Tag Archives: ari

14 Sep

donkey

Who taught: Alex, Sangeetha, Ari, Juan, Pat and Rachel

Donkey (source: www.shadowridgedonkeys.com)

A small warning for today’s story! I do not like to use this kind of expression but it does not mean that you do not need to know the expression, right? Are you ready?

A few days ago, Jessy and I visited Ari’s place and there I learned one thing totally new. I mean the thing I did not know at all.

“ASS”

When you hear this word, what do you think of first? In my case, it is butt. But, apparently, it also means a silly or stupid person. Do you know why? It is because ass is donkey and donkey represents silliness in English. Well, more precisely, jackass is a donkey. I am sure many of you heard the following kind of sentence in American TV shows.

You, Jackass! Get out of my sight!

Yeap! It is basically same thing as “You, Donkey!” I am not sure what donkey represents in other languages. I think donkey is also recognized as a silly animal in Korean. But, I doubt we use it to people. Does any Korean have different opinions?

Well, I guess some non-native English speakers out there might already know that ass is donkey but it was the thing I have never known. It was quite shocking to know that ass is donkey. In my brian, I have never connected ass to donkey at all. It has been always butt. Do you know why? It is because the word, asshole. Asshole is anus. If asshole is anus, ass should be just simply butt. Isn’t it? What do you think? Is asshole also from donkey’s anus?

15 Aug

man cave

Who taught: Jaejin

Man cave (source : http://3.bp.blogspot.com)

About a month ago, Jessy and I met new Korean friends who moved to Pittsburgh last winter at Ari’s party. They recently bought a house near to Ari’s place. Today, we bumped into them at Costco. Jessy and I were done with grocery shopping and they just got to Costco. So, we decided to meet at a coffee place after they are done with grocery shopping. About 2 hours later, we went to the 61C cafe and we started to talk about all of the interesting stories they have experienced by going through all of the processes related with buying a house in America. It is a quite story. Well, anyways, during the conversation, I asked them, “How many rooms and bathrooms does it have?” Jaejin told me, “It has 3 rooms and 2 and half bathrooms.” OK! Here is one thing I need to tell you. There is an expression in America, “half bathroom.” Half bathroom is a bathroom which has a sink and a toilet but no shower or bathtub. Full bathroom, of course, has everything in it.

“But one of the full bathrooms is in the basement,” said Jaejin. One of the interesting things in Pittsburgh is the bathroom in basement. Most of the houses built in pre World-War II have a bathroom in basement. The reason of it is because all of the steel workers in Pittsburgh cleaned them before they went upstairs to have dinner with family after work. In the neighborhood where I live, there are so many houses built in early 20th century. Thus, some of them are around 100 years old. So, it is not a surprise at all to find a bathroom in basement.

While we are speaking of basement, Jaejin told me, “I need to have a man cave in the house.” Do you know what it is? Well, I guess you can guess. It is the place guys hang out a lot, watching TV like football and playing video games or pool. It is in either basement or attic of  a house. I think many of my friends have this kind of places in their houses. I would like to have one when I get to buy a house. I may build my own climbing place in my man cave. It sounds really fun to have a party in my man cave. Guys only! Hey, Jessy! Is this fine?

Well, do you guys also have a woman cave in your house? What kind of stuff is in that cave?

06 Jul

do you have massage?

Whose story: Young-a

4th of July Fireworks in Pittsburgh

Last Sunday was the Independence Day, the day Americans commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Literally, it is America’s birthday. On the day, Jessy and I went to Ari’s house where we met another Korean couple. It has been a while for us to meet Korean people in my friends’ party. They moved a few months ago from Florida to Pittsburgh. One of the interesting things they told me to us is that they love Pittsburgh so much that they decided to buy a house. Do you know why? It is because they have not seen snow for about 6 years in Florida and finally they saw snow storms in Pittsburgh last Feb. I know most of the people in PGH do not like snow storms in winter. I think this tells me a good lesson.

We should enjoy what we have now instead of complaining about it because what you have is what other people are looking for.

I feel like there should be a good expression for this. Don’t we have?

After dinner, we all went to up to a hill in Schenley park to watch fireworks. Another question here! Why do you have fireworks on July 4th? Anybody knows the origin of this tradition?

