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?”

15 May

[Series 2] a story about sandwich

Who taught: Tami

Eggs Benedict (source: http://www.thekneadforbread.com/)

About a month ago, Tami and I went to New York City for a biz trip to visit some start-up companies. It was very exciting to see all of these small companies with big ideas growing very fast. We could feel it. After a busy day, we walked to a restaurant near the World Financial Center for dinner. Fortunately, there was a film festival going on at the same time so that we could ‘sort of’ watch a movie as we were sitting in the restaurant.

So, time to order food which is always tricky. It’s been 6 years for me to be here in the U.S. But ordering food is not that easy. I gotta really pay attention to a waiter or waitress when he or she talks about today’s menu. Anyway, we saw one interesting item on the menu. I cannot remember its exact name but I think it was like “mile high lobster sandwich.”  Hey.. speaking of “mile high,” do you remember “mile-high club” that I posted two years ago? You should check it out. Initially, we thought that sandwich is related with this expression, mile high club. But, we need to confirm. So, Tami decided to ask what it is. Our waitress started to explain and she said something like this, “It is basically open-face sandwich with a lot of vegetables and lobster meat.”

At that moment, I was able to understand what open-face means. How about you? Can you get it, my friends? It is also called “open sandwich.”

It is a sandwich that has a single slice of bread at the bottom and put a lot of food items on top of it. A good example is eggs benedict. Do you know what eggs benedict is? You should totally try it. It is mostly considered as brunch food and delicious.

So, here is how I feel about this expression. Basically, all of the items you put inside a sandwich are your eyes, nose, lips and even hairs. Olives can be eyes and lettuce can be hairs. But, if you put another slice of bread on top of all of those, then you are closing your face. If not, your face is open so that we can all see it.

Hey, what can be considered to be nose? Any idea?

08 May

homeboy or homie

Who taught: Phil, Shawn and Jake

Homeboy (source: http://faloutboylover.deviantart.com/)

While living in the U.S. for the last 6 years, I have made very good friends. Many of them work or used to work at Vivisimo, my previous company. About two weeks ago, IBM announced to acquire Vivisimo. Wow! Great news! As employees, my friends and I got some stock options. Due to the acquisition, we got to know that we will make some money. To be clear, it is not a lot at all. 🙂

Anyway, as we heard the news, Phil tweeted about drinking out of a brown bag. I replied one of his tweets and he said, “Don’t forget to pour one for your hommies.”

My initial impression was that it has to be my wife. Hommie sounds like “home” and my wife and I live together at our home. So, I thought it means wife. But, to make sure, I replied to him, asking “What is hommies?”

A few minutes later, Jake replied, “It’s spelled “homie”. Short for “home boy”. OK… sounds good. But then what is home boy? Here is what I thought. This should definitely mean my children, especially my son. Hmm…. I do not have a son. This does not make sense at all again.

So, I replied again, “What is home boy? Are you my home boy?” Shawn replied to this tweet, saying “I am most definitely your home boy.”

At that point, I had to look it up. As I was seeing the definition, I was like, “Oh…. I get it.” Can you guess what it means? It means a close friend. It makes sense, right? If you have a very close friend, you would spend a lot of time with him at your home or his home, right? A home boy! Nice expression, huh?

My last question! How about girls? Do people also say “homegirl”?

Phil, Jake and Shawn, you are definitely my homies! Patrick.. don’t feel left out. As you can see from the pic, you are my homeboy too. 🙂

01 May

rediscovering a word series 3: sexy

Who taught: Patrick, Rachel, Andrew, Beth, Mark, Jake and Carol

Let me start with a challenge for you! From today and from this moment, watch TV shows or movies that are in English. I know you want to watch shows and movies that are in your mother tongue. Do you know why? It is because you are comfortable. Of course, it is. You have a choice. One asks you to stay in your comfort zone which is easy and a lot of people do and the other takes your strong will to get out of the comfort zone. Trust me on this. If you make a decision and be persistent, your English will get better. Additionally, make watching them be one of your everyday routines just like you go to a bathroom every morning. Oh, you go in the evening? Whatever way it is. It has to be a routine. If not, chances are you will fall back into your comfort zone again.

Hope you take my challenge and make a good progress soon! So, had you watch American TV shows, one of the words you would hear a lot would be “sexy.” I swear that people on TV use it so often that I strongly believed that I could use this anytime to any person.

So, a few days ago, when I met my friends, I used it. Of course, I hesitated but thought it should be OK. Oops! I was very very wrong.

Here is what happened. Stella, Patrick’s daughter, was having fun in a chair and her hair became out of control. Suddenly, I remembered an expression, “sexy bed-hair.” You know… when you wake up in the morning, you hair is totally unorganized and messy but, to your significant other, it SHOULD look sexy, right? I will leave it up to your imagination what would happen after that look. 🙂

Well, I said, “Stella got sexy bed-hair.” As soon as I said, “Oh no…. Terry.. Sexy?”

So far, it sounds like I am innocent. Don’t you think? The issue was Stella is only one year old.

My friends told me that people do not use “sexy” to a little kid. My non-native English speaker friends, be careful! Just because you hear a specific word very often on TV, it does not mean that you can use it all the time. There are times that you cannot use them which is not easy to learn. I guess you gotta just experience just like me. Poor Terry.

Patrick and Rachel, Stella is so cute and I love you guys.

By the way, are there any other times that I should not say sexy? #confused.

24 Apr

[Series 1] a story about sandwich

Who taught: Mike

sub sandwich

Sub (source: http://www.new-jersey-leisure-guide.com/)

Have you read my old post about ordering a sub sandwich? If not, check it out! As you can notice, it has been more than two years and now I learned a new thing about it.

When it comes to names of things, you do not question it because it is just what it is and how it is called. So, I have not really questioned why sub sandwich is called sub.

A few days ago, I had a chance to talk to Mike. He has a whiteboard in his office and there was one thing that caught my eyes.

“Sub -> Submarines”

I asked him, “What is that?” He said, it is about why sub sandwich is called sub. And he went on, saying “It is because sub sandwich looks like submarine.”

I never thought about it. Interestingly, he also told me that people in Boston or New England area do not call it sub. Instead they call it “grinder.” The reason being that it needs a lot of chewing (grinding) to eat.

I have never been to Boston but I will definitely visit the city soon. You know what one of my plans is? I am going to go to a restaurant where they sell grinders and order one but I will not say I want a grinder. I will say, “I want to order a sub.” What would be their reaction? Do you think they would understand? I doubt but it will be fun. Ahh…. the joy of learning another language. 🙂

P.S.: I will update you later with what happened in Boston.