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!

07 Apr

peter out and peter principle

Who taught: Jeff

Peter Principle (source: http://www.buzzflash.com/)

Today, Jeff, one of my friends at CMU, and I had meetings with students. The meetings were for testing an application done by students and reviewing source code. As we talked about work, we got into a conversation about his previous works and how much he had to travel. He said, at one point in his past, he went to the airport to go to Chicago or New York in the morning and had meetings during the lunch time and, after the meetings, came back to be with family for dinner. This all happend in one day. Pretty intense, isn’t it? Anyway, as we talked about this work stuff, we had the following conversation.

Jeff : “So, Terry, have you ever heard of Peter Principle?”

me: “I have no idea what that is. What is it?”

Jeff: “It basically means that everyone in an organization tends to rise, or be promoted, to the level of incompetence.”

me: “Huh! So, do you think someone whose name is Peter came up with the expression?”

Jeff: “I believe it is from another expression, ‘petered out’.”

Then, he started to google it. We, of course, found a wikipedia page. To save your time for reading the page, my initial impression was right. The principle was made by Dr. Laurence J. Peter in 1969.

me: “Looks like ‘petered out’ expression is from ‘Peter Principle’.”

Jeff: “I do not know. Sometimes, native English speakers use expressions without knowing their origins.”

So, at this point, let me ask you a question? What do you think ‘petered out’ or ‘peter out’ means? Assuming that it is from Peter Principle, it should have something to do with incompetence, right? I would say it has to a certain extent. If something is petered out, that means it is not as it used to be anymore. And, sometimes, if you peter out on someone, that means you kind of give up on him/her. Another time you can use ‘peter out’ is when you run. Suppose that you run a marathon, you would peter out after the first 2-3 miles if you are not good at running. Don’t you agree? Now, can you feel the expression?

Hope you would not peter out on my blog!

Have a great day, my friends! Peace out, not peter out! 🙂 Pun intended!

By the way, did we find out where this ‘peter out’ expression is from? I do not think we did. How about you tell me? Can you?

05 Apr

go by vs take

Who taught: Phil

Shoes car (source : http://highclearing.com/)

During winter, I play soccer with Phil and other friends every Monday. Since Phil lives close to me, he usually picks me up on his way to the sports complex where we play soccer. Yesterday, he was gonna pick me up as usual but then I realized that my soccer shoes are in my new house. (FYI, I bought a house and now I am in the middle of moving things. So, some are in my new house and some are in my old house.) So, I had to go to the new house to get them. On my way to Phil’s house, I called him.

Me : “Phil, I should be at your place in 5 minutes. Do you want to go by my car?” (I meant we want to use my car to go to the complex instead of using his car.)

Phil : “Sure, either way is fine. Seeya.”

So, I picked him up. And he said, “Hey Terry. You said, ‘go by my car’ when you called. I could understand what you meant but ‘go by my car’ sounds weird to me. I would say ‘take my car’ instead.”

After the game, I looked ‘go by’ up in a dictionary again. It means ‘to elapse or pass’ or ‘to pay a short visit.’  Let me give you examples!

1. to elapse : As time goes by, you will feel better.

2. to pay a short visit : Phil was not at home when I went by his place yesterday.

So, using a verb ‘go’ followed by ‘by’ has something to do with flow or passage. It does not have the feeling of using something for the purpose of transportion. My initial thought when I used ‘go by’ was ‘go’ means moving from one place to another place and ‘by’ means ‘a mean for something.’ As separate words this could be right but when they are used combined, the meaning is not as I thought.

What an easy word, take, to use? And, I was not able to find it when I needed it. This happens all the time, especially when I speak. Sometimes, I realize something is wrong right after I say it. Then, it is too late to correct it. That makes me feel somewhat frustrated. But, I know I need to get over it by speaking more and more which means I will make a lot of mistakes. Isn’t it so true that people learn from mistakes as long as we try to do our best to correct them.

Don’t you make this type of mistakes? What’s your story?

My friends! There is another thing I want to share with you. Today is my 10th wedding anniversary. Hope Jessy remembers this time! 🙂 Last year, she forgot. We have a small plan. We will have a steak with wine at our very first house. And, most importantly, I will buy a charcoal grill today to grill the steak.

31 Mar

couch surfing and muffin top

Who taught : Jessy

muffin top (source: http://everythingarie.wordpress.com/)

Hello, my friends! Where are you now? I am not just asking whether you are at home, office, or somewhere else. I am asking where you are sitting in. Are you in your chair or couch?

When Jessy and I moved into the current apartment one and half years ago, we decided to buy a sofa. It is pretty long one. Ever since that time, we have spent a lot of time in the sofa, reading, watching TV, talking, eating and sometimes sleeping. Don’t you think we, people, do spend long hours in sofa, or couch, doing a lot of things? I am glad that I invested a little bit more money for the sofa than I usually spend on things. I now strongly believe it’s worth it.

