Tag Archives: friends

19 Jul

going commando

Who taught: Brian, Sue and Drew

Going Commando (source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/)

Have you seen Commando? You know it, right? Come on, don’t say you do not know that movie! I think I was in either elementary school or in middle school when I first watched it. I liked it.

When I moved into the new house, Brian and Sue gave me a washer and a dryer. I haven’t been able to use because I could not install them by myself. So, two days ago, I asked Dave whether he can come over to see what I should do to install. (Dave is so handy around the house.) After I talked to Dave, I had a short chat with Brian and Sue and mentioned that I talked to Dave to install the washer and the dryer.

As kind of a joke (?), I said, “Finally, I can use the washer. I needed it. I need to wash my underwear. Oops! TMI!”

We all laughed and in response, Brian said something but I did not get it. So, as usual, I said, “Sorry! What did you say?”

He said, “Just going commando.”

Well, I know what commando is but going commando? What is it? From the context, I could feel that it is not like being tough as a man. I thought it would be awkward to ask what that means at that moment because there were Drew’s girlfriend, Carmen and Brian’s daughter, Rachel.

After I got back home, I could not wait to find out what that means. The first thing I did was searching it up. Wow! I was so surprised by its meaning. Can you guess what it is? It has something to do with the lack of clean underwear. If you do not have clean underwear, what is the best option you have? Well, just do not wear it. I mean you do need to wear pants though. Don’t forget that!

To sum it up, going commando means “not wearing any underpants.” Now, I would not recommend to do it, especially in summer.

Wanna know the origin? Here is the origin I found.

The earliest known use of the term in print occurred on January 22, 1985 when Jim Spencer wrote in the Chicago Tribune “Furthermore, colored briefs are ‘sleazy’ and going without underwear (“going commando”, as they say on campus) is simply gross.”

After that, this expression was used in TV shows, Seinfeld and Friends. That is where this expression got popular.

Have I gone commando? Hmm… what do you think? I will say this. Maybe, it is better than wearing dirty underpants.

P.S.: How about women? Can I say Sharon Stone went commando in Basic Instinct?

30 Mar

dillydally

Who taught: Pete

This coming Thursday, my friends and I will play basketball after work. To organize this, I sent an email to them and, in the email, I used the expression I learned from Pete, “Let’s get this show on the road!” A few hours later, Pete came to my desk to help me out to fix the broken Korean issue in my blog and we fixed it. Yay! Then, I had to ask him, “So what do you think about my usage?” Pete told me, “Well, it is more suitable to use the expression when people are with you now to do something and they are dilly dally.” Well….. He suddenly realized that ‘dilly dally’ is something I would not know. Definitely, I did not know. He started to give me some other similar type of expressions. I think they are really useful. You would hear these kind of expressions a lot in America!

1. dilly-dally : messing around, waisting time.

Example : “Come on guys! You are so dilly-dally! Let’s get this show on the road! Get off your ass!”

Korean equivalent : 꾸물꾸물 (Ggu mul Ggu mul)

2. pitter-patter: hurry up!

Example : “We gotta pitter-patter!” (I guess you can use just as it is like “Pitter patter!”)

Korean equivalent : 빨랑 빨랑 (Bbal lang bbal lang)  This one is very special for Korean. You will hear this one so many times in Korea because Korean people are always busy and want to do something fast. One thing I had a real hard time when I first got to the U.S. was the slowness of any kind of services. For example, I went to the DMV to get the driver’s license test. Well, I had to wait for an hour or so. In Korea, this would never happen. If they are this much slow, people are going crazy and almost blow the place. So, if you go to Korea and if someone is very slow to serve you, say “Hey! Bbal lang bbal lang!” with very angry face. They will get it! 🙂

3. wishy-washy : indecisive or ineffective

Example : Well you will see this in newspapers so many times when they describe any politicians who is not decisive in some area or topic.

Korean equivalent : 우유부단 (Woo yoo bu dan) This one is originated from Chinese.

4. roly-poly : little overweight (?) Not sure this means someone really overweight or someone like chubby. By hearing it, I feel like this is more like chubby, right?

