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!

11 Sep

over the hill

Who taught: Rachel, Emily and Liz

Over the hill

over the hill party

I am not sure it is a good thing or not but people still think I am young.

In two months, I will be 38 years old. Lucky me because I would be 40 next year if I were in Korea. I think I mentioned this in one of my previous posts. Basically, Korea is one of the countries that use a very different system to count age.

My friends and I have a regular bible study on Thursdays. Last week, we talked about our ages and I mentioned that I would be 40 next year if I were in Korea. And, Rachel said, “We should have over the hill party then.”

Isn’t it very clear what it means? The expression is based on the assumption that 40 is the climax of our life. And, after 40, what’s waiting for us is the downhill.

Here is my thoughts! In one sense, that’s kind of sad because I do not have many days to reach the climax of my life but I am not sure what I have accomplished so far. Looking back, I have spent most of my time, studying. I have two master’s degrees and almost every day, I still study, reading books, listening to other people’s lectures and coding, to teach better. Oh… I am happily married and do have great friends. Well, I still have a long way to go financially but at least own a small house. Well, that sounds not bad, right?

On the other hand, it’s good because all I need to do from now on is going the downhill and we all know that is easy compared to climbing up.

I would have my over the hill party in about two years and will remind you of this expression. But, you could think about this expression on your own 40th birthday. In case yours is today, happy birthday to you and enjoy your over the hill birthday party! Remember! It’s all downhill from now and enjoy.

06 Sep

rediscovering a word series 4: waffle

Who taught: Andrew

Waffle

waffle

There have been a lot of changes in my life for the last 6 and half years.

1. I not only speak English but also think in English. Thinking in English was one of the goals I used to have to become better at speaking English.

2. I got to learn a lot of different cultures, not just American but Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern too. For example, I am now safe to say that I feel very comfortable paying tips at restaurants. When I first got here, that was not that easy to do. I felt like I was being robbed.

3. Most of all, there has been a big change in what I eat everyday. For example, I did not eat pancakes or waffles when I was in Korea. I mean I could but there were not that many places to serve those and I was not really interested in. Now? We even have a waffle maker at home. Jessy from time to time make waffles for breakfast or brunch.

Have you eaten waffles? It’s delicious especially with fruits, syrup, butter and whipped cream. So, basically, waffle is a food and literally it is everywhere in the United States.

Two days ago, I was hanging out with my brother from another mother, Andrew. I love hanging out with him. He is an inspiration. He is smart, energetic and most of all so motivated to learn and take on challenges. What an awesome guy! I am sure you would hear his name sometime in the future. Who knows? He can become the next Steve Jobs. I am very happy that I met him and became close friends with him.

As he was talking, he said “……he was waffling……..” Well, I was not sure whether I got that. So, I showed my sort of puzzled face to him. Within a second, he said, “Oh.. Do you know what waffling means? …. Let’s see. I do not even know why people started to use this word but it means basically indecisive.”

Wow…. I was surprised. Really? That means indecisive? Based on my research, this word also means “to move in a side-to-side motion before landing.”

For example, we can say, “The geese waffled as they got close to the water.”

So, from this, you can conjecture that we can use this word to mean someone being indecisive. When Jessy asks me some questions, I sometimes waffle because I am not sure what she wants me to say. You know what I mean. 🙂

Here is a task for you! Next time you eat waffle, think about this word and try to use it to mean being indecisive.

31 Aug

pooped

Who taught: Kelly, Phil, Amber and Tami

pooped

pooped

Let me ask you a question, my non-native English speaking friends! When you are tired, what you do say? I know I know… It’s a dumb question. You have said and would say “I am tired,” right?

Have you ever tried some other ones?

To be honest, I personally have not used any other expressions than “tired” because I do not know them until two days ago.

