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!

24 Jun

PUN series 2

Who taught: Alex, Andrew and Nolan

Lady Gaga covering her face (That is better!)

After work, Alex, Andrew, Nolan and I went to a park to play frisbee again. Well, this was my second time to play and I was not able to catch the disc. Looking at this, Andrew was making fun of me, saying “T-Bone! You’ve got butterfingers.” That was not really hard to understand. I believe you would also easily understand what it means, right? If you think of the fingers with a lot of butter on them, you know they will be very slippery to catch something. So, if you have someone who has a tendency to drop something, you can say like, “How could you drop it? You, butterfingers!” When we talk about this butter expression, Alex said, “Hey! I have a good expression for you. Do you know what butterface is?” “What? butterface?” said I. My first thought was it would mean someone who is greasy. Don’t you think it? I mean, if someone has butterface, he/she must be so greasy. Well, I was wrong. But I tried again. “How about someone does not have any hairs on face?” Wrong again! What the heck? My guesses are so close, aren’t they? Don’t you agree? But, unfortunately, they are far away from the original meaning of it. So, my friends decided to give me an example. Andrew said, “I think Lady Gaga is a good example of butterface.” And Nolan and Alex agreed. I was like, “what the heck? What are you trying to say to me?” Then, Andrew said again slowly, “I think Lady Gaga has a good body butterface.” “Say again?” I asked. “But–ter–face!” Finally, I got it! “But Her Face!” Here, I will say again.

Lady Gaga has a good body…. but her face!

Can you get it? Yeah, that is right! This expression is the one you can use only for describing a woman whose body is good but her face is not really beautiful. Then, I had to ask. “How about a lady whose face is good but her body is not good?” Andrew told me, “I have heard that people saying butterbody but I do not think that is quite good enough as butterface.” I totally agree.

So, if you walk with your friends and spot a woman who has really good body from her back but you think her face would not be good, then what you say? Here we go!

“I think she is butterface!”

One rule you should keep in mind is that you should speak it fast, almost like one word, if you want to be hip enough to use it as a good pun.

23 Jun

upset the applecart

Who taught: Zac, Leah, Pat and Carol

do not upset the applecart

Suppose that you live in 100 years ago and, one day, organize a hand cart full of apples to sell them in your yard and suddenly I come in and upset the cart! You would be like, “Dude, what have you done? Everything was perfect and organized and now, all of it sudden, it is all ruined.” Yup! So, there is an expression, “upset the applecart.” Last night, Zac and Leah told me this expression and I looked at the origin of the expression. It goes pretty far back. Here is what I found from the Internet.

This phrase is first recorded by Jeremy Belknap in The History of New Hampshire, 1788: “Adams had almost overset the apple-cart by intruding an amendment of his own fabrication on the morning of the day of ratification” [of the Constitution].

So, as you can easily find out, this expression simply means, “to create a difficulty.”

A few days ago, Carol came to me to give me a book as a present. The title of the book is “Should you judge this book by its cover?” and the author is Julian Baggini. It is about 100 English sayings and quotations. I found one expression which has similar meaning to the applecart one.

“Let sleeping dogs lie!”

Interestingly, Pat used this expression a few weeks ago when he was talking about his work. Again, it means “do not make anything fine not fine.” Based on the book, this expression was first used in the late 14th century. The author also said,

Most people quite understandably do not like dealing with difficult problems and will seek any excuse to put off confronting them. It would be so much better if we could sort out our gravest difficulties when things are at their least, not most, tumultuous.

What do you think? Do you agree? In some sense, I do agree. But, I don’t know why, as I am getting older, I do think sometimes it is really better to let sleeping dogs lie. And, if you get lucky enough, there would be no bigger issues at all.

22 Jun

skid down the street

Correction (June/23/2010) : The expression is “Skipping down the street.”

Who taught: Pat and Stan

Lightning bugs

One of the things I find very pleasing in the U.S. is lightning bugs. I remember I saw many of them in Korea when I was young. But, as most of the cities become very industrialized, the number of lightning bugs decreased and eventually they are all gone, I think. But, in Pittsburgh, there are so many of them you can see this time of the year, which makes me want to take a walk at night. When I say so many, I really mean it. As you walk, you can easily catch them and they are not afraid of people at all. Considering the fact that Pittsburgh is the 22nd biggest metropolitan area, it is really amazing to see that many of lightning bugs. I feel like I am looking at fireworks every night. Speaking of lightning bugs, there is a story related with them in Korea. In the old days, people catch and put them into some sort of jar to use as a light to save the cost of buying oils. I am not sure how far back it goes, though. Does anybody know, if you happen to be a Korean reader of this blog?

