Who taught: Jessy

Bubu bear (source: http://www.dinodirect.com/)

Do you remember when you were young? What? You think you are still young? haha… I know. I feel the same.

OK. So, let me ask differently. Do you remember when you were a elementary school student? Didn’t you use many expressions with your friends that your parents have no idea? I think I did. Funny thing is I cannot remember a single out of those now. So sad!

A few days ago, Jessy and I had a small talk about an expression that she heard.

Jessy : “Terry, I heard something from my friend. Do you want to know?”

Me : “Sure.. what is it?”

Jessy : “I heard my friend saying a word, booboo or bubu, but I still cannot figure out what they are exactly?”

Trust me! This happens a lot even after 5 years of living in the United States. Who says learning language is easy? Well, anyway, I started a little research about these expressions. And…. I found something very interesting.

Basically, those two expressions are the same in terms of pronunciation but they mean two very different things.

Booboo is used mainly among children or between parents and their children. It means a minor injury. Bubu, on the other hand, means two things. It means a cute and adorable bear. But in northeast of the U.S., it also means hot women.

You gotta keep this in mind. How many times do you think you will write these words? I guess probably zero. But, you can obviously speak these and, at that point, spelling does not matter and it is all context. These days, maybe little elementary school kids use this word to mean hot girls instead of minor injuries. It’s a whole different world out there compared to the world when I was a kid. Don’t you agree?

Here is a little suggestion for you. If your wife or girlfriend got a minor injury on her knee or something, you should say, “Oh, my bubu! You got a little booboo on your knee. Let me take care of it.”