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!

06 Jul

do you have massage?

Whose story: Young-a

4th of July Fireworks in Pittsburgh

Last Sunday was the Independence Day, the day Americans commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Literally, it is America’s birthday. On the day, Jessy and I went to Ari’s house where we met another Korean couple. It has been a while for us to meet Korean people in my friends’ party. They moved a few months ago from Florida to Pittsburgh. One of the interesting things they told me to us is that they love Pittsburgh so much that they decided to buy a house. Do you know why? It is because they have not seen snow for about 6 years in Florida and finally they saw snow storms in Pittsburgh last Feb. I know most of the people in PGH do not like snow storms in winter. I think this tells me a good lesson.

We should enjoy what we have now instead of complaining about it because what you have is what other people are looking for.

I feel like there should be a good expression for this. Don’t we have?

After dinner, we all went to up to a hill in Schenley park to watch fireworks. Another question here! Why do you have fireworks on July 4th? Anybody knows the origin of this tradition?

After we all sit down on the hill, my new Korean friend, Young-a, told me a funny story related with English. One of her friends works at a clothing store and, one day, a customer came into the store and said, “Hey! Do you have massage?” She thought like, “What the heck is this guy talking about? This place is for clothings.” So, she asked to the customer, “What do you mean by massage? We do not have massage service here.” Then the customer enunciated, “No! No! I mean do you have my size?” Then, she finally realized what the customer was asking. Hearing it, I kind of agree that “my size” could sound like “massage” if you speak fast. What do you think?

05 Jul

eye-candy

Who taught : Ari

When there was a team programming competition in my company, my team name was “IO Candy.” Well, IO stands for information optimization that my company’s technology is focusing on. When I heard of it, I did not really feel anything special about the name, I just thought…. you know… something sweet for information optimization.

Eye-candy

Then, a few days ago, Jessy, Alex, Ari, Juan and I went to a frozen yogurt place where we got into a discussion about different cultural aspects of different countries. When Jessy and I first got here, I was mainly in school whereas Jessy had some free time to walk around. One day, she found out that there is a park near to University of Pittsburgh and a lot of students enjoy sunshine whenever the weather is great. By enjoying, I mean some of the female students wear bikini, lying on the grass. Interestingly, Jessy did the same thing and I did not know that. Honestly, I do not like her doing it. When I talked about that story, Ari told me that I should understand it and in Germany, people even got bolder so that some of the ladies are topless in some parks when the weather is really good. I was actually shocked when I heard it. In Korea, no people would wear bikini or be topless in any park. If you would, I am pretty sure you would get arrested. Discussing about this, Ari told me there is a good expression American people use. Eye-candy!! Definition of it is “someone who is pleasing to look at!” Who would be a good example? Oh…. I know who is really pleasing to look at. I can see him all day long. It is me! Don’t you agree?

While she was telling me this expression, she said, “You know, everyone should have the right to enjoy eye-candy. Don’t you think?” Well, I guess I agree with her. But I still feel like wearing bikini in park is almost like me wearing speedo, lying on the grass. Am I being too sensitive here? After hearing this expression, I actually thought about the name of my team for the competition. It has very similar sound, isn’t it? IO-candy vs Eye-candy. So, I wonder whether my friends in my company thought about eye-candy when they heard my team name. Even more, when we, as team members, talked about our team name, did we intend to make it to be similar to eye-candy? Is it, Julie, Kara and James? Very curious!

01 Jul

icing on the cake

Who taught: Andrew

Mandie's cake! How cute is it?

Mandi, one of my church friends, has magical hands for making beautiful cakes. Every time there is an event at my church such as baby shower or farewell party, she brings a beautiful cake. A few days ago, there was Leah’s baby shower at the church in which Jessy participated. She took a picture of the cake Mandie brought and showed it to me. That was awesome. Amazing thing is she has 4 little children. How could she make a cake surrounded by 4 children? Well, she taught them really well. Every time she is trying to make a cake, she tells the children, “OK! if you guys are gentle and not touching the cake while mom is making it, I will put more and delicious icing on the cake. If not, I will not put any! Do you hear me?” Well, they hear really well and, based on their experiences, they know that mom is telling the truth. So, they become so quiet and watch her making cakes. Isn’t it awesome? Mandie, I think you should run a business, customized party cake business. I can set up the web site for you and we can be co-founders. What do you think?

For your better understanding, here is the definition of ICING.

Icing is a sweet substance made from powdered sugar that is used to cover and decorate cakes.

