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!

18 May

Knock down vs knock up

Who taught : Brian, Jerome and Kara

Do you know how many words exist in English? The answer is, I think, nobody knows the exact number. But, based on Wikipedia, the Oxford English Dictionary includes over 600,000 words. Among those, how many do you know? 1,000 or 2,000? Isn’t it crazy? 600,000 words.

OK, let’s talk about today’s expressions. There are expressions which are combination of verb and adverb. Today, I would like to talk about some of the ones that you need to be really careful and good to know for your future conversations.

1. Knock down vs knock up

In general, knock down means “hit someone or something.” There are some other meanings but I do not want to confuse you here. So, let’s just stick to this meaning here. But, when it comes to knock up, it has totally different meaning. Can you guess what it means? I do not think you can simply guess it. It means “to get someone pregnant.” So, if you hear someone saying, “Man, I don’t know what to do. I knocked her up. She told me yesterday.” Then that guy is in trouble unless he is married to the lady.

2. Pass away vs pass out

I guess you might know what “pass away” means. Didn’t I mention it in one of my old posts? It means, “die.” And, once again, it is a euphemism for “die.” So, if your friend’s parents died, it is better for you to say, “his father passed away.”

On the other hand, “pass out” is an expression you can use a lot if you like drinking. Have you experienced a total drunken and not remembering anything next day? That is the time you can use “pass out.” “Dude, yesterday, I totally passed out.” Speaking of which, there is also another expression you can use for describing the passing out situation. “I got totally wasted.” It has the same meaning. Maybe, “get wasted” is more derogatory one? Am I right?

3. Whack vs whack off

Whack is a verb and it means “hit strongly” or “assassinate.” For example, “My wife was so mad yesterday because she found I was cheating on her that she whacked me with a golf club.” Sounds like I am talking about someone we all know. What? you do not know whom I am talking about? Come on! It is Tiger Woods.

OK, how about “whack off”? Before I get to the meaning of it, I need to warn you. If you are younger than 18, please stop reading and close your browser now! Hey! I warned you. If you are still reading, it is your responsibility now. πŸ™‚ It means “masturbate.” There is also an expression with the same meaning, “jack off.” I am not giving you any example for this. I am pretty sure you will figure it out. πŸ™‚

4. drop a deuce vs chuck a deuce

chuck a deuce (two fingers)

Well, this one is different combination but it would be useful if you know the different meaning of them. “Drop a deuce” means “defecate.” whereas “chuck a deuce” means “a sort of gesture of saying hello to your friends.” FYI, I am adding a picture of it here.

So, what do you think? The more I write posts, the more I feel English is hard to master. But everything is possible. Good luck! My friends out there! Hoping my blog could help you out a little! See you tomorrow!

17 May

shiny vs bright

Who taught: Bunch of my friends at work

Having lunch on the rooftop terrace (Miss you! Ari)

Every Friday, my company provides free lunch. We also have rooftop terrace where people can take a break or have lunch together. Last Friday, the weather was so nice that a lot of people went up to the roof to have lunch together. I, of course, joined them and by the time I got up, there were already many people. As I was approaching to the people, I must have made smiling face. Andrew asked me, “Hey, T-Bone, why are you smiling?” “Because it is so shiny!”, I said. Well, at that moment, everybody started to laugh. I had no idea why. Pete said, “all of your friends here laughing at you. What is going on?” “I know, what the heck? Why are you laughing?”, I answered. Then, people explained to me why. “Terry, shiny is not correct there. You should say like, ‘It is so bright’ or ‘too much sunshine.'” I had to ask again, “Why not?” “Well, shiny should have some objects to go with. And, weather is not an object.” Honestly, I always thought I can use shiny to describe a day with a lot of sunshine. But, apparently, I am wrong.
So, to sum it up, you can use SHINY when you describe an object. It always goes with some kind of reflection coming from any object. For example, if your friends bought a new car, you can say, “Your car is so shiny.”
When it comes to describing weather, it should be like, “It is so bright that I cannot open my eyes.”
I guess this is one of the hard things about SPEAKING English. You have to be fast in choosing proper words and it is hard to be correct all the time.

Now that I am thinking about the situation again, I should have responded to my friends, “Well, I meant you guys are so shiny that makes me smile.” What do you think? πŸ™‚

16 May

pink slips


Who taught: Phil and Alex

Terry and James in control

Yesterday, for the first time, I went to Autocross with James, Mike, Brian, Kim and other friends. Oh, FYI, autocross is a form of car race, competing based on time. And, for safety, one car runs at a time. Here is the more detailed information about autocross. It was a total new experience for me. I have been driving my car, Mazda miata, for 2 and half years but have never driven in that manner. When James showed me how to drive in autocross using my car, I thought my car would roll over. It was so scary. But then I kind of picked up the way of driving in autocross and finally beat 50 second. My record was 49.16 seconds when other experienced drivers hit around 44 seconds. Well, I guess it was not bad after all. If you like cars, you should really try it. It is so much fun.Β  The only thing you need to worry about is tires. By the way, my miata was the most famous car in the autocross. Everybody loved it.

