Category Archives: From media

20 Jun

sweet pea

Who taught: Issac

Hello, my friends! Have you ever seen this video? This is amazing and so sweet. A few weeks ago, this beautiful proposal story was all over the place. It was even on national TV news.

I will let you watch this video for a while………….

 

OK, how is it? Don’t you love it? Now, can you remember the last sentence that was shown in the video?

And to my sweet pea… Thanks for saying “yes”.

Yes, that was it. I am 100% sure that you know who “sweet pea” is referring to here. It is the prospective bride. Sweet pea itself is a flowering plant. Everybody has different opinions about how beautiful different flowers are. But, in my opinion, sweet pea is beautiful.

So, I guess I can say it is pretty obvious that sweet pea would mean a beautiful woman. What do you think? Would you agree? Well, when I first heard, I did not think about flowers at all. Instead, I thought of peas that are sweet. It would taste good, of course. That can also kind of lead us to think that sweet pea can be a beautiful woman. Either way, it makes sense, right?

Urban dictionary’s definition also supports our conclusion.

Now, the question is what about other flowers like rose or lilies? Can I say my rose or my lilies to mean my wife or girl friend? I am not sure. But, one thing for sure “sweet pea” does have “sweet” in it. Nevertheless, I guess I can call my wife whatever I want as long as it is something beautiful.

22 May

stack and stacked

Who taught: Emmett

Short stack (http://boston.tumblr.com/)

One of the things I regularly do is watching TV shows. For native English speakers, this might be a waste of time. On the other hand, I find it is very helpful for non-native English speakers to watch TV shows regularly to improve listening comprehension skills.

In everything I do, I have a goal. My goal here is to be able to understand what they say even without focusing too much. It is still far from achieving the goal but it is getting closer day by day.

So, recently, I found a TV show that I like on Netflix. It’s called “Switched at Birth.” It is a story about two teenagers who were switched at birth and about their families. It is not one of those shows that I would recommend you to watch but I personally like it. You know what I mean! It is OK.

A few days ago, while I was watching an episode, I heard a very familiar word, stack. For computer science teachers like me, it is one of those words that have to be included in most conversations. I will not go into details about why. But, if you are burning with curiosity, you should consider to take my course.

A very well-known definition of the word is “an orderly pile, especially one arranged in layers.”

Let me have you feel this definition. Do you know what is one of the favorite brunch menus in the U.S.? It’s pancake. When you order pancakes, normally you get 5 to 10 pancakes piled up on top of each other. So, when you order it, what do you say? You can say, “I will have a short stack.” I heard this exact expression from another TV show, “Supernatural.” I am sure you can now really feel the word, stack.

Good but not good! Why? Because Emmett used this word to mean a totally different thing. Well…. probably not that different but it took some time for me to finally get it.

He and his friend were talking about a girl who has pretty big breast. I mean big boobs. But, instead of saying, “She has large boobs,” he said, “She is stacked.” Ha… Interesting, isn’t it? Here is the way I imagine to make this most sense. If a girl who has big those lies down in a bed, you can almost think them stacked on top of her chest. If it is too small, then you cannot even notice them; nothing is stacked.

What do you think? Do you like my analysis? Also, you can use this expression to describe a man, like “he is stacked.” I know I am not stacked at all. Are you stacked?

Now, the question is “how much is stacked and how much is too much?”

08 Mar

butt dial vs booty call

Who taught: Carol and Alan

butt dial

butt dial (source: http://aiminglow.com/)

A few days ago, Carol forwarded me a tweet by AlanHungover.

His tweet says:

My Grandpa confused the term “butt dial” with “booty call.” I almost fainted when he said “I booty called your mother last night.”

I already mentioned about the expression, booty call. If you do not remember, here is the link to my old post.

What is butt dial? Have you ever gotten a phone call but the one who makes the call does not speak at all but you keep hearing noises? That is probably due to butt dialing. You would have probably made that kind of call in the past too. Usually, it happens when you put your cell phone in your back pocket and sit down in a chair or a sofa. So, it is not a horrible thing to do. On the other hand, booty call is not considered to be a good thing. Well, it depends, I guess.

