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!

14 Aug

gastropub

Where taught: Meat and Potatoes

gastropub, a new word to be added into Webster dictionary

gastropub

During the last weekend, my friends, Jason and Ashley, from Buffalo visited us. We had a great time together, taking a short trip to D.C. and going to a baseball game in Pittsburgh.

Yesterday, while walking from PNC Park to a parking lot, we were passing by a restaurant called Meat and Potatoes. This place is considered to be one of the best restaurants in Pittsburgh. I have never been to but am planning to go soon.

Right in front of the restaurant, there was a street sign that they put on and it says “Meat and Potatoes, Gastropub.”

When I saw that sign, I thought, “Hmm.. gastropub? That’s a new word for me.” Because it sounds interesting, I was able to remember the word till this Morning.

Sometimes, new words just want me to remember by showing themselves more than one time within a very short time period. Well, that is exactly what happened this Morning.

We all were watching Today show this Morning and they were talking about new English words to be added into Webster dictionary in 2012. Coincidentally, gastropub was one of them.

How can I forget this word? I am sure you have a pretty good idea that this word means a restaurant that serves also beers or liquors. That’s pretty much what it means. But, to be more precise, the definition that Webster will use is as follows.

a pub, bar, or tavern that also offers meals of high quality.

It is a combined word of gastronomy and pub. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had this kind of experience all the time to learn new words? They will definitely stick.

Hey, my friends! I will let you know whether the restaurant is really what it claims to be after I eat food there.

07 Aug

cotton swab

Who taught: Jessica

cotton swab

cotton swab

There are things that I have been using in my entire life. Yet, I have never tried to find what they are in English. Look around, my friends! You will see a lot of them.

Jessy usually picks me up from the school after I am done for a day. A few days ago, she came to the school to pick me up as usual. However, she bought one thing at a local drug store on her way. She bought a package of cotton swabs.

Well, I did not care what she bought. As we are going back to home, she asked, “Do you know what Myun-Bong(면봉) is in English?”

I thought about it for a little while and said, “cotton pole,” because I simply tried to translate Korean into English and pole means “Bong(봉).” Am I right? Don’t you think I am?

I guess I was half-correct. πŸ™‚

Honestly, that was my first time to hear the word, “swab.” In my defense, I have not been to hospitals that many.

So, why don’t you look around and see whether you can find English words for things you see around you?

I guess it is time to go to a drug store to learn English.

24 Jul

kinks

Who taught: Amber

kinks

kinks

Hello, my friends! It’s been a while. My excuse is that I have been pretty busy with my course that I am teaching this summer. But, I have never forgotten you at all.

As a software engineer, I have developed many applications in which I had so much fun. But, sometimes, it brings a lot of headaches. When there is an issue, we usually say that it has a bug. But, when we talk to our clients, we also use another word, glitch. It is a euphemism in comparison to a bug.

For that reason, I can confess that I have used this word, glitch, pretty often.

I told you that I am teaching a course this summer. Last semester, the school decided to upgrade its course registration system to a new one. And, as soon as the course started, I got some emails from some students that they cannot register for my course for some reason.

So, I sent an email to Amber, asking what is going on with the system. In her reply, she said , “The school is fixing the new system. There are still kinks.”

Great! I was happy to hear that they are working on it. But, that wasn’t it. I noticed a new word here, kinks. I have never seen that word before. From the context, I can easily understand but what is the exact meaning of it?

Literal definition is a twist or curl. For example, you could have kinks in your hair. Or in wires or ropes. Normally, it would not be good to have those kinks in your hair or rope unless that is what you want, right?

So, due to this kind of reason, kinks mean flaws or imperfection. I think it is basically the same to glitch. What do you think my native English speaking friends? Is my feeling correct?

Also, you can say “iron some kinks” to mean “fix some issues or problems.” That makes very sense because kinks are curves and we do need to iron to remove them.

I actually like this expression and feel like I will use this a lot in the future. Oops! Does it mean that I will have many kinks in my future. Hope not! Let’s not jinx! πŸ™‚

09 Jul

three sheets to the wind

Who taught: Phil, Kelly, Kaley, Rachel and Shawn

Sometimes, life is so funny. We plan things and try to prepare for the future ahead. Yet, we do not know what is ahead. Every day is full of surprises.