This morning, I met Pat and Stan on my way to the office. As always, I said to them, “How are you?” with my happy face. (I mean I am really happy all the time. There are so many things I am grateful for.) Then, Pat told me, “T-Bone, You look so happy.” “Yeah, It is Tuesday, not Monday. Isn’t it so good?” I said. Then, Pat said, ” Man, you are skidding down the streets.”

Well, I did not quite get it. I had to ask, “Skidding down the streets? What does it mean?” Pat said, “Well, you know, people are skidding or sliding down the streets when they are happy. Think about the way of sliding the streets!”

Well, that is right! It is another way of describing that you are quite happy or excited. So, are you going to skid down the streets to work tomorrow? You should because you have got something to work on today!

21 Jun

twist arm

Who taught: Carol and Jake

Harley Davidson

One of the things I find really annoying in America is the sound of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. It really bothers me when anyone passes my house riding it at night when I try to focus on writing a new post. One just passed by my house. Please, somebody stop it!

This morning, I met Carol and Jake on my way to the office. Oh, did I tell you that? I walk to the office since it is really close to my house. It is like 10 minutes walking. It is so convenient! Anyway, during our Monday morning conversation, they told me one expression they thought during the weekend to tell me today. “Twist your arm?” Well, when I first heard it, I thought it would be like someone trying to hurt another person. You know like TAE KWON DO. Carol told me, “Close but you can use this expression more sarcastically. For example, if Jake asked me to go to ice cream store, then I could say like, ‘if you twist my arm!””

So, the definition of the expression I found is

to persuade someone to do something that they do not want to do

I personally have a good example. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I went mountain biking last Saturday. Pat was supposed to join but he told me he could not in Saturday Moring. Then, I sent text messages a few times, trying to make him change his mind to join. So, basically what happened was I tried to twist his arm to go to mountain biking with me but he eventually did not. Pat, it was the best mountain biking ever. You should have come. The more I think about the expression, I feel like the person whose arm get twisted is still a little bit interested in the thing he/she is supposed to do or he/she has no specific preference for something. Thus, if someone really asks him/her to do something, he/she would do it because by twisting his/her arm, he/she actually does something eventually. Am I right?

I am sure you would have similar experiences in you life. So, try to use this next time if you are in this kind of situation.

Arggggggg!! Another Harley-Davidson just passed by again! Dang! I hate that sound. It is so loud!

20 Jun

taco wheel

Who taught: Carl

Definitely, I am going through American childhood. Yesterday morning, I went mountain biking with my friends for the first time in my life. It was about 1 hour and 30 minutes riding. All the way, I was following them. The scariest part of it was downhill. Sometimes, it is so steep and there are so many tree roots I need to go over which makes me hard to maneuver the bike. Also, there are so many steep hills on my side that, if I make a small mistake, I can easily fall down. Isn’t it scary? One big tip for you! If you mountain bike, you do need to wear bike gloves. Due to the lack of gloves, I get two blisters on my thumbs, one on each. Can you picture me having two bandages on my thumbs right now, typing this post in front of my computer? Yeah, that is what is happening now. Poor Terry! 🙂

Yummy Taco

But, one good thing was I did not wreck my bike. My friends told me that there are high chances that the first time mountain biker would wreck his/her bike. (Even though I add ‘her’ here, I strongly doubt that mountain bike is a sport that women like or enjoy. Am I right?) After the first round of bike was done, Carl, my boss, told me, “Terry! You did good for your first time. You did not taco your wheel.” I asked, “What is taco wheel?” I guess you can kind of understand it if you think about the shape of taco. Oh, I just realized that I have not had any tacos at all when I was back in Korea. Here is the definition of taco from the Wikipedia.

a traditional Mexican dish composed of a corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, chicken, seafood, vegetables and cheese, allowing for great versatility and variety. A taco is generally eaten without utensils and is often accompanied by garnishes such as salsa, cilantro, tomatoes, onions and lettuce.

Mexican food is so popular in the U.S. now. So, if you come to America, you should try to find a good Mexican restaurant or safe bet would be Chipotle. You should be able to find a Chipotle in any of the big cities.

So, if you taco your wheel, it means basically you got your wheel totally wrecked. This is an example of biking jargon. There must be a lot more than this. Do you know any?

I kind of like this sort of expression. You know, using some of the food or any object to describe some situations. I guess we all can make one as long as it is reasonable and acceptable by other people. Here is a challenge for you! What is your own expression with food in it?