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!

08 Aug

my girls

Who taught: Jake, Andrew and Ari.

Know Your Girls (Source: Yoplait)

Last Friday was my last day at my company and I went out to a Mexican restaurant to have lunch together with some of my friends. I cannot remember how we got into but we talked about picking up children from daycare center. Ari has two beautiful girls and they all go to the same daycare center. “Jake! If you want, you can always pick up my girls,” said Ari.

Now, do you find any issue with this sentence? Not really, right? It is just a simple sentence that Jake can pick up Ari’s girls from the daycare center. But, Andrew and Jake started to laugh and Ari and I were not sure why? “Hey, what is wrong with that saying?” said I. Andrew said, “Girls could mean something else.” I said, “What? Really? What do they mean?”

What do you think they would mean? Tell you what! You would not be able to figure out easily. They mean breast of women. Once we heard that, Ari said, “No! I did not know that meaning! Jake, if you do that, I will slap you. I meant my children.” I was pretty surprised by the fact that they could mean those. 🙂 Wow! I would have not known that at all.

One good example of the usage of this expression is, I think, the breast cancer campaign done my Yoplait. The title of the campaign was “know your girls!”

So, here is my question! What if a man says my girls? Does it have any meaning in some context? You know like balls?

03 Aug

big 10/4

Who taught: James and Kerry

Truckers' slang

James and I sometimes go to a coffee place, called 61c Cafe, near our company. Their cappuccino is one of my favorites. I would say the best in Pittsburgh. A few days ago, we went to the coffee place and on our way back to the office, James told me one story about how he used one of the truck drivers’ slang in his email. When Kerry sent an email to James, James responded to him simply saying, “10/4.”

Truck drivers in America use CB radios and, when they use this, they use a lot of abbreviated expressions. 10/4 is one of them, meaning, “I got it.” or “Understood.” One good example of conversation that would happen James gave me is as follows.

1. A truck driver says, “Where is your 10/20?”

2. Another drive answers, “I am at Forbes Ave in Pittsburgh.”

3. Then the first driver says, “10/4. I will see you there.”

10/20 means location.

And, James told me that this expression known to almost all of the people in America so that everybody understands it.

So, next time if your wife calls you, trying to say like, “Hey, Honey! Where is your 10/20?” Or, every time she asks you to clean your feet before you go to bed, you can say “10/4!” But, you have to really clean them when you say 10/4. 🙂

There are some other ones you might like or even use later.

1. Big 10/4 : I completely agree.

2. 10/100 : I need to go to restroom to pee.

Oh! a pop quiz for you here! How about 10/200? Here is a hint for you! Read this post, then you would get to know the meaning of it. If you still cannot figure out, leave me a comment! 🙂

02 Aug

on your left

Who taught : Andrew and Stacy

PMS

Have I told you that Jessy is watching “Everybody Loves Raymond” show almost everyday these days. The only reason she bought this show was because it was the cheapest. But, as we watch together, we find that it is quite entertaining. When I was in Korea, I thought there is no tension between wife and husband’s mother (her mother-in-law) in America. But, watching the show, I realized that there is in America. I do not think it is as much as the one in Korea. This show has very funny stories about the tension. I would recommend you to watch this show. The tension between wife and her mother-in-law in Korea is pretty severe and, sometimes, it could become out of control and I do think people even get divorced due to this. Well, anyway, we were watching one episode this evening in which Raymond and Debra fight. In the middle of fighting, she said, “You think this is because of PMS.” Well, do you know what it is? It stands for premenstrual syndrome. And here is the full definition of it on wikipedia.

a collection of physical, psychological, and emotional symptoms related to a woman’s menstrual cycle.

Urban dictionary says it is basically men’s nightmare. Well, I guess it is good to know the expression as well as the syndrome. In the episode, Raymond was not good at reacting to Debra and that is why they were fighting. What is a man supposed to do when a woman is going through PMS every month?

Are there any other similar expressions?

