ever! Having this concept in your mind, icing on the cake is a good expression for you. The definition of the expression is ;

What makes a good thing even better, although it is not something essential.

Like I said, the cake itself should be good to make icing on the cake even better to have. Andrew used this expression the other day but I forgot in what context he used it. Andrew! Do you remember?

Hmm… What would be a good example for you? What about you are having amazing cup cake and suddenly I brought you a cappuccino. Would it be icing on the cake? Well, maybe, it should be icing on the cup cake??? 🙂

Korean equivalent : 금상첨화 (錦上添花) Geum-Sang-Cheom-Hwa. The literal translation is “flower on top of silk.” Silk itself is already beautiful but if you have flower on top of it, that should be really stunning.

29 Jun

funny sound words

These days, I have been watching a TV show, “Everybody Loves Raymond (ELR).” Funny thing is that I do not intend to watch it but I do not have a choice because Jessy is watching it all the time. She used to watch “Friends” so many times. Maybe around 20 times! Or even more…. Honestly, I was the one who encouraged her to watch it to help her English but I got so sick and tired of it. Then, I said to her. “Don’t you want to try something else?” So, finally, she decided to move on to the other one, ELR. It is pretty fun to watch. In my opinion, I think ELR is a little bit harder than Friends. I mean English-wise. Watching it, I heard a few interesting sound words which, I think, are quite useful to know.

1. Mopey : similar to depressed and sad but a little bit like someone bringing gloomy moods.

Example : Hey, why are you being so mopey? Cheer up! The world is not gonna disappear.

Korean equivalent : 시무룩한 (Si-Mu-Ruk-Han)

2. Grumpy : similar to angry and bad-tempered but more like fume and fret

Example : Sometimes, she gets grumpy easily! So you gotta watch out your mouth!

Korean equivalent : 짜증내는 (Jja-Jeung-Nae-Neun)

This one actually seems to be an expression you gotta be careful. I found another definition from the Urban Dictionary. It says it is a slang term for the act of defecating. And the following is an example.

I need to take a grumpy.

3. Tushy : basically good looking butt

Example : Jessy always tells me, “Honey, you do not have tushy at all.” Then I am like, “Asian guys are not supposed to have butt. My lack of tushy is my charm!”

Korean equivalent : 엉덩이 (Eung-Deong-Yi) I cannot find any better word for this but this should be good enough.

28 Jun

let’s talk about talk!

Who taught: Andrew, Jake, Carol, Pat and Jean

Last week, I went to a bar near my office to have dinner together with my friends. Andrew asked me, “Hey T-Bone! Do you know what small talk is?” Due to that question, we started to talk about a few different expressions in which we can find “talk.”

Reggie Miller

1. small talk

1) Definition (Urban Dict) : Useless and unnecessary conversation attempted to fill the silence in an awkward situation.

2) Example: We all agreed that weather is the most common example of small talk. Jake also said, “You can break the ice by small talk.”

As I think about it, we do a lot of small talks with coworkers/friends, right? What is your main topic for small talk?

2. pillow talk

1) Definition (Urban Dict) :  The conversation that happens after making out/sex. It’s infinitely better than normal conversation because there’s touching involved.

There were some disagreements, though, about whether there should be sex or not to become a pillow talk. I am not sure. What do you think? Also, does it really require a pillow or pillows?

3. trash talk

1) Definition (Urban Dict) : In the course of a competitive situation, putting down your opponent verbally or saying how good you think you are, often, involving talk of moms or sisters.

Andrew told me that this talk usually happens during sports games such as basketball. He also told me that Reggie Miller is considered as the best trash talker. I found one good example from the Urban Dictionary.

I’m so fast you couldn’t see me with a telescope

To be a very effective trash talk, you should find a sentence that is really mentally bothering your opponent.

What is your best trash talk?

27 Jun

Korean PUN series 1

Who taught : Kelly and Phil

Sigh! This world cup is totally done for me. The teams I was rooting for all lost yesterday. Maybe, I am the one who brings bad luck. Every time I watch a game, the team I am supporting loses. Phil, Kelly and I watched South Korea vs Uruguay game together at Phil’s place. After the game, we were all preparing to go out to a Rock Bottom restaurant to watch another game, US vs Ghana. Phil changed his pants. While we are talking about something I noticed that Phil’s zipper was still open. So, I said, “Hey Phil! You gotta zip it up.”