Yummy! I love great icing but the most important thing is the cake itself. I mean if the cake is not really good, what is the point of having a lot of icing on it. I think it is the worst cake ever! Having this concept in your mind, icing on the cake is a good expression for you. The definition of the expression is ;

What makes a good thing even better, although it is not something essential.

Like I said, the cake itself should be good to make icing on the cake even better to have. Andrew used this expression the other day but I forgot in what context he used it. Andrew! Do you remember?

Hmm… What would be a good example for you? What about you are having amazing cup cake and suddenly I brought you a cappuccino. Would it be icing on the cake? Well, maybe, it should be icing on the cup cake??? 🙂

Korean equivalent : 금상첨화 (錦上添花) Geum-Sang-Cheom-Hwa. The literal translation is “flower on top of silk.” Silk itself is already beautiful but if you have flower on top of it, that should be really stunning.

28 Jun

let’s talk about talk!

Who taught: Andrew, Jake, Carol, Pat and Jean

Last week, I went to a bar near my office to have dinner together with my friends. Andrew asked me, “Hey T-Bone! Do you know what small talk is?” Due to that question, we started to talk about a few different expressions in which we can find “talk.”

Reggie Miller

1. small talk

1) Definition (Urban Dict) : Useless and unnecessary conversation attempted to fill the silence in an awkward situation.

2) Example: We all agreed that weather is the most common example of small talk. Jake also said, “You can break the ice by small talk.”

As I think about it, we do a lot of small talks with coworkers/friends, right? What is your main topic for small talk?

2. pillow talk

1) Definition (Urban Dict) :  The conversation that happens after making out/sex. It’s infinitely better than normal conversation because there’s touching involved.

There were some disagreements, though, about whether there should be sex or not to become a pillow talk. I am not sure. What do you think? Also, does it really require a pillow or pillows?

3. trash talk

1) Definition (Urban Dict) : In the course of a competitive situation, putting down your opponent verbally or saying how good you think you are, often, involving talk of moms or sisters.

Andrew told me that this talk usually happens during sports games such as basketball. He also told me that Reggie Miller is considered as the best trash talker. I found one good example from the Urban Dictionary.

I’m so fast you couldn’t see me with a telescope

To be a very effective trash talk, you should find a sentence that is really mentally bothering your opponent.

What is your best trash talk?

27 Jun

Korean PUN series 1

Who taught : Kelly and Phil

Sigh! This world cup is totally done for me. The teams I was rooting for all lost yesterday. Maybe, I am the one who brings bad luck. Every time I watch a game, the team I am supporting loses. Phil, Kelly and I watched South Korea vs Uruguay game together at Phil’s place. After the game, we were all preparing to go out to a Rock Bottom restaurant to watch another game, US vs Ghana. Phil changed his pants. While we are talking about something I noticed that Phil’s zipper was still open. So, I said, “Hey Phil! You gotta zip it up.”

Hearing it, Kelly told me, “Oh, you can say, ‘Kennywood’s open!’ for that.” “That is a Pittsburgh thing. More generic one is XYZ,” Phil added. Do you know what XYZ stands for?

Examine your zipper! (XYZ)

So if you see someone’s zipper is open, you can whisper to him, “Hey! XYZ!,” especially if you are with many people and do not want to embarrass him.

But then I have two questions.

1. Why does “Kennywood’s open” have that meaning to Pittsburgh people? What is the origin?

2. Can I use “XYZ” to women if their zipper is open?

남대문 (Namdaemun) in Korea

Having said this expression, I realized that there is a good Korean pun you can use if you get to have a chance to speak to Koreans. In 1398, Korean people built the walls surrounding Seoul and also four main gates in four directions. One of them, as you can imagine, was in South. The official name of the door is Sungnyemun. But a lot of people call it 남대문 (南大門). In English, it is “Great Southern Gate.” This is one of the most beautiful unique Korean architecture made of wood and stone with two-tired roof. Sadly, there was a fire in 2008 and the door was seriously damaged.

Anyway, when your male friends’ zipper is open, you can say, “남대문 열렸어!” It means, “You’ve got open Great Southern Gate.” Why? Here is the reason! 남자(男子) means men in Korean. Can you notice it? Yes! As you can see, the first characters of 남대문 and 남자 are the same. It is 남. And, of course, they have the same pronunciation. And, as I told you, 남대문 is one of the gates. Imagine that your zipper is open! Then what? It is basically you open your door to &%!@&* (I will let you imagine what it would be here!). If you look carefully at the Chinese characters, you can easily find that you could make a new combination of the Chinese characters to describe your open zipper, 男大門. Does it make sense to you? FYI, you can only use this Korean expression to men! Well, next time I get to see your open zipper, I will use this expression. Hope you would understand what I mean! 🙂