Category Archives: From work

There are so many abbreviations or expressions that are used in work. I would like to share anything I heard or learned in my work with you.

02 Apr

I really appreciate it

“Who dropped the ball?”

You do not want to hear this question from your boss. Can you guess what this means? All of it sudden, what the heck is the ball here? But you will hear this expression many times at work, especially if you are involved in project managements. Basically, you do not want to drop the ball because if you do, it means you are responsible for something but you make a mistake. I found from the Internet that this expression is originated from FOOTBALL (I mean American football. At this moment, I have to say one thing here. Go Steelers!). In America, football is a huge thing. It is more than you can imagine. It is almost like a war here but it is really fun. (Even fans are ready to throw down to go for mano-a-mano.) So, in football, dropping the ball is really something you do not want to see from you team. It does not matter what position the player is. (quarterback, running back, tight end and wide receiver) You gotta hold on the ball! If you drop it, it is all your fault (maybe except quarterback if it was due to the linebackers’ mistake?? What do you think??) and all of the blames will be on you. So, you gotta check all of the work items, schedules and billable hours continuously to make sure you are not the one who drops the ball. When your boss asks you the question, what you want to say is “The customer is the one who dropped the ball. I already passed the ball to them but they never responded.” I mean if it is true. You cannot make a story up. It will bring more issues.

The same ball is also used in another expression at work, “the ball is in your court.” Let’s say you developed a new feature that a customer asked and then asked the customer to test it, passing the feature to the customer. Then, from that moment, the ball is in their court. “OK, now, the ball is in the customer’s court.” Until they come back to you with bunch of bugs or issues 🙂 Sigh! The life of engineers… There are always bugs.

Speaking of work, there is one more thing I kind of learned or maybe felt from my office.

So, if you are on the phone call with your customer and they understand the situation and be cool with the issues they have. Then you should say something to them, like “Thank you so much for your understanding!” But I heard many people saying, “I really appreciate it!” or “I really appreciate your understanding!” instead of saying “Thank you!” You know what I felt??? I felt that appreciate one is more polite than just thank one. Am I right? If so, is it considered as overreaction if you say “I really appreciate it!” all the time even with small things?

Curious Terry is becoming like Curious George 🙂

PS: There is actually another expression with the ball. Do you know what “the balls” mean? I will let you look it up. Your homework!

26 Mar

Brownnose

Doesn’t this one sounds like my nose? I mean Asian people’s nose because our skin color is brown or yellow.

But, this one has very different meaning. What would happen if you get your face really closer to someone’s ass? I mean close enough your nose can touch someone’s anus and that person did not properly clean his anus after he/she went to bathroom to drop a deuce. It doesn’t look good, right? Well, apparently, your nose will get something from doing it and it should be brown color. Or maybe black or yellow depends on what that person ate before he went to bathroom. I will stop here. It is getting too dirty and distracted from the point 🙂

“So, do you get the idea here? What? Still not get it? OK…OK.. I will give you a definition.” This means “to support every opinion or decision of another person, especially your superior.” The other expression you can use is “suck up to” or “flatter.” I heard this expression from my company’s all-hands meeting. There was a time that the company’s President gave a presentation (That day was his birthday and not everyone knew that.) and, right after that, another person also was going to make his presentation. When he got the microphone, he started with mentioning the President’s birthday, saying “Congratulations! Today is your birthday!” Then, the last person who gave a presentation said, “Oh, brownnosing!” It was kind of joking but I did not know what it means and asked my friends to figure the meaning out. Well, today’s lesson is “In the long term, brownnosing would not work. If we want to be successful at work, we gotta be sincere and honest.” Oh…. but, it could work for your wife. So, try to brownnose your wife when she is angry at you. She will forgive you. It is kind of wisdom for life.

13 Mar

how are you? and good bye!

This time I would like to discuss about what I have felt about some expressions related with greetings.

When I was in the elementary school or even middle school, I learned an English expression for greetings. It was really simple.

A: “How are you?”

B: “Fine! Thank you! And you?”

A: “I am fine too!”

This was it. I cannot remember any other expressions I learned for greetings. Oh, the other thing I remember is “Good bye!” Now I have been here for a while, there are a few different expressions many people use. Let’s see!

When people meet: “What’s up?”, “How’s it going?”, “What’s new?”, “Anything special?”, “Yo!”, “How are you?”

When people part: “Take it easy!”, “Bye!”, “Take care!”, “See you!”, “Seeya!”

There must be more I guess. But the thing is it was kind of difficult to try using different expressions since I only learned one expression and it stayed in my brain for a long time. But I have a question here. So, suppose that I meet a client for the first time, is it ok for me to use “What’s up?” or “What’s new?” I guess not, right? If not, why? I know I cannot use “Hey! Yo!” in that situation 🙂 I think in that case I should use “How are you?” This kind of subtle differences are always hard to catch and grasp.