Category Archives: From media

29 Jun

funny sound words

These days, I have been watching a TV show, “Everybody Loves Raymond (ELR).” Funny thing is that I do not intend to watch it but I do not have a choice because Jessy is watching it all the time. She used to watch “Friends” so many times. Maybe around 20 times! Or even more…. Honestly, I was the one who encouraged her to watch it to help her English but I got so sick and tired of it. Then, I said to her. “Don’t you want to try something else?” So, finally, she decided to move on to the other one, ELR. It is pretty fun to watch. In my opinion, I think ELR is a little bit harder than Friends. I mean English-wise. Watching it, I heard a few interesting sound words which, I think, are quite useful to know.

1. Mopey : similar to depressed and sad but a little bit like someone bringing gloomy moods.

Example : Hey, why are you being so mopey? Cheer up! The world is not gonna disappear.

Korean equivalent : 시무룩한 (Si-Mu-Ruk-Han)

2. Grumpy : similar to angry and bad-tempered but more like fume and fret

Example : Sometimes, she gets grumpy easily! So you gotta watch out your mouth!

Korean equivalent : 짜증내는 (Jja-Jeung-Nae-Neun)

This one actually seems to be an expression you gotta be careful. I found another definition from the Urban Dictionary. It says it is a slang term for the act of defecating. And the following is an example.

I need to take a grumpy.

3. Tushy : basically good looking butt

Example : Jessy always tells me, “Honey, you do not have tushy at all.” Then I am like, “Asian guys are not supposed to have butt. My lack of tushy is my charm!”

Korean equivalent : 엉덩이 (Eung-Deong-Yi) I cannot find any better word for this but this should be good enough.

14 Jun

don’t judge a book by its cover

Who taught: Jerome

Brooklyn Bridge (1875)

Last night, I came back from my 4th New York City trip. The city is always fun to visit and spend a few days there. There are so many things you can do there. This time, Jessy and I decided to explore the places we have never been to, such as Greenwich village, SOHO, Middle East Side and Civic Center. On the last day, we went to the Brooklyn bridge. Initial impression of the bridge was not really good. You know, it looks like just a regular suspension bridge. (I have seen bunch of bridges in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is a city of three rivers and thus it is not a surprise at all to see many bridges.) After we walked to one of the towers of the bridge, we were surprised by many of stories related with the bridge. First of all, it was completed in 1883 (1883 is a long time ago, isn’t it?) and it is the first steel-wire suspension bridge. The most interesting part of the bridge was about the towers. There are two towers, one is Brooklyn tower and the other is New York tower. To build them, they used a hollow object which placed at the bottom of the tower and of course in the water, caisson, in which people actually go down to move mud and rock debris. To make people breathe, they supplied air into the caisson. And, most of the caisson workers suffered the same decompression disease of divers because they got back to the normal (decompressed) atmosphere too quickly from the compressed in caisson. Based on the record, all of the caisson workers experienced the disease and three people actually died and fifteen percent of the workers were paralyzed. That is why, the disease, bends, is now also called “caisson disease.”

So, if you go to New York City, you should really visit and walk the bridge. You also get a very nice view of the river and the city.

Speaking of the first impression of the bridge, I have a few questions for you? How many times have you ever judges people by their looking, especially by their first impression? Do you know anyone whom you thought really good and nice based on the first impression or looking but it turns out that he/she is really mean and arrogant, or vice versa? I have one person. When I first saw her, I thought she is really mean and fastidious. But, it turns out that she is very thoughtful and generous. Do you know who she is? Yeah, that is Jessica. Everybody loves Jessica.

There is a good expression you can use if your friend, not you, judges people based on their appearances. “Do not judge a book by its cover!” I mean, you can easily understand its meaning, right? But, you would be surprised that how hard to use the proper expression at a proper time if you do not know the expression. To be able to use any expression, I think you should at least hear and know and then also try to use it a few times even if you use it in a wrong context. That’s why you need good friends like mine because they will understand and help you out to correct you. Well, I can be your friend for that. So, please feel free to add any comments or questions if you have any! Remember! If you want to speak English, you should use it. You think you can speak without any practice and just thinking in your brain. That ain’t gonna work.

08 Jun

blue blood

Who taught : Jessy

“A women struck by lightening and died a minute before a proposal.”

This is a real story which happened today in North Carolina. Richard Butler who planned to propose to his girl friend, Bethany Lott, took her to a hike to a mountain in NC to make her think it is just a hike. He was going to propose to her on the top of the mountain. But, a few minutes before they got to the top, lightening struck her and she was dead. She was just 25 years old. What a sad story!  I feel really sorry and do not know what to say. My condolence to her!

King Sejong of Joseon Dynasty

Moving on to today’s expression, if you hear someone saying the following sentence, what would you think the guy is?

“That guy’s blood is so blue.” or “That guy has blue blood.”

My first impression was that he must be very cold-blooded. I think blue sounds very cold. Maybe it is because of reptiles. What do you think? Wouldn’t you agree?

Two days ago, Jessy and I were on the way to a driving range. In our car, she told me a story about a celebrity women who is going to marry a guy whose family is noble. She asked me, “Do you know what they say in this situation?” “I don’t know. Maybe like, she is marrying a rich and arrogant guy. How long they will stay together?” I said. Well, she said “No, she marries blue blood.”

So, blue blood is the expression to describe nobility and royal family members. Based on the Urban Dictionary, it comes from the medieval belief that aristocratic blood was blue.