Oh there were two tricks I learned from James with regard to autocross driving. First, always two hands on the wheel and second, try not to use clutch and instead stay in the second gear.

Phil was also thinking to come. So last Friday when I talked to him, he said, “Racing for pink slips?” Well, I knew what “Race” is but I did not know what “pink slips” are. So, “What is racing for pink slips?”, I asked. He told me that if any people race for slips or pink slips, then winner gets the loser’s car. Alex told me that it originated from the title of the car which is also called slip, or a small piece of paper. I was also curious about the origin of “PINK” color and I found one good explanation from the wikipedia. It says,

The “pink slip” reference is based on California state vehicle titles that were printed on pink paper. It was referenced in the 1978 film Grease and also on the Speed Channel racing series Pinks.

So, if someone says, “Do you want to race for pink slips?”, do not say just “yes” unless you really want to do it. I think when Phil said that, I should have said yes because I do not have title slip due to the fact that my car is lease. He’s got a bimmer. Who knows I might win. Phil, let’s race for slips next time, shall we? πŸ™‚

13 May

beauty in the world

Who taught: Patrick

Hey! Do you know “Beauty in the world” sang by Macy Gray?

Recently, I have been listening to this song so many times and I like this song because it makes me so happy and being positive especially when the economy is bad like these days. I hope you also like it. Listening to the song, I found one interesting line in its lyrics. “Shake your booty!” You know what “booty” is? πŸ™‚ It is butt. I think the reason why booty is in the lyrics is because of the rhyme with “beauty.” Speaking of booty, you should know another expression. “Booty call”

Definition is somewhat embarrassing but I guess I should give you the definition here. Well it simply means “a call for sex.” And here is more detailed definition from Urban Dictionary.

A late night summons — often made via telephone — to arrange clandestine sexual liaisons on an ad hoc basis.

booty call agreement

There is an image about a booty call agreement in the urban dictionary. I doubt people do really sign on that agreement, right? Anyways, you would hear this expression from time to time in conversations, especially if a guy is trying to call a girl at night. His friends may say, “What? Are you making a booty call now?” Isn’t it funny? If you think about it, it literally means “butt call.” (엉덩이 μ „ν™”, Eong-Deong-Yi-Jeon-Hwa) Here is a question for you, my American friends? How many times have you made booty calls? Andrew? Let me guess! How about 10? Come on, be honest! It should be more than that. πŸ™‚

Korean equivalent :Β  μŒλž€ μ „ν™”(Eum-Lan-Jeon-Hwa) I am not sure this is really correct but cannot think of any. Literal translation would be “obscene call.” Frankly, I like “booty call” better. It is a lot cuter, I think.

11 May

Who’s wearing the pants?

Who taught: Julie

This evening, Jessy and I talked about something and Jessy used one Korean expression.

μ‚¬λˆ 남말 ν•˜μ‹œλ„€! (Sa-Don-Nam-Mal-Ha-Si-Ne.) Korean people use this expression a lot. This can be used in a situation where someone is talking about something but it basically applies to himself/herself.

For example, supposed that Jessy is telling me that I have to stop shopping, then I can say this expression to her because she is the one who should stop shopping. πŸ™‚

When she used that expression, I was like, “What would be the best English equivalent for that?” And, I searched the Internet. The closet one I found was “Look! Who is talking?” Frankly, I would not have a hard time to use this English expression in a proper context but I had a hard time to find the equivalent one when I use Korean first and try to place the proper English equivalent.

Do you know why? It is because I was trying to translate the Korean expression into English one. It is harder to translate an expression than to just get to know an equivalent expression and use it. This is something, I guess, most of non-native English speakers have trouble to overcome. Especially, if they moves to English-speaking countries after they become older than 20 or so. In that sense, one of the best ways to learn and be able to speak English better is memorizing as many expressions as possible. It is even better to memorize the whole sentences or paragraphs. I strongly recommend this study methodology.

By the way, do you think “Look! Who is talking?” is the best equivalent here? Or, are there any other better ones?

Here is one quick question for you! Are you in a relationship? Then, who is in charge of the relationship? Is it you?

I hope it is you. Well, maybe, it would be a easier life that your significant other is in charge so that you just listen to what he/she says. There is an expression you can use to describe someone who is in charge of the relationship.

“Wearing the pants in the relationship!” For example, if you want to figure out whether your friend is in charge of the relationship. Then you can simply ask, “So, who is wearing the pants?” And, I believe, it should be “THE” pants, right? Always be careful with Article. It is very tricky and only because of missing Article, the meaning of the expression could be totally different. What about “wearing the skirts in the relationship?” I guess, if I use it, people might understand what I am talking about even though that is not exactly an expression American people use, right?