Really should enjoy a new day given to me. Nothing to complain about at all! Carpe diem!

Last week, Jerome and Patricia threw a party to celebrate the acquisition of the company that I used to work. I used to work at the company for three years before I joined Carnegie Mellon University. It was so fun to work with smart people there. I got to solve a lot of interesting problems which eventually made a lot of clients happy. No wonder why another company wants to buy this great company.

It was so nice seeing all the people including current and former employees at the party. There were great foods, drinks and music.

I walked around, talking to as many people as possible and at some point I sit down with Phil, Kelly, Kaley, Rachel and Shawn. And, Phil told me something which I had no clue at all. I had to say to him, “what did you say?,” many times.

He said, “Hey Terry, Are you three sheets to the wind?”

Let me challenge you, my non-native English speaking friends! Can you guess what it means? Even after I got the words that Phil said, I still was not able to understand. Worse, I could not even guess.

Well, my friends told me that it simply means “are you drunk?” Of course, I was not. But, the question is why does it mean drunk? Well, no one knew why.

Once you use a language as your mother tongue, you use a lot of expressions without even thinking about why, right? In my opinion, it is because people learn those expressions by just hearing and trying to use later. That’s actually amazing. So, these days, I try really hard to learn English as if I am a new born child. You know what I mean? Just listen and use them.

Well, about 30 minutes later, I had to sit again. (You know, I am getting old.) I sit next to Kaley and she actually googled for its origin and showed it to me.

Not surprisingly, the expression is from sailing. There are a lot of expressions that originated from sailing and this is one of them. Here is a very good one for you.

Sheets actually refer to the ropes that are used to secure a ship’s sail. If the 3 ropes used were loose in the wind, the sail would flop around, causing the ship to wobble around, much like a drunk.

As soon as I saw this origin, this expression totally made sense to me. What a perfect one to describe “drunk!” Wouldn’t you agree, my friends?

So, next time if you have a drink with your friends, you should try to say, “are you three sheets to the wind?” instead of saying “are you drunk?” They will love you. πŸ™‚

14 Jun

ears burning

Who taught: Amber and Tami

paddle ball

paddle ball (source: http://www.fksa.org/)

At first, I thought I should not write this story but I figured that it would be useful for my friends.

Here is the thing! In Aug 2010, I already posted a story about the same expression that I learned from Kelly. About two years later, I heard the same expression and that did not even ring a bell. This showcases how hard to really make a new expression yours. Simply speaking, you gotta use it. If not, there is literally no hope to make any expression yours.

Look at me! I heard and wrote a story. Yet, I still cannot say that this is an expression that I know.

Anyway, let me get to the story.

When people gather together, they talk about a lot of different things. Sometimes, it could be movies or TV shows or sometimes foods. You know, it could be anything. We also talk about other people that are not there together with us.

A few weeks ago, Tami gave me a paddle ball. So, this is one of the games that kids in the U.S. play. Well, I have never played before. It looks so easy to play but in fact it is pretty tricky. I have tried but not really been successful. Someone should demonstrate how to play so that I can learn.

Anyway, a few days ago, I had a meeting with Amber and Tami and they told me that they had lunch and taked about me, especially about my trying to play a paddle ball. As they said, they used an expression, “Weren’t your ears burning?”

Had I know nothing about expressions, I would have said, “No, my ears never burn.” Of course, they cannot and do not burn unless someone sets a fire on them, right?

Instead of telling you what that means, let me tell you a similar expression Korean people use. If, all of a sudden, someone’s ears are itching, he or she would say that someone else must be talking about me. That’s right, in Korea, we use the verb, “itch,” instead of “burn,” in this situation.

In my opinion, ears burning makes me feel the expression better. What do you think? Maybe I can try to use “ears are itching” to my American friends to see what they would guess.

Amber also told me that some people say, “Aren’t your ears ringing?”

One important takeaway is this! To learn a new language or more specifically to learn a new expression, you gotta use it.

Use it or Lose it!