Category Archives: From media

20 Dec

no-brainer

Who taught: CNN

no brainer (source: http://blog.addictinggames.com/)

As I get older, there are so many things I feel differently from the way I used to feel when I was young. Sadly, many of them are related with winter. First, I used to get very excited about first snow every year. But, not any more. Now, I have no feeling about snow at all. In fact, I kind of wish not to snow because I hate driving on snow. The other thing is Christmas. Just like any other people, I used to look forward to Christmas. Now, not really. I feel like it is just one of the days in a year. How about you? Do you still get excited about snow and Christmas? If so, maybe you are still young. I am not just talking about your age here. πŸ™‚

Speaking of Christmas, there is a national movement in the U.S. these days. Have you noticed it? Not many people say, “Merry Christmas!” any more. Instead, people say, “Happy Holidays!” Do you know why? It is because people believe that “Happy Holidays” is more religion-neutral than “Merry Christmas.” I still prefer to say, “Merry Christmas.” What is your choice?

A few days ago, I was checking a few articles out on CNN Money website. Doing that, I bumped into one article about buying a house. The title of the article was, “Buying a house now is a no-brainer.” As you can see, we have an expression here, no-brainer. Can you guess what it means? Guessing itself could actually be a no-brainer. πŸ™‚

Here is the definition for you.

Something very obvious so that it is very easy to decide or do.

So, was it a no-brainer? In my opinion, buying a house is never a no-brainer at all. I have been thinking about buying a house here in the U.S. but there are so many things I need to check even before looking around houses. Especially, living in a foreign country makes it even harder. Once I go through buying my first house ever, I am sure I would learn bunch of new expressions in relation to mortgage, real estate, house, etc. Then, I will write a series of those expressions for you.

Merry Christmas to you, my friends! And… it is snowing now. πŸ™

17 Dec

product, tool

Who taught: Brian Williams

Tool (source: http://peb.pl/albumy-rock-and-metal)

When I was young, I did not understand why my parents always wanted to watch news programs, especially, when there were some TV shows my brother and I really wanted to watch. You know what happened? Now, I love watching news programs. They are informative and fun as well. I watch two news programs. One is NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (7 pm est) and CBS Evening News with Katie Couric (7:30 pm est). CBS one is more fun to watch. Katie uses a few fun expressions often. FYI, people here in the U.S. say “Do not watch any news from Fox channel.” Why? I do not know. Why don’t you try to ask your American friends the reason?

The other thing I want to point out is that news programs are amazingly useful to practice English. While watching them, I usually do the followings.

1. Listen very carefully to find out new words or expressions. I will get back to you later on this.

2. Listen very carefully to learn the sentences what anchors say. They are using very simple but great sentences.

3. Speak what anchors say! As soon as they say something, I myself speak them again out loud. I really try to mimic them in terms of voice and pronunciation. This way, I practice pronunciation and also it is a perfect way of practicing t0 listen and speak as fast as possible.

Getting back to the new words, a few days ago, I was watching NBC Nightly News and Brian Williams was talking about people who died on that day and he used a very interesting word. He said, “He is a product of Ohio and died today……” As soon as I heard it, I was quite surprised because that was the first time I heard the word, product, to describe a person. I have always thought product is the word that can be only used to describe things, not people. Well, I am a product of South Korea. How about you?

In this sense, there is another word which really sounds like it should be used to describe things but can be used in relation to people. It is “TOOL.” So, you can say like, “You are such a tool.” Wait!! You gotta keep reading. Here is the definition of the expression.

A fool. Characterized by low intelligence or self-esteem.

This expression is typically used for male. (Why? Who is using tools?) So, you would not want to use this often. Not a good expression at all. But, if you happen to be a guy and someone uses this expression to you, it is hard to understand if you do not know the meaning. You would be like, “Is he saying that I am good at dealing with tools or what?” So, again, it is really good to know these expressions to be able to protect yourself from being teased and participate in conversations properly.

10 Dec

cash and prizes

Who taught: Dwayne Johnson

Junk in the trunk? (source: http://forums.techguy.org/)

There is a new movie in theaters, called “Faster.” Dwayne Johnson is starring in the movie. A few weeks ago, Jessy and I were watching Tonight show with Jay Leno. The first guest on the show was Dwayne Johnson. And, they of course talked about the movie and blah blah blah…. Β In the middle of their conversation, Dwayne used one expression that caught my attention, cash and prizes. When he said, it was pretty obvious that he meant “penis and testicles.” If you do not mind, let me do a simple anatomy of the expression.

cash -> penis, prizes -> testicles

Now, I have tried to find the etymology of this expression, asking myself, “Why? Why cash is penis and prizes are testicles?” I still cannot figure out. I do need your help here. Does anybody can tell me the etymology of this expression?

