01 Feb

rediscovering a word series 1: hint

Mighty mango juice from the Naked juice (source: The Naked Juice)

Last weekend, I visited my brother-in-law’s family who lives in Virginia. As a preparation for a trip that takes around 6 hours one way, my parents-in-law and I went shopping at Costco. We bought some fruits and juices. What kind of juices did you buy? We bought the Naked juices. It is a juice brand in the U.S. and it is pretty expensive because it claims that it does not have any artificial flavors but has only pure juice from fruits.

We bought mango juices and have drank most of them but some were left over during the trip. This morning I took that out from the refrigerator and drank it with my breakfast.

As I drank, I happend to pay attention to the bottle.

It says:

1 1/4 mangoes, 1/2 orange, 1 3/4 apples, 1/3 banana, and a hint of lemon.

As I was reading through, one word caught my eyes. It was a “hint” of lemon. Hint! I know that word. It means “a slight or indirect indication or suggestion.” I, sometimes, give out hints to students when they are struggling to solve a problem. I am sure we all know what it means in this context.

What is a hint of lemon? Is it like a small piece of lemon? That was my first guess. Luckily, it was correct. Hint also means “a very slight or hardly noticeable amount.”

It was my first time to see this word, hint, used to mean hardly noticeable amount. I gotta pay more attention to small things around me to learn, or I should say rediscover, English words.

Wow, a hint of lemon! Let me give you a hint! We do not know anything until we really dig into it.

27 Jan

jump the shark

Who taught: Andrew

Yesterday, my friend, Andrew, came to Carnegie Mellon University to give a talk about “Agile Software Development with Scrum.” I know it might sound all greek to some of you but simply speaking it is a computer science thing.

I was there too. In my opinion, it was a very informative and useful talk. I am sure that students felt the same way.

It was also useful for me in another sense. I learned another expression from Andrew. During his talk, he said this, “Has Agile jumped the shark?” At first, I thought “jump the shark” could mean a good thing. Something like it is so great that even a shark decides to jump out of the water. Well… as Andrew continues his talk, I could feel that the expression does not have positive connotations.

However, I was not get the exact feeling of the expression.

So, I looked it up. Then I realized that the shark is not the one who jumps. It is a person or a thing jumps the shark just like you can see from the youtube video that I included here. The expression is originated from this TV show, Happy Days, that aired from 1974 to 1984.

To be able to feel this expression fully, you should imagine yourself watching a man who is really going to jump a shark. As he is getting closer and closer to the shark, you would feel more and more excited but, once jumping is done, all of the excitement is gone.

Another way you can think of is that you are riding a roller coaster. As it climbs up and up, you feel excitement but once it reaches the bottom the excitement is not there anymore.

“Jump the shark” means a moment when something that was once great has reached a point where it will now decline in quality and popularity. (source: urban dictionary)

Now, I am not sure how many of the students yesterday evening understood the expression because most of them were non-native English speakers. Maybe I should ask them later and teach this expression while I am teaching my regular computer science stuff.

23 Jan

sport vs sports

Who taught: Steve, Jean, Jeremy and Ginny

A good sport (source: http://candostreet.com/)

This is the second episode where I learned a new expression from Steve and Jean. They have three children and two of them, Ginny and Jeremy, teach at the same elementary school. They were in a skit whose main purpose was to increase awareness of the importance of the yearly State Math test. It is pretty hilarious. I wish I can show it to you. In the skit, they were basically devouring chocolates that are supposed to be for students who would get good scores in the test. That is not good. 🙂 In the skit, their mouth was totally covered with chocolates while eating chocolates and the other teachers were telling them the chocolates are not for them but for good(?) students.

In the end, one teacher said, “Do you know that the school will give out chocolates if a student would get a good score in the State Math test.” That would work for elementary school students, I guess. Chocolates could be really good baits for them to study harder.

So, what does it have anything to do with sport?

What does sport mean? That’s easy. It is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others.”