After we all sit down on the hill, my new Korean friend, Young-a, told me a funny story related with English. One of her friends works at a clothing store and, one day, a customer came into the store and said, “Hey! Do you have massage?” She thought like, “What the heck is this guy talking about? This place is for clothings.” So, she asked to the customer, “What do you mean by massage? We do not have massage service here.” Then the customer enunciated, “No! No! I mean do you have my size?” Then, she finally realized what the customer was asking. Hearing it, I kind of agree that “my size” could sound like “massage” if you speak fast. What do you think?

05 Jul

eye-candy

Who taught : Ari

When there was a team programming competition in my company, my team name was “IO Candy.” Well, IO stands for information optimization that my company’s technology is focusing on. When I heard of it, I did not really feel anything special about the name, I just thought…. you know… something sweet for information optimization.

Eye-candy

Then, a few days ago, Jessy, Alex, Ari, Juan and I went to a frozen yogurt place where we got into a discussion about different cultural aspects of different countries. When Jessy and I first got here, I was mainly in school whereas Jessy had some free time to walk around. One day, she found out that there is a park near to University of Pittsburgh and a lot of students enjoy sunshine whenever the weather is great. By enjoying, I mean some of the female students wear bikini, lying on the grass. Interestingly, Jessy did the same thing and I did not know that. Honestly, I do not like her doing it. When I talked about that story, Ari told me that I should understand it and in Germany, people even got bolder so that some of the ladies are topless in some parks when the weather is really good. I was actually shocked when I heard it. In Korea, no people would wear bikini or be topless in any park. If you would, I am pretty sure you would get arrested. Discussing about this, Ari told me there is a good expression American people use. Eye-candy!! Definition of it is “someone who is pleasing to look at!” Who would be a good example? Oh…. I know who is really pleasing to look at. I can see him all day long. It is me! Don’t you agree?

While she was telling me this expression, she said, “You know, everyone should have the right to enjoy eye-candy. Don’t you think?” Well, I guess I agree with her. But I still feel like wearing bikini in park is almost like me wearing speedo, lying on the grass. Am I being too sensitive here? After hearing this expression, I actually thought about the name of my team for the competition. It has very similar sound, isn’t it? IO-candy vs Eye-candy. So, I wonder whether my friends in my company thought about eye-candy when they heard my team name. Even more, when we, as team members, talked about our team name, did we intend to make it to be similar to eye-candy? Is it, Julie, Kara and James? Very curious!

17 Jun

pull What?

Who taught: Andrew, Pat, Ari and Jean

The first ultimate frisbee in my life! That’s right. I played it today with my friends. To be honest, I thought it would be easy but it is not. It is hard physically as well as technically. Nothing is easy in the world! Don’t you agree? But, that is why it is good to be alive. I mean you gotta love challenges because, at the end of the day, you, not anybody else in the world, are the one who would feel accomplishments if you overcome all of the challenges.

Andrew told me the rules of this game. Instead of my explaining here, I will give you a good link about the game for you in case you are really interested in. One of the rules is very similar to the American football. If one team scores, then each team lines up in their own sides of the field and the team which just scored throws the disc from its side to the other side. For this one, a team member who is good at throwing the disc takes the action. Andrew called this action, “pulling.” Patrick and I were curious about it. “Hey, why is it pulling, not pushing or throwing?” “I think it is because most people do backside throw and it looks like you pull the disc from inside of your body,” Andrew said. It sounds reasonable. Then, hearing that, I said, “All right! Let’s pull out!” “T-Bone! Pull out is different from pull,” Andrew told me. At that moment, I remembered that I had a very similar conversation with Jean and Ari before.

About one year ago, all of the techies in my company went to a retreat together. During a break, we were having a small talk about getting older. No offense to older people than me! But, I now started to have gray hairs and Ari noticed that I have a few of them. “Hey, Terry! You have gray hairs there,” she said. “I know, every time I found them, I ask Jessy to pull them out,” I said. Well, at that moment, Jean said, “I think pull out is not really good to use there.” We were like, “Why? What is wrong with pull out?” “It actually has a different meaning,” Jean said. Well, it turns out pull out has a very very different meaning. Here is the definition for you I found from the Urban Dictionary.

A form of birth control practiced by idiot couples to prevent pregnancy.

It is also called “Pull Out (Withdrawl) Method”.

I do not want to put too explicit ones here but there are bunch of different definitions in the Urban Dictionary and, interestingly, every single of them is the same. The only difference is the degree of explicitness. If you still cannot understand the meaning of it, here is the link for you!

So, to me, it sounds like it is not a good idea to use “pull out” expression. Am I correct? When do you use that expression except for this meaning? In addition, what kind of expression should I use to describe the action of removing my gray hairs? Maybe, take out?