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!

17 Jun

pull What?

Who taught: Andrew, Pat, Ari and Jean

The first ultimate frisbee in my life! That’s right. I played it today with my friends. To be honest, I thought it would be easy but it is not. It is hard physically as well as technically. Nothing is easy in the world! Don’t you agree? But, that is why it is good to be alive. I mean you gotta love challenges because, at the end of the day, you, not anybody else in the world, are the one who would feel accomplishments if you overcome all of the challenges.

Andrew told me the rules of this game. Instead of my explaining here, I will give you a good link about the game for you in case you are really interested in. One of the rules is very similar to the American football. If one team scores, then each team lines up in their own sides of the field and the team which just scored throws the disc from its side to the other side. For this one, a team member who is good at throwing the disc takes the action. Andrew called this action, “pulling.” Patrick and I were curious about it. “Hey, why is it pulling, not pushing or throwing?” “I think it is because most people do backside throw and it looks like you pull the disc from inside of your body,” Andrew said. It sounds reasonable. Then, hearing that, I said, “All right! Let’s pull out!” “T-Bone! Pull out is different from pull,” Andrew told me. At that moment, I remembered that I had a very similar conversation with Jean and Ari before.

About one year ago, all of the techies in my company went to a retreat together. During a break, we were having a small talk about getting older. No offense to older people than me! But, I now started to have gray hairs and Ari noticed that I have a few of them. “Hey, Terry! You have gray hairs there,” she said. “I know, every time I found them, I ask Jessy to pull them out,” I said. Well, at that moment, Jean said, “I think pull out is not really good to use there.” We were like, “Why? What is wrong with pull out?” “It actually has a different meaning,” Jean said. Well, it turns out pull out has a very very different meaning. Here is the definition for you I found from the Urban Dictionary.

A form of birth control practiced by idiot couples to prevent pregnancy.

It is also called “Pull Out (Withdrawl) Method”.

I do not want to put too explicit ones here but there are bunch of different definitions in the Urban Dictionary and, interestingly, every single of them is the same. The only difference is the degree of explicitness. If you still cannot understand the meaning of it, here is the link for you!

So, to me, it sounds like it is not a good idea to use “pull out” expression. Am I correct? When do you use that expression except for this meaning? In addition, what kind of expression should I use to describe the action of removing my gray hairs? Maybe, take out?

16 Jun

camping story 2

who taught: Andrew, Jake, Jean and Carol

Public Bathhouse (목욕탕)

One time, I was in Paris, the capital of fashion. (Some may argue that New York City is the capital of fashion.) As I walking around the city, I found very familiar language written on a bag that a woman was carrying. It was Korean. (She was not a Korean or Asian at all.) It says, “서울 목욕탕.” If I would translate it into English, it would be like, “Seoul Public Bathhouse.” Here, most of American friends would be curious about public bathhouse. It is a place where all of the people pay and go in to take baths together. I mean people share spa and sauna, etc. And, of course, they are all naked. People go there with their coworkers or friends to have some time together, relaxing and, at the same time, taking baths. I bet it sounds weird to you, my American friends, right? But, there are so many other countries having this kind of place in the world. So, who want to go to the place with me? Andrew? Oh, maybe you, Pat! Well, going back to the story, to Korean people, it is weird to carry any bags with “Public Bathhouse” on them. But, I am pretty sure it would look cool for foreigners to have those bags with foreign language written on. In fact, you would be surprised, if you were in Korea, that how many people wear clothings with English on them. I am pretty sure that some of the expressions or words are not really correct and some may even worse than incorrect.

Men's restroom sign in China

Speaking of wrong expressions in non-English speaking countries, I ran into this interesting article today about wrong translation. One of the examples is a restroom sign. As you can see in the picture here, there is “Male Man” on the door of men’s restroom. I wonder whether there is “Female Man” or “Female Woman” on the door of ladies’ restroom. This would happen because of the thinking process of a person who is in charge of the signs to translate to English based on the meaning of his/her own native language. Now, if you were in front of the door, looking at the sign, what would be your reaction? I know! You would be like, “Wow, what is going on here? Male Man?” Andrew! What would be your correction here?

