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!

18 Aug

beat around the bush

Who taught: Pat

Beat around the bush (source: amazon.com)

As Jessy and I live longer in America, we become not craving for Korean foods anymore. But, for some reason, we wanted to have Korean food for dinner today. So, she cooked one of the traditional Korean foods, Chung-Guk-Jang JjiGae. One of its ingredients is fermented bean paste. After having this as dinner, we took a walk for about 40 minutes around our neighborhood. It was very pleasant weather to walk today. After the walk, I opened the door and we came into our house. Wow….. it smelled horrible. (Alex, sorry for the bad smell if you did smell it. 🙂 )I cannot believe what is happening for Jessy and me. In Korea, we used to love the smell but not anymore. So, the first thing we did was lighting a few candles in the house. I think many of the American houses have a few candles not just for the source of light but for the source of fragrance. I might be wrong but we do use candles for fragrance.

A few days ago, Jessy and I went out to dinner with Rachel and Pat. During our conversation, Pat said, “Right! Jessica does not beat around the bush.” I remember I studied the expression when I was in Korea but that was actually the first time I had ever heard someone using it in a sentence. It simply means, “Jessica does not talk about something indirectly.” I think the reason why Pat thought that Jessica is not the person who beats around the bush is because of her English. I mean if you cannot speak good English, then it is not easy to say something or make sentences which are a little indirect or implied.  Am I right, Jessy? ……

I am just pulling your leg, honey, here! Jessy is actually not the person who likes to beat around the bush. She speaks very directly to other people. Especially in case she does not like someone, she does not hesitate to talk about it even in front of him/her. But, I think that is really good. Good for her health! I like it. Good thing is she does like me and she said, “I love you,” to me. And… I can trust what she is saying. 🙂

17 Aug

ballpark

Who taught: Dr. Shamos and Jerome

PNC park (source: clarkservices.net)

Good Morning! My friends! I am so happy today. Do you know why? The weather is so great here in Pittsburgh. Hope you also have good weather there! So….. Summer!! It is a good time to go to baseball games. Do you like baseball? I am not that into playing it but I do like to go to the games with friends. It is very fun to watch the games and hang out. Do you know what people called the place where baseball games take place? It is called “ballpark.” In Pittsburgh, we have PNC park and it is one of the most beautiful ballparks in U.S. It is even more beautiful when there is fireworks after the game. I am not sure how many times we have fireworks at the park. But it is very crowded whenever there is fireworks. I would strongly recommend to visit any ballparks when you have a chance to visit America. You will find it is very amusing.

Yesterday, it was the first day of the orientation of the new class at the school. I was there with around 50 students, staff and other faculty members. The director of the program, Dr. Shamos, made a few presentations and one of them is a short lecture about “how to estimate?”

In U.S., if you get to have an interview with companies. It is very possible that your interviewer would ask at least one question related with estimation. When I had an interview, if I remember correctly, Jerome asked me a question, “What would be the estimated sea-level rise if the ice of the Arctic all melt down?”

There are so many different kinds of questions you would need to answer. To give you an idea, there are some examples Dr. Shamos used in his lecture yesterday.

1. How many TVs are in U.S.?

2. How many cobblers are in U.S.?

3. How many trees in the world?

Sounds very hard to estimate, right? It is quite challenging to solve these, especially when you are in an interview. But, the good news is interviewers are not looking for the right answers from you. Instead, they look into your logics to support your answers. During this kind of conversation, you would hear or need to use the word, “ballpark” again. Why? It is because ballpark has another meaning, “rough.” So, you could say, “So….. based on my assumptions, the ballpark estimate would be 100,000 TVs in U.S.”

It is quite easy to figure out why people use ballpark to mean this. You know ballpark is pretty big but it has fixed boundaries and compared to the whole city, it is quite small so that people can figure out where it is.

So, you gotta listen carefully if someone say “ballpark” in their sentences. Is it a physical ballpark or the other one, meaning “rough.”

15 Aug

man cave

Who taught: Jaejin

Man cave (source : http://3.bp.blogspot.com)

About a month ago, Jessy and I met new Korean friends who moved to Pittsburgh last winter at Ari’s party. They recently bought a house near to Ari’s place. Today, we bumped into them at Costco. Jessy and I were done with grocery shopping and they just got to Costco. So, we decided to meet at a coffee place after they are done with grocery shopping. About 2 hours later, we went to the 61C cafe and we started to talk about all of the interesting stories they have experienced by going through all of the processes related with buying a house in America. It is a quite story. Well, anyways, during the conversation, I asked them, “How many rooms and bathrooms does it have?” Jaejin told me, “It has 3 rooms and 2 and half bathrooms.” OK! Here is one thing I need to tell you. There is an expression in America, “half bathroom.” Half bathroom is a bathroom which has a sink and a toilet but no shower or bathtub. Full bathroom, of course, has everything in it.

