Category Archives: From friends

As a non-native English speaker, it is fun to learn new English expressions from friends. I am not afraid of asking questions to my friends. Luckily, my friends are so nice that they always do their bests to explain to me. Thank you, all!

29 Jul

want bad or want badly?

My new car, GTI

There are a few expressions that are hard to find what is correct. The problem is mostly because people speak and write them in a different way.

A few weeks ago, I was texting James.

Me: “Wanna go to a VW dealership with me to test drive GTI?”

James: “I would like to but I hurt my back yesterday.”

After I go back from a dealership,

me: “Just got back from a dealership. I loved it. Want it ______”

At this point, I had to stop typing to think a little more. Instead of saying, “I want it so much,” I wanted to say, “Want it badly.” As I was typing, it felt weird to put badly there. I think I remembered some of my friends saying, “Want it bad.”

So, I stopped and started researching about the difference. Well, you know what! Basically, either one is fine when you speak but, when you write, badly would be better. However, according to Merriam-Wbester’s Dictionary of English Usage, “bad” is a special case and sometimes acts as an adverb. That means we do not need to really care about the choice here.

We can say, “I want her bad,” or “I want her badly.”

Which one do you use mostly, bad or badly?

I think I am going to stick with badly as I used in my text to James. At the end of the day, if we can deliver what I mean to my friends, it is pretty good enough, isn’t it?

22 Jul

fair weather fan

Who taught: Andrew

Pittsburgh Pirates (source: http://sullybaseball.blogspot.com/)

It is definitely summer here in Pittsburgh. Very hot! How about where you are? Hope you are enjoying summer!

I think I mentioned this before. But, for the sake of this story, there is a baseball team, Pirates, in Pittsburgh. Probably, you do not know the team very well. Usually, they are not that good. During the last five years, they have been usually the second from the last in the rankings. Guess what? This year, they have been # 1 or # 2 in Central of National League of MLB. What a great feeling to have? They are now even talking about the possibility of Pirates being in the playoff. Here is an expression that you might hear in the U.S. if you are a baseball fan. 500 mark! So, MLB measures each team’s winning percentage. And, if it is greater than .500 which means the team has won more than half of the games it has played, then the team is over 500 mark. People really say five hundred which is kind of weird because it should be ‘point’ five hundred.

Well, anyway, a few days ago, I tweeted as follows.

For the last five years, Pirates have never been this good. They are no 1 in central of National League of MLB. Time to go to PNC Park soon.

And, Andrew replied, saying “Fair weather fan!”

At first, nothing made sense. I was talking about baseball and, all of a sudden, he was talking about weather. Well, I had to look it up. As I expected, it is not the way to depict weather and has nothing to do with weather. In this expression, ‘fair weather’ simply means when things are going well. As a result, fair weather fan means a fan of a sports team who shows support when the team is doing well.

In my defense, I have supported Pirates when they were doing not well. How can I prove? I bought a few hats and t-shirts and have gone to games even though they lost every time I went.

Let’s go Bucs! Oh, Bucs means Pirates for people in Pittsburgh. 🙂

My question to American friends : Can I use this for a situation that is not related with sports?

19 Jul

going commando

Who taught: Brian, Sue and Drew

Going Commando (source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/)

Have you seen Commando? You know it, right? Come on, don’t say you do not know that movie! I think I was in either elementary school or in middle school when I first watched it. I liked it.

When I moved into the new house, Brian and Sue gave me a washer and a dryer. I haven’t been able to use because I could not install them by myself. So, two days ago, I asked Dave whether he can come over to see what I should do to install. (Dave is so handy around the house.) After I talked to Dave, I had a short chat with Brian and Sue and mentioned that I talked to Dave to install the washer and the dryer.

As kind of a joke (?), I said, “Finally, I can use the washer. I needed it. I need to wash my underwear. Oops! TMI!”

We all laughed and in response, Brian said something but I did not get it. So, as usual, I said, “Sorry! What did you say?”

He said, “Just going commando.”

