Tag Archives: andrew

12 Sep

Newbie vs nOOb

Who taught: Andrew, Pat and Jean

n00b (source: dayumdana.tumblr.com)

It is amazing to see that almost all of the languages keep evolving. A few days ago, I was watching “Everybody Loves Raymond” with Jessy and heard a new expression I have never heard of, schmuck. An old guy told that Raymond is a schmuck. Do you know what it is? It is basically a jerk, idiot or moron. When I heard it, for some reason, I thought it is kind of an old expression. Why? I think, during the last 4 years and 2 months in the U.S., I have never heard of that one from any of my American friends. Am I right, my friends?

But, I have heard some other expressions that a lot of people use these days. In fact, I used them about a week ago to Andrew. I assume many of you have a facebook account, right? I also do have. If you search for “Terry Lee”, you might be able to find me on facebook. Anyways, a few days ago, Andrew wrote on his status, “I just found out that my iPhone headphones have a built-in microphone.” As soon as I read that one, I was like, “Oh, Andrew! You gotta be kidding me! How could you not notice it?” and added a comment, “You are such a newbie!” Newbie is a term that have been used by a lot of gamers first. When there is a new person comes into an online game, they say “Hey, here comes a newbie!” And, people started to use the term to describe any person who is new at something. For instance, if I go to a tennis court to try it out with bunch of friends who are already good at it, I can say to them, “Hey Guys! I am a newbie here. You gotta serve slowly.” There is a short version for this. It is “newb.”

Following my comment, Jean added another comment saying, “No, no, T-bone, like this: You are such a nOOb!” When I first heard this expression from Pat, I thought it is the same thing as newbie. Well, as you can imagine, it is not the same thing at all. Thus, you should be careful when you use this one because it has the same meaning as “Schmuck.” Here is the definition I found on urban dictionary.

A n00b or nOOb is someone that lacks intellegance or common sense, most people think that noob is a word used only in the online gaming world, but in reality it is becoming an ever popular word.

Maybe you would not want to use nOOb one too often or to someone whom you do not know well. Furthermore, since newb and nOOb sound very similar if you do not pronounce correctly, you might want to use newbie when you mean to say newbie to other people. Most of the times, you would find yourself speaking the word in this type of sentence, “Man! You are such a newbie!” or “Dude! You are such a nOOb!”

P.S.: Schmuck also means penis. Be careful to use this word too! Or maybe, try to pay attention closely to find out the context when someone uses this word in conversations. 🙂

01 Sep

square vs hip vs sleek

Who taught: Andrew

AVAILABLE

So.. this is one of the words that can be used in so many occasions. Suppose you just get into a cafe and try to find a seat to sit. After a few looks, you spot one chair but someone is sitting on the chair next to that chair. And, you would like to make sure whether you can really sit on that chair or not, then how would you ask to the person? That is right! Simple! “Is this available?”

Another example would be in your biz email. You want to have a meeting with your client or customer but are not sure whether he/she can make it to the meeting at a specific time. What would you use in your email? That is right! Simple! “Are you available at 11:00 am on Tuesday? Please let me know your availability! blah blah….”

Now! You, assuming you are a woman, find me who is with friends at a bar and decide to go for me. “Hi, there! Nice to meet you! My name is Jessica!” At this point, everybody knows that you are trying to flirt with me. Then, what would you hear from my friends? That is right! Simple! “Hey, Lady! T-Bone is not available! He is married.”

I mean you can use this word in so many situations. I guess this is too easy for you. But, the reason why I bring this word up is because I would like to talk about the difference between English and Korean. All of the above cases, we, Korean, use totally different words. For instance, we use the expression, “품절남(Pum-Jeol-Nam)”, to describe a married man. Literal translation would be “He is out of stock!”

The hardest part for Korean people or any other non-native English speakers is that it takes a long time to realize that they can simply use “available” in so many situations because every time they try to speak something, then they think in Korean or their mother tongue first and try to translate it into English. This is one of the main reasons why non-native English speakers say so many sentences which do not make sense at all.

Square Face(source:gocomics.typepad.com)

Well… Let’s talk about today’s expression!

He is square.

Can you guess what this means? Hard to understand, right? Does it mean the shape of his body is square or the shape of his face is square or the shape of his but is square? What the heck does it mean?

Well, here is the definition on urban dictionary.

A person who is regarded as dull, rigidly conventional, and out of touch with current trends.

In other words, someone who is not cool. Now, what is the word to describe someone who is cool. Right! You can use “COOL” but there is also another one, “HIP.” So, if you see someone who is very in touch with current trends. You can say like “You are so hip!” to him/her. He/she will love it. What about to your male friend who is very fashionable, especially by wearing a suit? Then you can say, “You are so sleek today!” I am not sure whether you can use this one to female friends. I feel like you cannot. Hope my feeling is correct! (If I am correct, that means I am getting closer to become an American?? 🙂 )

26 Aug

party animal

Who taught : Andrew

One of the interesting scenes I have seen in America during the last 4 years is that women ride a bike wearing skirt. I had never seen that in Korea.

There is a street called, S. Negley Ave, in Pittsburgh. One part of the street is pretty steep so that it is even hard to walk up. Every time it snows, the road is closed. The other day, I was driving up the street to go to my house and saw a very bizarre thing. One woman was lying on the street besides her bike. Of course her bike was fell on the street too. As I was getting closer, I realized that the woman was wearing skirt. So, what happened was she was trying to bike up the street and fell down. What is really amazing was that she made almost half way up the street and she looked like she is in her 40s or 50s.