As I already mentioned in the old post, booty actually means butt. Call and dial mean the same thing. In that sense, it is not impossible to confuse those two expressions, even for native English speakers.

In reality, they are so different from each other. I would also be very very surprised by my Grandpa, saying “I booty called your mother last night.”

I would be like, “What? What is wrong with my family. My mother is your daughter, Grandpa!”

Anyway, since I heard that story, I feel a lot more comforted because even native English speakers are confused with all of these crazy expressions. I guess I am doing OK. What do you think, my friends? Wait, can I also say butt call to mean butt dial? How about booty dial? Would that be OK?

BTW, you should never forget these two expressions.

23 Feb

rediscovering a word series 2: flash

Who taught: Melissa

There are three rivers that run across or around Pittsburgh, PA. And there are more than 29 bridges cross the three rivers in Pittsburgh city boundary. That is a lot of bridges. Don’t you think? Do I know the names of all of the bridges? Not at all! I know a few such as the Liberty Bridge and the Fort Pitt Bridge.

Because of these crazy number of bridges and the three rivers, there is a very interesting aspect of the city. People in the South and the North do not get along with each other. Also, they do not even think about taking a trip to the other side of the town. They stay where they are from. In my opinion, because of this, people from Pittsburgh always come back to the city after a few years of living in other states or cities. They just love the city, or I should say the area they are from, either South or North.

Where do I live? I live the Eastern part of Pittsburgh. Kind of neutrality zone, I guess.

Well, today’s story is about another experience of rediscovering a word for me. Everybody knows what “flash” means. It is a light or something that reflects light that shine in a bright but brief, sudden, or intermittent way. Like camera flash.

That was the only definition I have known till this morning. Today, I was briefly checking my facebook feed and I found a very interesting youtube video shared by Melissa.

The title of the video is “Have you ever flashed someone?” I thought this question should be related with taking a picture at night or something. But then next thing I thought about was what is so interesting about taking a picture at night? Not much, right? So, I decided to watch the video. Oh My …..

What the heck? Flash has that kind of definition? No way! Here I am embedding the video here. You should really watch it to understand it.

Oh.. also, you should watch it till the end. If not, you would not be able to understand what it means. At the end, there is a lady who shows what it means by really doing it.

Hey, have you watched it? If not, watch first. …

………

By now, I assume you did watch it. Do you get it? Can you feel it? Here is the definition of flash: To show an “inappropriate” body part by quickly moving an object or article of clothing out of the way then back “flashing” the part at someone.

So, the thing is I do not think it is “inappropriate” body part if a woman flashes. What do you think, my friend?

 

16 Feb

walk it off

Who taught: Sam

Walk it off (source: http://almondspeaks.blogspot.com/)

My mother-in-law really likes watching movies. Before she came and had stayed with me for a few months, I had no idea that she is into movies. In some sense, it is not a surprise at all because Jessy also loves movies.

So, for that reason, ever since she came to the United States, I have been watching more movies than any before. It is fun and also at the same time it is an amazing chance for me to learn new expressions.

About two weeks ago, I watched a movie called “Happy Thank You More Please.” It was an interesting movie but most of all I heard something that I have never heard of.

While two guys were talking about their tough lives, one guy said, “I can now sort of understand what it means to just walk it off.” He used “walk it off” as he was also talking about his baseball coach when he was young.

Can you feel it? Here is the situation. Suppose that you and I were ice-skating and you fell down on your butt. Oops! That sounds very hurt. Then, I can say to you like, “Oh man! That looks hurt. But you gotta walk it off here! There are a lot of girls watching you now.” In the story, you have to be a man. I think it is an expression that can only be used between men. But, I am not sure. Maybe, my friends can fill me in here.

That is what walk it off means. If things are tough, just move on like a man or be strong. Can you do it? I think I can walk it off after falling on the ice but I do not think I can walk it off after falling down on the slope while I am snowboarding, especially with very fast speed. That really hurts and cannot even get up if you know what I mean. 🙂

Hey, my friends, when life gets tougher and tougher, sometimes you need to really walk it off.