Tag Archives: cheer up

01 Nov

cheer up vs cheer on

Who taught: Phil

Cheer on (source: http://wehearyouamerica.readersdigest.com/)

Yesterday, I once again realized that a proper usage of the preposition is so hard. Mondays are soccer days for Phil and me in winter. It is so fun to play a soccer game with good friends. Jessy usually stay at home while I am away playing soccer. But, yesterday, I managed to allure her to come with me to watch my playing. ๐Ÿ™‚

It was my turn to pick Phil up on the way to the sports complex where we play soccer. To let him know that Jessy is also coming, I texted him, “Jessy might go too to cheer us up!” Sounds very fine to me. How about you, my non-native English speaker friends? Do you see anything wrong with what I said to Phil?

After Phil hopped into my car, he told me how native English speakers would feel as they hear ‘cheer up’. For example, if Phil told Patrick, “I need to cheer Terry up,” then Patrick would think I am sad or depressed now so that Phil has to be with me to cheer me up. Once again, let’s try to feel it. Where is up? Up means above you like sky. Then, cheer someone up means make someone who is so down to be up by your cheering.

So, it is not correct to say ‘cheer up’ for soccer players who do definitely not feel depressed. In that case, you need to use ‘cheer on.’

As I was researching about the expression, I found that there was no ‘on’ part at first. And, in 1800s, this expression was augmented by having ‘on’ in the end. Well, I am not sure how I can feel this one. Probably, let soccer players stay on where they are already excited. What do you think, my native English friends? Do you guys have that feeling when you say ‘cheer on’?

For Korean people and my own reference, “cheer up” means ๊ฒฉ๋ คํ•˜๋‹ค(GyukRyeoHaDa) whereas “cheer on” means ์‘์›ํ•˜๋‹ค(EungWonHaDa).

17 Oct

snap out of it

Who taught: Insider.

Snap out of it (source: http://www.galleryplanb.com/)

Every life has its ups and downs. When things are good, everybody is happy. But, when things are not good, it is hard to be happy and sometimes it makes people depressed or sad.

In my case, one of the saddest moments in my life was when my first girlfriend ditched me to marry someone else when I was in the Army. My seniors and friends tried to cheer me up but it was so hard for me to feel better.

They said the same kind of expressions again and again. They are “Cheer up! It will get better” and “Keep your head up!” Now, the other word that they used a lot is this one, “์ •์‹ ์ฐจ๋ ค(Jeong-Sin-Cha-Ryeo),” in Korean. At that time, I still had to stay in the Army for 2-3 more months. My seniors worried about any possible accident that I can cause if I were depressed too long because I had to carry 30 bullets for my rifle, 1 grenade and ย 200 bullets for my machine gun every day as I guarded west coast line.

So, for this specific Korean expression, ์ •์‹ ์ฐจ๋ ค(Jeong-Sin-Cha-Ryeo), I have thought that I can use “Wake up!” in English if I were to translate… till a few days ago. Watching a TV show, I heard this expression, “Snap out of it.” As soon as I heard it, it was like someone slap my face to tell me that is it. That is the perfect English expression that I can use to meanย ์ •์‹ ์ฐจ๋ ค(Jeong-Sin-Cha-Ryeo). Interestingly, on the show, a woman really was slapping her boyfriend as she said this expression to him. (She could just snap her fingers. Women must enjoy slapping guys.) What a perfect one! If you want to be more effective and strong, you could say “Slap out of it!” as you really slap her (I am not sure who is your her? ๐Ÿ™‚ ).

Even though I am happy to get to know this expression, I do not want to personally hear it or use it to my friends. But, you never know what’s around the corner in your life. So, better to know any expression that can be perfectly used. Don’t you agree?