Two days ago, I invited my friends, Phil and Kelly, to my house to have dinner together. It was perfect to grill. We had a great evening together, eating steaks and talking about how long it has been since we met for the first time five years ago. It is so precious to have wonderful friends. Thank you, Phil and Kelly, for always being there! It’s been so awesome and I am sure we will have great friendship for a long time. One day, when we are all over 80, we will have a lot to talk about. Hope that day would come very slowly! 🙂

So, it was a long weekday and naturally, after dinner, we all felt tired. At that moment, Kelly said, “Oh… I am pooped.”

When I heard, it was pretty clear what she really meant but I wanted to make sure. “What did you say, Kelly? Pooped? P O O P?,” I said.

What would you think when you heard someone says, “I am pooped?” The first thing I had in my mind was that someone really threw poop at Kelly and she got covered with poop. Oh no… that’s terrible, right?

But, it turns out that’s just another expression to mean “tired.” Why? I do not know but I also heard from Tami and Amber that people also say “I am too pooped to pop” and that expression is from the old cartoon, “Tho Popples.”

I have never seen that cartoon and I feel like I should watch it to be able to fully understand and feel this expression. If you can find any video of the cartoon where any character uses this specific expression, please share it with us?

I am sure we all feel pooped by the end of today but thankfully it is Friday. TGIF! Hope you get to enjoy a beautiful weekend! See you next week, my friends!

28 Aug

pack rat

Who taught : Sujata

pack rat

pack rat

While working at a government agency in Korea, I used to write a lot of reports. I mean really really a lot. Almost every process requires one or more reports in Korea. One big difference here in the U.S. is that there are so many things that can be done simply by sending emails. So much easier but that does not mean that you do not need to worry about how and what to write.

I am still working on it but it has gotten better. My colleague professor, Sujata, and I communicate a lot through emails. Yesterday, she sent me an email and she said, “I am quite a pack-rat.” Even with the context, I was not able to understand what “pack-rat” means. So, I had to look it up.

Here is the first definition that I found.

Any of various small North American rodents of the genus Neotoma that collect in or around their nests a great variety of small objects. Also called trade rat, wood rat.

With this definition, can you guess what Sujata actually meant? I believe you could. When this expression is used to describe a person, that means that person collects a lot of small and miscellaneous things, like keeping emails all the time.

Well, I am a pack rat too because I rarely delete my emails that I received or sent. How about you?

There is a similar one, hoarder. So…. I am not sure which one is worse, hoarder or pack rat. I think hoarder is worse. Can you enlighten me, my American friends?

P.S.: Today’s post is my 300th post. Some of my friends have suggested me to publish a book out of the posts that I have written so far. I thought I do not have enough posts but 300? That’s quite a lot. What do you think? Do you think I should go for it?

23 Aug

slumlord

Who taught: Tami

slumlord

slumlord

Today’s expression is hot. Very hot! Today was the last day of the orientation for new students of the program where I teach. After everything is done with the orientation, we had lunch together. My colleague, Tami, told me this expression, slumlord. When she first said, the first thing that came to my mind was a lord of a slum. As you may know, a slum is a neighborhood or district where poor people live and thus nothing is really managed properly.

That made me guess that a slumlord is a boss of a slum gang. Well, I was not quite right.

Just like South Korea, people, especially students, rent a room or a house in the U.S. And, a person who owns a house that you are renting is your landlord.

Now, you take only “lord” part from landlord and combine it with “slum” where most houses are falling apart.

Houses in the U.S. are pretty old and if you do not manage them well enough, they can fall apart very quickly in a way that it is like a house in a slum.

Some landlords buy a lot of houses and rent them to make profit. In attempting to maximize their profit, some of them  do nothing to manage their houses. Hence, they are getting more and more similar to houses in a slum.

In fact, there are some neighborhoods in Pittsburgh where you can see those kind of houses and there is always a sign in front of those houses, “For Rent.”

There is one house in my neighborhood and that house does not look good at all. I would be very uncomfortable living in that house.

I want to find out who is the slumlord owning that house. He should do some work on that house.

Oh, actually, this word reminds me of one of my old posts, “Robber Barons.”