“But one of the full bathrooms is in the basement,” said Jaejin. One of the interesting things in Pittsburgh is the bathroom in basement. Most of the houses built in pre World-War II have a bathroom in basement. The reason of it is because all of the steel workers in Pittsburgh cleaned them before they went upstairs to have dinner with family after work. In the neighborhood where I live, there are so many houses built in early 20th century. Thus, some of them are around 100 years old. So, it is not a surprise at all to find a bathroom in basement.

While we are speaking of basement, Jaejin told me, “I need to have a man cave in the house.” Do you know what it is? Well, I guess you can guess. It is the place guys hang out a lot, watching TV like football and playing video games or pool. It is in either basement or attic of  a house. I think many of my friends have this kind of places in their houses. I would like to have one when I get to buy a house. I may build my own climbing place in my man cave. It sounds really fun to have a party in my man cave. Guys only! Hey, Jessy! Is this fine?

Well, do you guys also have a woman cave in your house? What kind of stuff is in that cave?

10 Aug

drive into the ground

Who taught: Andrew and Pete

Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix (source:sportscardigest.com)

Every year, we have an annual event, called Vintage Grand Prix, in Pittsburgh. There are so many cool vintage cars you can get to see and also they really race. About a month ago, I had lunch with Andrew, Pete and Tanmay. Tanmay and I were excited about seeing those cars and the race. We asked Andrew, “Hey, Do you like cars?” He said, “No, I am not into cars.” He has an old Jetta and it has small issues here and there. So, I asked, “Andrew, Aren’t you gonna buy a new car?” “No, I do not think so. I may drive it into the ground,” said Andrew. At that time, I did not quite understand the expression. “What? into the ground? How?” asked I.

“Oh! It means I am gonna drive the car until it is totally broken and does not run anymore,” said Andrew.

And, Pete said, “The expression could also be used for some cases where something or someone is used too much.”

So, for example, if you work really hard and stay in the office so long every day, then I could say, “Hey, Friend! Do not drive yourself into the ground. You need to work tomorrow and even longer.” The other example would be….. If you put a lot of stuff into your laundry machine and try to run it, then I could say, “Hey! Dude! I think you are running that machine into the ground if you put all of them into the machine at one time and try to run it.”

Researching about the expression, I found a very interesting article you might be interested in. The article says we can save $100,000 if we all drive cars into the ground. But, new cars are so tempting, aren’t they? So, it is up to you whether you want to change your cars every 3-4 years or drive them into the ground. What is my choice? I am not sure because I love cars.

09 Aug

break a leg

Who taught: Ashka

Break a leg (Source: http://www.risingsunofnihon.com)

One of the good ways of learning English is reading good and well-written articles. In that sense, I have a very good article that you can read today. My friend, Jerome, posted this on his facebook and I think this is really worth reading and at least spend sometime to think about it.

Last Friday, I sent an email to my friends at my previous company to say good bye. Almost all of them responded me, wishing me good luck. Once again, thank you, my friends! I wish the best of luck to you too.

Ashka also responded but, in her email, she did not say “good luck.” Instead, she said, “break a leg!!!”

Well, to be honest, I had no idea about what it would mean. The only guess I had was like, “Do your best till you break your leg!”

But, ironically, this expression means, “Good luck!” There is a dedicated wikipedia page for this expression. On the page, you can find so many different theories of the etymology of the expression. Among them, I think the second one, Bowing, makes most sense.

For your information, here is the second etymology, Bowing.

This theory is thought to be an extension of the Traditional Theory. For the curtain call, when actors bow or curtsy, they place one foot behind the other and bend at the knee, “breaking” the line of the leg. In theatre, pleased audiences may applaud in which time encore bows sometimes occur. On Broadway this is considered the highest compliment to an actor.

Which one do you think makes most sense?

And…. I think you should be careful using this expression to any non-native English speakers. They would think you are crazy when you use this. For example, if your non-native English speaker friend is about to do interview and you say, “Break a leg!”, they would be like, “What? Do you really want me to break my leg? I cannot go to the interview. What are you saying there?”

Don’t you think so? This would really happen. But, Ashka, I know what you mean. Thank you so much wishing me luck! I will do my best out there and I will miss you. Let me know when you are around the town so that we could hang out!