Here is my thoughts about riding a bike wearing skirt. First, it looks kind of dangerous, especially with a tight skirt. Second, I would be worrying about showing my underwear to other people, especially to guys. So, I am not sure why would you want to even try to ride a bike with skirt in the first place.

Other ladies in other countries also do the same thing except Korea. (I know Korean women would not even think about it.)

A few weeks ago, I was at a bar with Andrew to have dinner. Of course, I was supposed to let Jessy know so that she would not prepare my dinner. (She is pretty strict about that. I have to let her know. 🙂 ) So, I sent a text message to her, “I am at a bar with Andrew.” A few minutes later, I got the reply from her, “You are a bar animal.” It was pretty interesting one. I mean I could easily understand what she meant because I knew that she made that one up from the expression, “party animal”,  but wanted to get Andrew’s opinion. Before I get into his opinion, do you know the expression, party animal? Simply, it is you. (I am kidding.) So, a party in America means any kind of social gathering happening at someone’s house or some specific venue hosted by someone. For example, if I invite my friends to my house and have dinner together, that is a party. Or, if my company hosts a Christmas event, that is a party. Then, if you go to those events almost all the time, then you are a party animal. I am not sure why people started to use the word, “animal”, here. But, it gives, I think, a very strong feeling of being instinctive. What do you think?

Bar Rat (Source: movieforums.com)

Going back to Andrew’s opinion! So, I showed the text came from Jessy to Andrew. He also understood what it meant but he said, “It should be bar rat not bar animal.”

Interestingly, when it comes to bar, it becomes a lot more specific animal, rat. Why? My guess is that people think there are a lot of rats in bars and if anyone is going to bar all the time, he/she becomes the part of the rat family over there. (Are there really a lot of rats in bars?) Speaking of it, I think it is probably not a good idea to go to bars too many times. Rats are there… Not just RAT rats but RAT people!

23 Aug

coin slot

Who taught : Andrew, Stan and Jean

Walking around the campus, I have a chance to take a look at a lot of vending machines. Let’s imagine you are thirsty and in front of a vending machine, what is the first thing you would do? Well, you would take a look at the beverages it has. And, see the price of the one you want to get. Then, what? You put a few coins into the coin slot, right? Pretty easy! But, that is not the coin slot I am talking about here.

Last week, I went out with my friends, Andrew, Stan and Jean to have dinner together. And… as always, I learned a very interesting thing. Coin slot could mean something else.

Coin Slot (source: cointalk.com)

Can you guess what it could be? OK! I will tell you the example Andrew told me. Suppose that you have an issue with your toilet and call a plumber to fix it. And, a few hours later, he comes into your house and it turns out that he is quite fat. (No offense to plumbers! I am sure Andrew used this example because of the position that he should make to fix the toilet.) Now… he is trying to diagnose the toilet to see what the issue is. What would be his position?

Yup! He should bend his upper body over to take a look at the toilet closer. You are now looking at his back. What if he is wearing low-rise pants??? What you can see now?

Yes, you can see the top of his ass crack. That is the coin slot I am talking about here.

Here is the definition I found on Urban Dictionary.

Term describing the top of the ass crack when it can be seen protuding from low worn pants. Usually associated with skanky old fat men and slutty girls trying to get some.

How many times have you seen this kind of coin slots in your life? As women start to wear a lot of low-rise jeans and short t-shirts, I think we have a lot more chances to see the coin slot. Not sure it is a good thing or not. But I like this expression. Whoever used this expression first must be very creative. My last word! Do not really try to put some coins in that coin slot! 🙂

10 Aug

drive into the ground

Who taught: Andrew and Pete

Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix (source:sportscardigest.com)

Every year, we have an annual event, called Vintage Grand Prix, in Pittsburgh. There are so many cool vintage cars you can get to see and also they really race. About a month ago, I had lunch with Andrew, Pete and Tanmay. Tanmay and I were excited about seeing those cars and the race. We asked Andrew, “Hey, Do you like cars?” He said, “No, I am not into cars.” He has an old Jetta and it has small issues here and there. So, I asked, “Andrew, Aren’t you gonna buy a new car?” “No, I do not think so. I may drive it into the ground,” said Andrew. At that time, I did not quite understand the expression. “What? into the ground? How?” asked I.

“Oh! It means I am gonna drive the car until it is totally broken and does not run anymore,” said Andrew.

And, Pete said, “The expression could also be used for some cases where something or someone is used too much.”

So, for example, if you work really hard and stay in the office so long every day, then I could say, “Hey, Friend! Do not drive yourself into the ground. You need to work tomorrow and even longer.” The other example would be….. If you put a lot of stuff into your laundry machine and try to run it, then I could say, “Hey! Dude! I think you are running that machine into the ground if you put all of them into the machine at one time and try to run it.”

Researching about the expression, I found a very interesting article you might be interested in. The article says we can save $100,000 if we all drive cars into the ground. But, new cars are so tempting, aren’t they? So, it is up to you whether you want to change your cars every 3-4 years or drive them into the ground. What is my choice? I am not sure because I love cars.