Am I suggesting that eating chocolates requires physical exertion and skill and Ginny and Jeremy were competing with each other? Hmm.. it needs some skill to eat and mouth muscle should move faster. And, who knows.. Ginny and Jeremy were really competing with each other. 🙂

As we were watching the skit, Steve said, “They were being a good sport.” Interesting! Very very interesting! Because this does not mean that there is any sort of competition. The thing they did was that they were being funny in front of students and teachers, right? In other words, they were fine being the butt of a joke. Well, that is what “good sport” means.

After all, it has something to do with sport (physical exertion). When you lose in any sport, it is not easy to accept your loss. But, if you can accept your loss, then you are being a good sport.

It is hard to accept a loss in any sport. It is also very hard to be a butt of a joke, amusing other people. There goes a strong connection of being a good sport.

Amazingly, a few days later, I heard the same expression used by an actor of the Criminal Minds. He said, “I was just being a good sport.”

Can you be a good sport? Hope you can in both sense!

18 Jan

moonlighting

Who taught: Steve and Jean

Moonlight (source: http://pixdaus.com/)

Two days ago, Steve and Jean invited me to dinner. It was great. My in-laws had a chance to eat baked potatoes with sour cream along with other dishes. They loved the potatoes. On the way back to home, my mother-in-law said, “Let’s try to bake potatoes next time. I really liked it.” In Korea, people usually do not bake potatoes. Instead, we steam them. I guess this different way of cooking introduced a different taste and texture of potatoes to her. I think she will bake potatoes even after she goes back to Korea. 🙂

Well, while my in-laws were busy enjoying baked potatoes, Steve and I were talking about his children and son-in-law. His son-in-law, Dan, is a medical doctor. And, he of course has a job at a hospital in Ohio. But, because of his specialty, he has been getting a lot of different part-time job offers. As Steve was talking about this situation, he said, “Dan can easily moonlight at $75 per hour.”

Wait! Moonlight?? Isn’t moonlight just a light from Moon? If that word had another meaning, that would probably be walking around at night.

It actually has another interesting meaning which really makes sense to me. Suppose that you need to work in addition to your full-time day job, it would mean that you work at night, right? Then, you either need to walk or drive under the moonlight. I guess back in the days when there was no cars, people really had to walk at night for his/her second job.

Yup! That is what it means. If you moonlight, that means you are to work at an additional job after your regular and full-time employment. I believe it does not have to be a night job though. So, you could say to your friends like this, “Man, life is tough. I am moonlighting these days to make ends meet.”

Obviously, moonlighting does not necessarily mean a romantic thing as we walk under the moonlight.

12 Jan

shoestring

Who taught: CBS Evening News

on a shoestring (source: http://prettyorganizedpalace.blogspot.com/)

This is just my opinion. I think the CBS Evening News talks about politics more than the NBC Nightly News. These days, I can hear many stories about Republican Presidential Candidates, especially from the CBS Evening News. A few weeks ago, one of the reporters from the CBS Evening News interviewed Rick Santorum, one of the candidates. The reporter said, “You are running on a shoestring,” to Rick Santorum.

From the context, I could feel that this does not and cannot mean literally. However, had I not known the context, I would have been totally lost. What? He is running on a shoestring? Is he a circus man? He can run on a small tiny and narrow shoestring? What kind of man is he? That is ridiculous. Show me how to do it! I mean, can you? I doubt you can even stand on a shoestring for a split second.

Of course, it does not mean literally. It is deeper than literal. Shoestring is not just a string for your shoes. It also means a small sum of money. Now, it makes sense, right? As a candidate, he is running on a small amount of money because he was not able to raise enough funds.

For example, if you started your own business, you would need to run on a shoestring because you do not have enough seed money until you raise it from outside like angel investors. Recently, I am sure many of the households in the U.S. run on a shoestring due to the bad economy.

When I was a student, I was totally running on a shoestring. Look at the image that I attached here. Can’t you feel the expression really well, looking at it? Hope you have a really really long shoestring that can hold a lot of money. Then, running on a shoestring would not be that bad.

Nevertheless, we should all learn that a rich person is not one who has the most but is one who needs the least.