There are a few other expressions that have the same meaning.

1. twig and berries : Twig is of course penis and berries are testicles. This sounds really obvious if you can picture twig and berries and think of penis and testicles. They look similar, right?

2. Or simply you can use a word, junk.

Now, speaking of junk, there is another expression you might hear often. “Junk in the trunk” Let me ask you one thing now! Can you say the expression out loud? Well, hope you are not in the United States and there is no a women with junk in the trunk in front of you. If so, run now! She might kill you.

Why? junk in the trunk means simply a big butt. How big? I do not know. I guess it should be pretty obvious so that everyone can agree it is big. But, what if it is huge. Do we still say it ‘junk in the trunk’? Tricky question it is. You know what! To be able to catch those kind of small difference, you should be here in the U.S. and use the expressions as much as you can. Now, can you sat the expression out loud again? πŸ™‚

26 Nov

meat market

Meat market (source: Wikipedia)

Hi, my friends! How have you been? It has been a while. As you may know, yesterday was Thanksgiving day which is one of the national holidays in the U.S. Thus, I had some time off from my work and writing blog posts. Officially, I am still on Thanksgiving holiday vacation. I am sure this is the only holiday that exists in the U.S. in November. Canadian one is in October and Korean Chusuk(좔석) which is vevy similar to American Thanksgiving is usually in September. The thing I really like about this holiday is that it is all about family. Almost all of the families in the U.S. get together and give thanks together and eat together. The most famous food is of course Turkey but people also eat stuffing and pumpkin pie. They are all delicious. Hope you can get to eat them sometime in the future. Now, do you know what day is today, the day after Thanksgiving? It is “Black Friday.” Do you know why? It is because stores have huge discounts and, as a result, people spend a lot of money, shopping. Then, stores, or companies, can make huge profit so that they can be in the black, not in the red. Many stores open very early like 3:00 am. To get the best deal, people actually sleep in front of stores. It is an amazing thing to see. I believe people try to be prepared for Christmas. You know, buying presents to give out on Christmas time.

Since we are talking about shopping, let me introduce one very interesting expression which I really like. “Meat market” Haha…. I know… what is up with the expression? It is a meat market where people buy different kinds of meats, right? Well, this expression means something else too. Can you guess what it would be? OK! Let me write a little bit differently. “Meet market” As you can notice, this is exactly the same pronunciation. So, when you say “meat market,” you actually means “meet market.” The question is what is that place? It is the place that people just go and randomly meet other people to eventually have sex. In that sense, meat market makes sense. We, people, are all meat, or flesh. I, of course, never been to. Honestly, I am not sure this market does really exist or not. Does it exist, my American friends? If so, you should introduce the place to me. I am not saying I am interested in meeting people. I am just being curious. πŸ™‚ Jessy! It is true. πŸ™‚

22 Nov

caboose

Who taught: Kelly

A few months ago, Jessy and I went camping with Phil and Kelly. I think I mentioned this in one of my old posts. This morning, I suddenly remembered one expression Kelly used at that time. When we had a meeting to discuss what we need to prepare, she said, “We have OJs. So, that is good.” Hmm…. I did not quite get it. When I hear OJ, I think of only one thing(?), OJ Simpson. I heard so many times about him even when I was in Korea. But, it does not make sense Kelly’s saying OJ in the preparation of camping. Do you know what OJ is in this context? It is Orange Juice. I thought this is just an expression people use when they speak. But, I actually found one orange juice bottle in a market which has “O.J.” written on its label. Now, I am curious whether people say like “CJ” for cranberry juice or “LA” for lemonade. I have never heard of. Do you guys use it that way?

Do you know what is one of the most amazing things in the Β U.S.? It is train. Why? It is really really long. One time, I tried to count number of cars that are pulled by one locomotive. How many? It was more than 100. Imagine that you have to cross railroad but there was a train passing by so that you have to wait! Wait for that long train could take more than 10 minutes. Not just because it is long but also it goes really slow.

Caboose (source: wikipedia)

A few weeks ago, Jessy and I was watching a TV show and, in the show, one guy said, “She’s got great caboose.” From the context, it sounded like he meant her breast. You know, b**bs. But, as we watch it longer, we realized that that was not what he meant. So, I looked it up. You know what I found. It is actually a type of railroad car in which crew members can take a rest. Thus, caboose is always located at the end of a train. Also, this is not really common anymore due to the development of faster locomotives. So, a lot of times, you can find diverse kind of cabooses in railroad museums. But, then what did he mean in the show? Well, he meant butt. Why? I have no idea. The only guess I can take is butt is something you can see in the back and also, as I said, caboose is located always in the back of a train. What do you think, my American friends? Would you agree with me? If you agree, say, “Terry has nice caboose.” (Jessy have always been teasing me that I do not really have a real butt. πŸ™ )