Tag Archives: anxious

06 Dec

jittery

Who taught: Ryan Calo, Bob and Jean

jittery and coffee (source: http://www.clipartof.com/)

How are you doing today? It’s rainy and gloomy in Pittsburgh but I am happy that it is not snowing and not that cold.

Do you know when it is really hard for me to forget a word or an expression?

It is when someone uses it and even explains it to me right after I get to know it. Two days ago, Sunday, I was in my church as usual. After the first service, I was talking to Bob and Jean. Bob, all of a sudden, realized that he needed a coffee and said to us, “I gotta get a coffee before it’s all gone.” And, Jean said, “Oh yeah.. You should get it. Otherwise, you will get jittery.”

At that moment, I could not believe my ears. “Did you just say ‘jittery’?”

I just got to know it on Friday while I was reading the New York Times.

The article was about startups’ I.P.O.  Ryan Calo said, “When you have an I.P.O. you don’t want investors to be skeptical or jittery.” That was my first time to see the word, jittery. And, from the context, my feeling was that it means being anxious or concerned about any issue.

So, I said to Jean, “Jittery! That’s the word I just got to know. Doesn’t it mean being anxious?” To some degree, I was correct but not really. Jean said, “It does mean being anxious and nervous but it can be also used to describe a person whose body is physically shaking.” For example, it is possible for you to be jittery by taking any kind of medicine such as a cold pill. Then, this really means your body shakes. It does not mean that you are anxious or nervous.

What if my body shakes because I am scared or because I got a cold. Can I say I am jittery? It seems like many American people think of the word, jittery, in relation to drinking too much caffeine or the lack of caffeine. Am I right?

07 Feb

nerve-wracking

Who taught: Kathy

Sad! Sad! Sad! Steelers lost yesterday. If you are not a fan of American football, it would be hard for you to understand my feeling. We were so close to win the Super Bowl. Well, life goes on. Every time there is a Super Bowl game, people are so excited not only about the game but also about commercials. My favorite this year is Bridgestone’s as I added in this post. I love it. What do you think? Don’t you like it? What is your favorite?

Watching a Super Bowl game is hard in a sense that there are so many times I get to worry, assuming that Steelers are playing. If it is a game that Steelers are not in, who cares? (No offense to the people who root for other teams. I am talking about my feeling here. 🙂 ) You know what I mean? It is actually very stressful. I had that experience yesterday. As most of people were, I was in a party hosted by Sue and Brian. It was so fun to be with great friends and to watch the game together. During the game, I had to go to the kitchen to grab some food. As I went into the kitchen, Kathy was coming into too and said to me, “It is so nerve-wracking. Don’t you think?” I knew the expression but never used it yet. “Yeah! It is hard to watch,” said I. But then, I thought about the expression and I said to me, “Nerve-wracking! That is actually a very interesting expression.”

Let’s do a very short analysis here!

1. Nerve means long thin fibres that transmit messages between your brain and other parts of your body.

2. Wrack means ruin or destruct.

Combination of nerve and wrack now means “ruin or destruct your nerves,” right? This makes me feel the expression perfectly. People say nerve-wracking is similar to anxious. But, I feel like this should be different. I mean I feel very different by saying “nerve-wracking” from saying “anxious.” Nerve-wracking feels a lot stronger to me. How about you? Am I right, my American friends?

What are the things that are nerve-wracking to you? Watching a Super Bowl game (when Steelers are playing) is definitely nerve-wracking to me.