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!

30 Mar

dillydally

Who taught: Pete

This coming Thursday, my friends and I will play basketball after work. To organize this, I sent an email to them and, in the email, I used the expression I learned from Pete, “Let’s get this show on the road!” A few hours later, Pete came to my desk to help me out to fix the broken Korean issue in my blog and we fixed it. Yay! Then, I had to ask him, “So what do you think about my usage?” Pete told me, “Well, it is more suitable to use the expression when people are with you now to do something and they are dilly dally.” Well….. He suddenly realized that ‘dilly dally’ is something I would not know. Definitely, I did not know. He started to give me some other similar type of expressions. I think they are really useful. You would hear these kind of expressions a lot in America!

1. dilly-dally : messing around, waisting time.

Example : “Come on guys! You are so dilly-dally! Let’s get this show on the road! Get off your ass!”

Korean equivalent : 꾸물꾸물 (Ggu mul Ggu mul)

2. pitter-patter: hurry up!

Example : “We gotta pitter-patter!” (I guess you can use just as it is like “Pitter patter!”)

Korean equivalent : 빨랑 빨랑 (Bbal lang bbal lang)  This one is very special for Korean. You will hear this one so many times in Korea because Korean people are always busy and want to do something fast. One thing I had a real hard time when I first got to the U.S. was the slowness of any kind of services. For example, I went to the DMV to get the driver’s license test. Well, I had to wait for an hour or so. In Korea, this would never happen. If they are this much slow, people are going crazy and almost blow the place. So, if you go to Korea and if someone is very slow to serve you, say “Hey! Bbal lang bbal lang!” with very angry face. They will get it! 🙂

3. wishy-washy : indecisive or ineffective

Example : Well you will see this in newspapers so many times when they describe any politicians who is not decisive in some area or topic.

Korean equivalent : 우유부단 (Woo yoo bu dan) This one is originated from Chinese.

4. roly-poly : little overweight (?) Not sure this means someone really overweight or someone like chubby. By hearing it, I feel like this is more like chubby, right?

Korean equivalent : 포동포동 (Po dong Po dong) I would say this is not really insulting to anyone. Especially, if a baby is a little chubby, you can use it to the baby like “Oh, your baby is Po dong Po dong!”

5. willy-nilly : all over the place in a bad way

Example : I cannot come up with one. Could you provide one?

Korean equivalent : 오지랖 넓다(O zi rab Neol Da) This is hard to pronounce. Don’t try it! 🙂

So, I think these expressions are onomatopoeic words or mimetic words. Am I right? There must be so many more than these. You should all help me out! And, also, can I make up by myself like…. hmm ….. “ding dang”? I have not decided what it should mean.

29 Mar

bun in the oven

Who taught: Brian, Andrew and Jean

Christian, Jean and Andew's Handcrafted Card for Ari

Yesterday, my friend Ari gave a birth to her second little girl, Maia. To celebrate,Christian, Jean and Andrew made a real cute card for her. The theme of the card was “The Adventures of Maya the bee.” I am pretty sure she will love the card. After they are done making the card, each of us write simple message to her. You know what I wrote. 🙂 “No bun in the oven any more! Congrats! from Terry”

There are a few expressions that have something to do with babies or babies in it I learned from my friends.

1. Bun in the oven : A few days ago, Brian came to me, asking “Hey Terry, Do you know what does ‘bun in the oven’ mean?” I was basically like, “It does not sound very special because it is not a surprise at all seeing a bun in the oven. Does it even have any special meaning?” “You can use it to Ari”, Brian told. At that moment, I finally got the picture of “bun in the oven” and was able to connect it to a pregnant woman. I thought this is really perfect expression for describing women’s being pregnant. Very funny one! I really like this expression. But, I had to make sure whether this is not insulting to women or not and asked him. He said, “No! It is just another way of saying being pregnant.” Man, I like it. Awesome! Jean also told me, “You can also say like ‘got one in the oven’.” But I like “bun in the oven” better.

For your better understanding, here is a picture I found from the Internet. So cute, isn’t it? You can use this expression to a pregnant women like, “Oh, you’ve got the bun in the oven!” Wait! Can I use it to a woman who is at the early stage of pregnancy. I do not think so, right? Also, I am curious whether anybody wear this costume for a Halloween party. Maybe I should do for this year’s Halloween day. Oops! I exposed my secret here 🙂

2. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater : This one! Andrew used this one to me two times. I guess this one is a little more straightforward than the previous one, right? This means “should be careful when you try to get rid of any inessential things because you might also throw the important thing together.” What would be a good example for this? Hmm… I think…. If I were a congressman, I would have used this expression to the President Obama when he was trying to rush to change the health care system. “Mr. President! I know it is important to change the system for the future. But, we do not want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, right?” What do you think about my example? Is it good? And do you have any other expressions where there is babies in it or related with babies? Please share them with us!

26 Mar

down the rabbit hole

Who taught: Sangeetha and Alex

I feel like I have gone a long series about “animals in phrases.” In fact, there are so many phrases where you can find animals in it in American English. You know what the most popular animal is. I think it is “horse.” I mentioned about this to Jake and he told me he thinks it is because of American history of being with horses long time.

Let me summarize the expressions that have horse in it I learned!

1. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink

2. from the horse’s mouth

3. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth

4. Trojan horse

5. hung like a ho…. (This is still very embarrassing to say even I mentioned it in my previous post! So,I am adding dots instead of the full one here.)

I learned another useful one with animal in it today. It is “down the rabbit hole” This expression can be used when you are about to do something hard or something you do not know how it will end or progress. So, let’s say you are going to get married! Then, I would say, “Well, my friend, you are about to go down the rabbit hole! Good luck with that!” Don’t get me wrong, though! I am saying you should take marriage very seriously and be prepared for so many different aspects of it. Don’t you agree?

The other thing I learned the other day is “make a mountain out of molehill” This is one of the expressions I actually get the meaning as I hear it for the first time. What do you think? Can you get it? It means basically “exaggerate.” For example, you have some bad experiences with your customer at your work today and, because of it, you are worried about you might be getting into a big trouble. Then, I would say “Come on, don’t make a mountain out of the molehill! It is not that important. Just, get over it! It could happen to anybody.” One thing I like about this expression is that this one has got rhyme when you speak. Try it now! Come on, say it to you! Can you feel it? I think that is another fun part of learning English or maybe different languages.

So, don’t be afraid of getting into a new thing. It is all yours. My friend Andrew says “You cannot get it with that attitude! Hey, Believe it and achieve it!” So, my friend out there, “Believe it and Achieve it!” Learning English is fun!! Yay!!

Good night and have a great weekend! ….. and see you soon!

25 Mar

animals in phrases 2

Who taught: Carol, Jean and Andrew

Today! The day after I wrote about “animals in phrase” post, my friends, Carol, Jean and Andrew all came to me, “We have one that has animal in it. Do you know what does hung like a horse mean?” Of course, I did not know. You know, I am very innocent. (If you have read previous posts, you would have figured it out already. If you did not, now is a good time for you to go through all of my previous posts, especially green t-shirts one.) My first interpretation was…hmm…. I forgot. Oh! I think I said “Does it mean like totally stuck in a situation? For example, a web browser got stuck and hung!” Well, I was totally wrong. No surprise at all! And, there was Santosh right beside me. Andrew said, “I can say it to him like Santosh is hung like a horse.” And he also asked to Santosh, “If I say it, would you like it?” Santosh responded, “Yes!” I was so confused. I asked more context and they told me, “You can use this expression only to men” At that moment, I realized this is something related with sexual stuff. “Guys, what is it? Something dirty, right?” They all nodded. Sigh! I should have known that. Hopefully, you would get the meaning of the expression by looking at the translation of the Korean equivalent below. If not, search for it by yourself!

By the way, are you guys sure I cannot use this for women? What is the counter expression for women? And also, shouldn’t the expression be used like “Santosh’s is hung like a horse” instead of “Santosh is hung like a horse” because the object is not the person but the one that the person has?

Korean equivalent : 왕자지 (Wang Ja Ji) (In English, “king penis”)  -> I cannot believe I am writing down this here. But since there is one that exists in Korean and fun to learn different languages…. Anyways, let’s talk about more phrases which have animals in it! What else do you have?

24 Mar

just my two cents

Who taught: Mark, Shawn, Christian, Pete

When : in conference calls or meetings

As working as an applications engineer, having many conference calls or meetings is part of my daily life. There are a few expressions I have heard or used in the calls or meetings.

1. just my two cents

The other day, Mark came to my desk to let me know one expression he just heard from his conf call. “T-Bone, do you know what does my two cents mean?” Well, I had no idea. My first interpretation was ….”something cheap I have… like my speaker??” But, it means like “just my opinion.” Especially, if anyone want to throw his/her opinion very tentatively, he/she can use the expression.

“I think we should have happy hour every month in the company! But, it is just my two cents!”

I am curious about the origin. Is it originated from gamling? What if I use like “I am just putting my cent in” or “It is just my one cent!” Is it weird?

2. on the same page

This expression is the one I used a few times. I think this one would be something you can easily catch the meaning. You and your customers have the same understanding so that there is no confusion or conflict about anything discussed in the meeting. Usually, I use this expression when there is kind of unclear requirement item from customer and try to ask a question to them to make it clear. “To make sure we are on the same page…. does this item mean blah blah blah….??”

3. ring a bell

Today, Christian and Pete had a meeting and in the middle of the meeting, they used this expression. Since Pete sits very close to my desk, they talked to me. “Terry! We have an expression for your blog. It is ‘ring a bell’.” Even I knew this one already, I have never used this one before. This is the same as “can you remember it now?” Most often usage of this expression is like “Does it ring a bell with you?” Writing this post, I looked up the Internet and I saw there is a big discussion about the preposition (with or for). So can I also say, “Does it ring a bell for you?” What is your thought on this?

Do you have your favorite expressions you use a lot in calls or meetings? Oh, I remember Stacy use “at the end of the day” a lot. I will let somebody add comment about the expression.

By the way, I have today’s acronym for you. BFD!!! It is a short for “Big F..king Deal!” Yesterday, President Obama signed the new healthcare reform bill. After that, Vice President Biden was so excited that he whispered to the President, “This is a big f..king deal!” It is caught by some media and becomes a real BFD on the Internet. I guess Biden made himself BFD. This might be their political strategy to distract the public attention to the new bill. Smart Butt!! 😉 I do not want to use the ‘Ass’ one here.