Have you gone camping? I mean the real “camping” camping. You know… bring your own tent and sleeping bag. When you get to the camping site, what is the first thing you would do? Let me guess! Build a tent, right? Well, do you also know that you can say “pitch a tent.” A few weeks ago, Andrew asked me a question to me, “Hey, Terry! Do you know what ‘pitch a tent’ means?” Well, I actually thought ‘build a tent’ but I knew that it should have another meaning. “Think about the shape of the tent if you already built it,” Andrew said to help me out.

So, what do you think it is? Here is the definition I found from the Urban Dictionary.

To have an erection while lying down so that the sheets covering you pop up like a tent with a pole in the middle.

That is right! That is what it means. But, I doubt you would use this expression for this meaning at all. I mean how many times you would see this situation and, even if you see it, would you dare to say it? But, again, it is always good to know just in case 🙂

Actually, you know what? You could find some guys in Korean public bathhouse, pitching a tent because some guys really fall into sleep in the place and you know…. that could happen. So, that would be the time you can really use the expression.

15 Jun

PUN series 1

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

First of all, you should read today’s post really carefully because it is hard for non-native English speakers to understand.

One day, Andrew wanted to ask a question to Jean. He said, “Jean, can I interrupt you for a sec?” As soon as she heard the question, Jean said, “Oh, I have not started my flow yet.” Following Jean’s answer, there was a pause for a few seconds because they all did not know what to say. Do you know why? Well, when Jean said it, she meant her work flow. She was saying that she did not really get into a specific work now so that Andrew can ask the question to her. But, the sentence Jean used has a different meaning for women.

It could mean that a woman is not having her period yet even though it is about the time that she is supposed to have menstruation. Similar expression is “shark week.” So, if any woman says that “it is my shark week,” then you should be careful. Although I doubt any woman would say that to you if you are a guy unless you are her husband or something. So, basically this kind of expression is called “PUN.”

The official definition of PUN is :

a clever and amusing use of a word or phrase with two meanings, or of words with the same sound but different meanings.

pun cartoon

There is a story Andrew told me today which is another perfect example of PUN.

When he was young, his father was coaching basketball in a school. Whenever there is a practice, they were using balls owned by Andrew’s father. The practice was done in a court where all of the other students were also using. One day, the practice was done and his father was talking to the students. But then, his mother realized that there were some missing balls. She looked around to find them but was not able to find them. So, she thought that maybe the other students were using a few of her missing balls. To make sure, she approached the male students who were practicing in the court and asked, “Hey boys! Have you seen balls with Cox on them?” Do you get it? Well, if you are native English speakers, I am sure you get it. But I am also almost 100% sure you would not get it if you are non-native English speakers. So, Andrew’s last name is Cox and of course his father wrote down his last name on the balls. “Cox” on the balls! Now, pronounce “Cox”! Can you feel it? What? you can’t… OK, here is the thing! There is a word which has very similar pronunciation but different meaning. It is “Cock.” Well, the word usually means rooster. But for some reason, it also means penis. Again, I became so curious why people decided to use the word, cock, to mean penis. Here is what I found from the WikiAnswer.

A penis is called a cock because it is said to resemble a bird, and because the rooster is a symbol of masculinity in some cultures. Similarly, in Spanish a penis is commonly called a pajaro (bird), a pavo (turkey), or a polla (chicken). Perhaps the most bird-like penises are those that tend to tilt or curve slightly southward when erect (similar to the natural curvature of a rooster neck and head), the pubic hair at the base of the penis could also be said to resemble the ring or collar of feathers displayed by some roosters. The large wattles (i.e. the fleshy sack) that form on both turkeys and some roosters can also be said to resemble a man’s scrotum.

Isn’t it very interesting to know the origin?

Can you now understand why the sentence that Andrew’s mother used to the boys would be so funny? Yeah, that is right. They would be thinking like, “Well…. I think I have seen them but should I show them to you right now?”, in their minds. (You know, they are all boys and it is not a surprise that they have balls and Cocks.)