A few months ago, we were sitting in the sofa as usual and Jessy asked me a question, “Hey! Do you know what ‘muffin top’ means?” “You are not talking about the top of a muffin, are you?” said I. And she said, “Of course not! It is an expression.” It was hard for me to come up with the meaning of it. She said, “It is the fat that are pushed out at the top of one’s pants. Mainly when people wear tight jeans.” “Huh! What a great one! That is awesome,” said I.

And, a few days ago, watching NBC Nightly news, I heard Brian Williams was talking about new expressions that were newly added into Oxford English Dictionary. Do you know what is one of them? That’s right. It is muffin top. Are you curious what else were added?

1. OMG (Oh My God!)

2. FYI (For Your Information!)

3. LOL (Laugh Out Loud)

4. couch surfing (?????)

This number 4 was new to me. What the hack is couch surfing? Is it like people physically trying to surf on couch for fun or what? So, I looked it up and Urban Dictionary says….

A cheap form of lodging used mainly by college-students or recent college-grads, where one stays on acquaintance’s couches rather than a hotel.

Have you ever done couch surfing? Why is it surfing? Shouldn’t it be like couch lodging or couch settling?

The world is continuously changing. There are new words and old words. They are coming and going. You should keep abreast of those new expressions. In that sense, Oxford Dictionary is way slower than Urban Dictionary. 🙂

By the way, today’s post is 200th one. I feel like I hit a milestone. It took me one year and one month to reach 200th. At this time, I would like to thank you for your support and help, my friends. Hope I can really help your English and to see you more often here! Have a great day!

28 Mar

bucket list

Who taught: Deb

bucket list (source: http://www.imdb.com/)

Two months ago, Jessy and I were invited to Dave and Deb’s house. Deb showed us her house. As we walked into the kitchen, we saw some pictures of beautiful places. One of them caught my eyes. It was the picture of a resort in Bora Bora, Philippines. So, I asked her why the picture is there. She said, “Dave and I really enjoy traveling and, one day, Dave was reading a newspaper and found that place. As we see the picture together, we decided to put it into our bucket list.”

As we heard her saying, “bucket list,” we were like, “What? What is bucket list?” She said, “Oh! That is an expression we use to refer to the things that people want to do before they die, mostly, in relation to places to visit before they die.”

Ever since we got to know that expression, we have heard the expression from our friends. More importantly, I have used it when I talk about going to Europe, especially to Paris, to my friends.

Once again, I was curious about its origin. When I first heard it, I thought the expression totally makes sense because people put things in a bucket. Putting the list of items into your bucket is so perfect to mean having something to do in a bucket before dying.

But, I found this very interesting resource, this wikipedia page.

As you may find from the page, there are mainly three theories with regard to its etymology. I am very leaning toward the first theory which says the expression, kick the bucket, is from the usage of a bucket for suicide or execution by hanging. What do you think? What is your choice? Knowing the origin of the expression, I now do not really like to use “bucket list.”

Anyway, what do you have in your bucket list? I think, this Thursday, I will scratch out one of them, buying a house. Wait, buying a house can be included in a bucket list?

Deb also told me that there is a movie called, “Bucket List.” I think I should watch it. Is there anybody who wants to watch it together with us? It’s a date.

25 Mar

love handles

Who taught: Ari, Alex and Jean

Love handles (source: http://www.opposingviews.com/)

There are two coffee places I love to go and spend time in Pittsburgh, more specifically, in Squirrel Hill. They are 61c Cafe and Commonplace coffee shop. Soon, these locations could be changed to be some other places in my new neighborhood that I will move in, I guess. A few weeks ago, I was in Commonplace, working on grading. All of a sudden, Ari and Alex came in. As soon as Ari saw me, she said, “Hey! Terry! We were just talking about you. You know why?”

“Why? I do not know. So, why did you talk about me?” said I. She said, “Because we were kind of arguing about the etymology of an expression that we just talked about.” And, she continued, “Terry! You know what ‘love handles’ mean, right?” “I think I know. Isn’t it a little bit of fat that people have around their waist area?” said I.

She said, “Good! Now, what do you think about its etymology?” “Hmm… I think it is called to be love handes… Because….. Because… a couple usually hold on to those area when they walk? Don’t you think?” said I. Ari then said, “That’s exactly what I guessed but Jean and Alex were so confident that it has to be related with the act of making love.”

Who am I? So, I did some research about its etymology. Well, not so lucky again. Some people say that it is from the act of making love, or sex. Their argument is that people really hold on to that area, especially when they make love. It makes sense. But, it is also true that a couple usually hold on to that area when they walk or, I don’t know, maybe when they hug. It is a path to butt. People go from the top to the butt and waist is in the middle. Man, I think I am going too far. Let’s not go there.

But, you should definitely check this out. This urban dictionary entry for love handles is crazy. You should read the first one. This guy says, “I LOVE those extra curves and places to hold that feel soft in my hands, OH YEAH.” What a feeling to have!! 🙂

Jessy and I are so skinny that we do not have love handles. We are lack of love handles, Darn!

How about you guys? Do you like to hold on to love handles? Lucky you!