Having a lunch together with Andrew and Stacy today, we talked about the situation that you find yourself in the middle of a race. What is happening is runners or bikers tell you something if you are in front of them and blocking them from their path. For example, imagine that you are walking on a narrow road and there is a runner behind you, she/he will shout to you like, “On your left!” if she/he wants to go through your left side. So, then which way should you move aside? It is easy, right? To the right! But, when it comes to the time that it really happens to you, it is hard to figure our and react quickly. This is one small cultural difference between America and Korea. In Korea, runners or bikers would not tell you anything and they will just pass by you any side they want to take.

So, if you are in America, you gotta have a good sense of direction, especially to right or left, when you walk on a road. 🙂 I am pretty sure you would have a hard time to figure out which side is right or left in English if things happen so fast.

01 Aug

watching the grass grow

Who taught: Jake and Carol

Seoul (Source: Wikipedia)

There is a street near my company where most of employees of my company park their cars. In my case, I walk from my house to the company and, sometimes, I meet my friends as I walk through the street. Last week, I met Jake and Carol on the street. We walked together to the office and we talked about Carol’s house improvement projects. She bought a house and Jake and Carol are working on a lot of different parts of the house. This is one thing I found very interesting living in America. In Korea, people do not want to buy a house which requires a lot of works. Instead, they buy a house which is perfectly fine as it is. In America, many people buy a house which might require some works and they actually work on those things by themselves. It is called DIY (Do It Yourself!). You can buy a lot of things such as paint, hardwood floors and even doors from places like Home Depot or Lowe’s. Literally, they have almost everything you need for your house.

Anyway, one of the projects they are working on is seeding lawns in their backyard. I saw some of the pictures she posted on Facebook and it was growing very slowly. We talked about that it would take a while to be looking good. During the conversation, I said, “It will take a while and needs patience, right?” And Jake said, “Exactly, it is like watching the grass grow.” At that moment, I did not know the expression and I just thought that the grass indeed grows slowly and he was agreeing with me. But then Jake asked me, “Oh! Do you know the expression?” “No!”, said I.

Jake said, “It means something is boring!” Carol added, “There is another one! It is like watching paint dry.” So, we were basically taking about the origin of the expression and it itself really explains the meaning of the expression. How funny it is!

We do not have this kind of expression in Korea! Do you know why? It is because there is no space for lawns in Korean houses, especially in Seoul. The city is almost like 10 times bigger than New York city and there are 12 million people living in the city. The population of South Korea is 48 million. So 1/4 of Korean population live in Seoul. According to Wikipedia, it is no 8 in the world largest cities, bigger than any cities in the U.S.

26 Jul

black sheep

Who taught : Andrew, Jean and Kara

Today, let’s discuss about some of the expressions used for describing some irresponsible or bad guys.

<Situation 1>

Black sheep and White sheep

You are a member of blue blood family and have one sister and one brother. Your sister and brother have been always good and study hard. She is a professor and he is a doctor. Now, you have been always slacking and did not work hard and now are a pizza delivery guy (No offense to delivery guys!).

Now, what are you? Yup! You are the black sheep in your family.Why? You know! Generally speaking, sheep are white and if you have a black one, then it stands out from the flock. But I guess color is an important factor here. If all of the other sheep are black and there is a white one. Then, the  white sheep would mean the best one in the flock, not a bad one?? Just my two cents!

So, again, you do not want to be a black sheep at all unless if you do not mind that life at all.

<Situation 2>

Let me think! Hmm…. what would be a good example for you? OK.. so.. You are single and have one friend who has such a lovely beautiful girlfriend. And, one day, you are hanging out with them and other friends. As you drink more and more, you got drunk and started to flirt with your friend’s girlfriend, without realizing all of your friends are watching you.

So, now, what are you? In this case, you are douchebag. I am very curious why American people decided to use this word to describe a person who is jerk.

Based on Wikipedia, douche is a device used to introduce a stream of water into the body for medical or hygienic reasons, or the stream of water itself. It usually refers to vaginal irrigation , the rinsing of the vagina, but it can also refer to the rinsing of any body cavity.

And, a douchebag is of course a bag to be used for this purpose. Then, why is this word used for describing a person? There is no good connection, I think. Does anybody know it?