Well, I know what commando is but going commando? What is it? From the context, I could feel that it is not like being tough as a man. I thought it would be awkward to ask what that means at that moment because there were Drew’s girlfriend, Carmen and Brian’s daughter, Rachel.

After I got back home, I could not wait to find out what that means. The first thing I did was searching it up. Wow! I was so surprised by its meaning. Can you guess what it is? It has something to do with the lack of clean underwear. If you do not have clean underwear, what is the best option you have? Well, just do not wear it. I mean you do need to wear pants though. Don’t forget that!

To sum it up, going commando means “not wearing any underpants.” Now, I would not recommend to do it, especially in summer.

Wanna know the origin? Here is the origin I found.

The earliest known use of the term in print occurred on January 22, 1985 when Jim Spencer wrote in the Chicago Tribune “Furthermore, colored briefs are ‘sleazy’ and going without underwear (“going commando”, as they say on campus) is simply gross.”

After that, this expression was used in TV shows, Seinfeld and Friends. That is where this expression got popular.

Have I gone commando? Hmm… what do you think? I will say this. Maybe, it is better than wearing dirty underpants.

P.S.: How about women? Can I say Sharon Stone went commando in Basic Instinct?

15 Jul

booboo vs bubu

Who taught: Jessy

Bubu bear (source: http://www.dinodirect.com/)

Do you remember when you were young? What? You think you are still young? haha… I know. I feel the same.

OK. So, let me ask differently. Do you remember when you were a elementary school student? Didn’t you use many expressions with your friends that your parents have no idea? I think I did. Funny thing is I cannot remember a single out of those now. So sad!

A few days ago, Jessy and I had a small talk about an expression that she heard.

Jessy : “Terry, I heard something from my friend. Do you want to know?”

Me : “Sure.. what is it?”

Jessy : “I heard my friend saying a word, booboo or bubu, but I still cannot figure out what they are exactly?”

Trust me! This happens a lot even after 5 years of living in the United States. Who says learning language is easy? Well, anyway, I started a little research about these expressions. And…. I found something very interesting.

Basically, those two expressions are the same in terms of pronunciation but they mean two very different things.

Booboo is used mainly among children or between parents and their children. It means a minor injury. Bubu, on the other hand, means two things. It means a cute and adorable bear. But in northeast of the U.S., it also means hot women.

You gotta keep this in mind. How many times do you think you will write these words? I guess probably zero. But, you can obviously speak these and, at that point, spelling does not matter and it is all context. These days, maybe little elementary school kids use this word to mean hot girls instead of minor injuries. It’s a whole different world out there compared to the world when I was a kid. Don’t you agree?

Here is a little suggestion for you. If your wife or girlfriend got a minor injury on her knee or something, you should say, “Oh, my bubu! You got a little booboo on your knee. Let me take care of it.”

06 Jul

helicopter parent

Who taught: Sangeetha and Alex

Helicopter parents (source: http://morethangrades.com/)

Being a teacher, Sangeetha has a lot of experiences with many different parents. A few weeks ago, when we had dinner together, Sangeetha told me this expression, “Helicopter parent.” It sounds easy to guess what it means and I am sure you can also get what it means by just hearing it.

As a South Korean, I know what it is like in Korea. I could probably say that majority of Korean parents would be considered as helicopter parents. They would do anything for their children and, some times, it is gone too far. I am not sure what percentage of American parents are hovering over their children all the time.

If I were a parent, how would I be? I would care about them a lot.

This expression is pretty new. It is an early 21st century term and was coined by Dr. Foster W. Cline and Jim Fay. As I research about this expression, I learned another one which sounds like talking about parents who are trying to do even more for their children. It is lawnmower parents. The space between lawn and lawnmower is so close whereas helicopter requires a lot more space.

Also, all the acts done by helicopter parents or lawnmower parents are called to be “over-parenting.” Let me make my own expression here. How about “well-done parenting?”

If I had a choice, I would rather be a helicopter parent than a lawnmower parent. Also, I hope I can try to stay at medium-parenting. Rare-parenting or under-parenting sounds also not good. I guess being a parent is not an easy thing at all.