Korean equivalent : 포동포동 (Po dong Po dong) I would say this is not really insulting to anyone. Especially, if a baby is a little chubby, you can use it to the baby like “Oh, your baby is Po dong Po dong!”

5. willy-nilly : all over the place in a bad way

Example : I cannot come up with one. Could you provide one?

Korean equivalent : 오지랖 넓다(O zi rab Neol Da) This is hard to pronounce. Don’t try it! 🙂

So, I think these expressions are onomatopoeic words or mimetic words. Am I right? There must be so many more than these. You should all help me out! And, also, can I make up by myself like…. hmm ….. “ding dang”? I have not decided what it should mean.

26 Mar

down the rabbit hole

Who taught: Sangeetha and Alex

I feel like I have gone a long series about “animals in phrases.” In fact, there are so many phrases where you can find animals in it in American English. You know what the most popular animal is. I think it is “horse.” I mentioned about this to Jake and he told me he thinks it is because of American history of being with horses long time.

Let me summarize the expressions that have horse in it I learned!

1. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink

2. from the horse’s mouth

3. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth

4. Trojan horse

5. hung like a ho…. (This is still very embarrassing to say even I mentioned it in my previous post! So,I am adding dots instead of the full one here.)

I learned another useful one with animal in it today. It is “down the rabbit hole” This expression can be used when you are about to do something hard or something you do not know how it will end or progress. So, let’s say you are going to get married! Then, I would say, “Well, my friend, you are about to go down the rabbit hole! Good luck with that!” Don’t get me wrong, though! I am saying you should take marriage very seriously and be prepared for so many different aspects of it. Don’t you agree?

The other thing I learned the other day is “make a mountain out of molehill” This is one of the expressions I actually get the meaning as I hear it for the first time. What do you think? Can you get it? It means basically “exaggerate.” For example, you have some bad experiences with your customer at your work today and, because of it, you are worried about you might be getting into a big trouble. Then, I would say “Come on, don’t make a mountain out of the molehill! It is not that important. Just, get over it! It could happen to anybody.” One thing I like about this expression is that this one has got rhyme when you speak. Try it now! Come on, say it to you! Can you feel it? I think that is another fun part of learning English or maybe different languages.

So, don’t be afraid of getting into a new thing. It is all yours. My friend Andrew says “You cannot get it with that attitude! Hey, Believe it and achieve it!” So, my friend out there, “Believe it and Achieve it!” Learning English is fun!! Yay!!

Good night and have a great weekend! ….. and see you soon!

25 Mar

animals in phrases 2

Who taught: Carol, Jean and Andrew

Today! The day after I wrote about “animals in phrase” post, my friends, Carol, Jean and Andrew all came to me, “We have one that has animal in it. Do you know what does hung like a horse mean?” Of course, I did not know. You know, I am very innocent. (If you have read previous posts, you would have figured it out already. If you did not, now is a good time for you to go through all of my previous posts, especially green t-shirts one.) My first interpretation was…hmm…. I forgot. Oh! I think I said “Does it mean like totally stuck in a situation? For example, a web browser got stuck and hung!” Well, I was totally wrong. No surprise at all! And, there was Santosh right beside me. Andrew said, “I can say it to him like Santosh is hung like a horse.” And he also asked to Santosh, “If I say it, would you like it?” Santosh responded, “Yes!” I was so confused. I asked more context and they told me, “You can use this expression only to men” At that moment, I realized this is something related with sexual stuff. “Guys, what is it? Something dirty, right?” They all nodded. Sigh! I should have known that. Hopefully, you would get the meaning of the expression by looking at the translation of the Korean equivalent below. If not, search for it by yourself!

By the way, are you guys sure I cannot use this for women? What is the counter expression for women? And also, shouldn’t the expression be used like “Santosh’s is hung like a horse” instead of “Santosh is hung like a horse” because the object is not the person but the one that the person has?

Korean equivalent : 왕자지 (Wang Ja Ji) (In English, “king penis”)  -> I cannot believe I am writing down this here. But since there is one that exists in Korean and fun to learn different languages…. Anyways, let’s talk about more phrases which have animals in it! What else do you have?