Well, apparently, I have red blood and I am not a royal family member. But, maybe, Jessy has blue blood because her ancestor was royal member in South Korea. One of her ancestors was a Queen in the Joseon Dynasty. She married to Sejong, the Great of Joseon and her official title was the Queen Consort Soheon. Now, it is funny! I actually married blue blood.

03 May

words to describe weather

Weather is always one of the main subjects people talk about a lot in meetings or conference calls. And, there are a few words I know to describe weather. You may want to use these in your work.

1. Muggy

Korean equivalent : 후덥지근한 (Hu-deop-Ji-Geun-han)

Last Saturday was supposed to be raining all day but it was pretty good during the day and it eventually rained at night. But, during the day, it was so muggy that we knew that it was going to rain eventually.

2. Soggy

Korean equivalent : 눅눅한 (Nuk-nuk-han)

I think this word can be used to describe the time after a big rain when there is high humidity. This one does not necessarily have to be hot, I guess. Also, you can use this word to describe any objects. For example, if you bought a bread or chips but they are not really crispy as it supposed to be, then you can say, “This chips are soggy. I do not like it!”

3. gloomy

Korean equivalent : 어둑어둑한 (Eu-duk-eu-duk-han)

Supposed that there is a thunder-storm and the sky is full of dark clouds, then you would say, “It is so gloomy. I need something exciting!” Last winter in Pittsburgh, it rained in so many days. It was totally gloomy.

4. Wonderful/Awesome/Beautiful

Well, I guess you can say all these when it is really pleasant with proper temperature and lots of sunshine.

What are other words to describe weather? I cannot think of any other ones off the top of my head.

Speaking of weather, I remember I had a problem with Fahrenheit when I got to the U.S. for I was used to Celsius for a long time. You know how I adjust myself to this new scale? Basically, we all know 32 F is 0 C. So, anytime the temperature is lower than 32 F, I consider it is cold. The other one is 80 F. 80 F is about 25 C (More exactly it is 26.6 C.) So, I always think, if it is higher than 80 F, then it is hot. Jessy always disagrees with me. She thinks anytime lower than 50 F is cold and around 90 F is perfect and higher than 100 F is hot. (Something must be wrong with her. Or maybe this is women thing? 🙂 ) Now Jessy and I use Fahrenheit all the time and it is hard for us to convert to Celsius.

28 Mar

prepositions in english – You gotta feel it!

Yesterday, Jessy and I went to Borders. (For the people who do not know what Borders is. In America, it is hard to find small bookstores around a town. There are two major bookstore brands. One is Barnes & Noble and the other one is Borders. They are almost like one of the places people make an appointment to meet up and hang around. Barnes & Noble has Starbucks coffee shop in it whereas Borders has Seattle’s best coffee. Funny thing is Starbucks bought Seattle’s best a few years ago.) Well, back to the main point! So, I was reading a magazine and, in the magazine, I found the following quotes by Albert Einstein.

Common sense is a collection of prejudices acquired by the age of 18.

Interestingly, from the church bulletin I got today, there was a story about a result done by Gallup’s 2008 Values and Beliefs survey.

70 percent of Americans believe divorce is morally acceptable. That’s an 11-point increase from seven years ago. Two generations of high divorce rates have made divorce the norm in America.

So, basically, a social symptom has been happening for a while makes a big impact on a social common sense, or social norm. It was just my two cents on an issue of the social change. (Good usage of “just my two cents“! Huh!)

OK…. So… Today’s topic. It is a preposition. I am pretty sure that preposition is one of the hardest things in learning or using English. Why is it hard? I think it is because for non-native English speakers it is hard to feel them when they hear or speak. Like in, on, at, over, through, etc….. Having said that, let me take one example of prepositions with time stuff! What if I say the following to my friends.

I was thinking about going to Washington, D.C. to enjoy cherry blossom festival sometime __ April 2010 and I finally decided to go __ April 3, 2010 and will be staying there __ April 5, 2010.

What would you put in the first, second and third empty places? I am not talking about grammar. Growing up in South Korea, I was basically forced to memorize all of those grammars. It did not work out well. So, before you think about the grammar of English, you should be able to feel. I mean if you ask these kind of questions to American people, they will fill them out really easily. But then, if you ask, “Why did you choose those prepositions respectively?” Most of them would say, “I don’t know. I just feel that is correct.” Funny but it is true. If you do not feel each of them and just try to memorize the grammar, you will find yourself thinking too much to pick the correct ones from your brain every time you speak. That is what makes you really hard to speak.

A few examples I try to have some feelings whenever I happened to use them in English are;

1. on : you should feel this one like something specific or like fixed. In other words, something is stuck with something.

2. in : it feels like I am in some sort of long hallway. I can still see the starting point and the ending point of the hallway but still not that as much specific as “on”

3. through : I think something very sharp and long like an arrow. At the same time, I feel more emphasis on the finishing point with the sharp edge just like the arrow. Something starts from a specific point and ends with a sharp point.

“OK! now what would you put in the empty places in the sentence?” I know this would be easy for many of you but they are just a few out of so many. So, try to think some sort of images when you hear or use the prepositions so that it almost like stuck in you mind. And, try to pay attention what American people actually use in their sentences and mimic them. Hope this could improve your proper usage of prepositions!

I am curious how American friends think. “Do you also have those feelings when you use prepositions?”