What a funny thing to learn, PUN! Well, there is another story related with PUN. I will amuse you with that later. 🙂

07 Jun

stage fright

Who taught : Andrew and Pete

Do you know what are the top 10 fears people have in the world? It looks like there are some differences based on different surveys but here are the ones I found.

1. Acrophobia (The fear of heights)
2. Aerophobia or Aviophobia (The fear of flying)
3. Glossophobia (The fear of public speaking)
4. Lygophobia (The fear of the dark)
5. Arachnophobia (The fear of spiders)
6. Ophidiophobia (The fear of snakes)
7. Rejection (The fear of rejection)
8. Claustrophobia (The fear of confined places)
9. Kakorrhaphiophobia (The fear of failure)
10. Agoraphobia (The fear of open spaces)

Let me see…. I think I definitely have 4, 5 and 6 and a little bit of 7 and 9. How many do you have? Speaking of phobia, a few weeks ago, I was having lunch with Andrew, Pete and Brian. For some reason, we started to talk about stage fright. What would you think first when you hear this expression? Well, here is the definition I found from the wikipedia.

The anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience.

Stage Fright in men's restroom

I guess you should get it right. But we did not talk about that fright. It was the fright or fear males feel when they stand next to each other at a urinal. I actually do not have this fear but it seems like there are people have this fear and suffer from it. Or maybe even worse thing would be the time that you need to line up and many of other people behind you watching you peeing. To be honest, I do not like it. One day, I was in DC during the cherry blossom festival and there were one restroom in the Lincoln Memorial. So many people lined up to pee and there was my turn. I mean I could feel that people behind me watching me. That was really not a good experience. I think I do have a little bit of stage fright in that sense. Guys, do you also have it? How about women? Do they also feel some sort of stage fright when people are waiting for you lined up? I guess not because they can close the door. Well, there is another different thing I noticed in the U.S. from South Korea. The door in restroom! How come there is a big space at the bottom. I do not like that. In Korea, the door reaches all the way to the bottom which makes me feel more secure and private to do my business. That door should be renovated in the U.S.

06 Jun

I am down like a clown charlie brown

Who taught : Andrew

One of the TV shows I really like is Sunday Morning of CBS. I strongly recommend you to watch it to learn English because it is not only very informative and fun but also easy to understand. One of the stories in today’s show is about company called Zapppos, an online shoe retailer, which was acquired by Amazon.com last fall. Amazon.com paid $1.2 billion. The most amazing thing about this company’s success story is its philosophy. Tony Hsieh, its CEO, said,

It’s actually possible to make employees happy, make customers happy, and still make investors happy … and you know, still have profits.

Basically, if a company can make its employees happy, then they will be very happy to come to work and enjoy their work and, as a result, they will make customers happy and eventually company will make profits. Well, almost all of the Zappos employees CBS interviewed said the same thing, “I feel the company really cares about me.” Well, do you feel that your company cares about you? I guest the management team of any company should ask this question to themselves, “What can company do to make the employees feel they are taken care well?” Or, “Do I even know how employees feel about the company?”

I few weeks ago, I organized to play basketball with my friends at work. Andrew was going to play but then he realized that he had some other things to do so that he was not able to come to the game. Two weeks later, I sent out an email to some of the friends, trying to organize another game. This time, Andrew checked his schedule and he knew that nothing was going to be a problem for him to join the game. And he responded to the email and, in his email, he said, “I am down like a clown Charlie Brown.”

Do you know what does it mean? Well, let’s make it simple. Usually, if someone asks you that whether you are interested in doing something together and you know you will do it together, what would you say to him/her? What? Do you want me to be more specific? OK…. So, your friend asks you to go to the movies together with many of other friends at Friday night and you decide to join. What would you say? Maybe something like, “I am in!” or “That sounds like a plan. I will be there!” Right?

Well, one of the expressions you can use is “I am down.” or “I am down for it.”

And I think the expression Andrew used has the same meaning. I was trying to figure out its origin but not successful. Does anybody know its origin? Why there is Charlie Brown in the expression?