Hearing it, Kelly told me, “Oh, you can say, ‘Kennywood’s open!’ for that.” “That is a Pittsburgh thing. More generic one is XYZ,” Phil added. Do you know what XYZ stands for?

Examine your zipper! (XYZ)

So if you see someone’s zipper is open, you can whisper to him, “Hey! XYZ!,” especially if you are with many people and do not want to embarrass him.

But then I have two questions.

1. Why does “Kennywood’s open” have that meaning to Pittsburgh people? What is the origin?

2. Can I use “XYZ” to women if their zipper is open?

남대문 (Namdaemun) in Korea

Having said this expression, I realized that there is a good Korean pun you can use if you get to have a chance to speak to Koreans. In 1398, Korean people built the walls surrounding Seoul and also four main gates in four directions. One of them, as you can imagine, was in South. The official name of the door is Sungnyemun. But a lot of people call it 남대문 (南大門). In English, it is “Great Southern Gate.” This is one of the most beautiful unique Korean architecture made of wood and stone with two-tired roof. Sadly, there was a fire in 2008 and the door was seriously damaged.

Anyway, when your male friends’ zipper is open, you can say, “남대문 열렸어!” It means, “You’ve got open Great Southern Gate.” Why? Here is the reason! 남자(男子) means men in Korean. Can you notice it? Yes! As you can see, the first characters of 남대문 and 남자 are the same. It is 남. And, of course, they have the same pronunciation. And, as I told you, 남대문 is one of the gates. Imagine that your zipper is open! Then what? It is basically you open your door to &%!@&* (I will let you imagine what it would be here!). If you look carefully at the Chinese characters, you can easily find that you could make a new combination of the Chinese characters to describe your open zipper, 男大門. Does it make sense to you? FYI, you can only use this Korean expression to men! Well, next time I get to see your open zipper, I will use this expression. Hope you would understand what I mean! 🙂

24 Jun

PUN series 2

Who taught: Alex, Andrew and Nolan

Lady Gaga covering her face (That is better!)

After work, Alex, Andrew, Nolan and I went to a park to play frisbee again. Well, this was my second time to play and I was not able to catch the disc. Looking at this, Andrew was making fun of me, saying “T-Bone! You’ve got butterfingers.” That was not really hard to understand. I believe you would also easily understand what it means, right? If you think of the fingers with a lot of butter on them, you know they will be very slippery to catch something. So, if you have someone who has a tendency to drop something, you can say like, “How could you drop it? You, butterfingers!” When we talk about this butter expression, Alex said, “Hey! I have a good expression for you. Do you know what butterface is?” “What? butterface?” said I. My first thought was it would mean someone who is greasy. Don’t you think it? I mean, if someone has butterface, he/she must be so greasy. Well, I was wrong. But I tried again. “How about someone does not have any hairs on face?” Wrong again! What the heck? My guesses are so close, aren’t they? Don’t you agree? But, unfortunately, they are far away from the original meaning of it. So, my friends decided to give me an example. Andrew said, “I think Lady Gaga is a good example of butterface.” And Nolan and Alex agreed. I was like, “what the heck? What are you trying to say to me?” Then, Andrew said again slowly, “I think Lady Gaga has a good body butterface.” “Say again?” I asked. “But–ter–face!” Finally, I got it! “But Her Face!” Here, I will say again.

Lady Gaga has a good body…. but her face!

Can you get it? Yeah, that is right! This expression is the one you can use only for describing a woman whose body is good but her face is not really beautiful. Then, I had to ask. “How about a lady whose face is good but her body is not good?” Andrew told me, “I have heard that people saying butterbody but I do not think that is quite good enough as butterface.” I totally agree.

So, if you walk with your friends and spot a woman who has really good body from her back but you think her face would not be good, then what you say? Here we go!

“I think she is butterface!”

One rule you should keep in mind is that you should speak it fast, almost like one word, if you want to be hip enough to use it as a good pun.