Tag Archives: jake

02 Dec

lifestyle, swing, swinger

Who taught: Jake

Swing (source: www.impawards.com)

To be honest, today’s post is one of the most shocking expressions I have ever learned. Lifestyle…. What does this word mean to you? My dictionary says it is “a manner of living that reflects the person’s values and attitudes.” And… that is exactly what I thought of whenever I hear the word, lifestyle.

OK, how about “swing”? What does it mean?  Here, I have a few different definitions.

1. Verb : move in a curve or arc

2. Noun : mechanical device used as a plaything to support someone swinging back and forth. (I am sure you used to enjoy this when you were young. Maybe, you still like it?)

3. Noun : a style of jazz played by big bands popular in the 1930s; flowing rhythms but less complex than later styles of jazz

So far so good. Nothing special, right? Now here is another one.

engage freely in promiscuous sex, often with the husband or wife of one’s friends

Knowing this definition, you would easily find out what “swinger” means? In plain English, it is simply “a person who dates/sleeps with multiple people at the same time.” When I first heard that expression from Jake, I had no idea about what it means. I thought it is basically a baseball player who swings a lot. In fact, this is one of the definitions of swinger but I doubt people would use the word in that context. In many times, people use “swinger” to mean someone who sleeps with many people at the same time. Now, going back to my original question, what is up with the word, lifestyle?

Well, another way of saying you are a swinger is, “I am in the lifestyle.” It is more like a way of describing the culture of swingers. Interesting thing I found from Urban Dictionary is that you can be in the lifestyle but that does not mean that you are actually swapping your wives or husbands. If you actually do that, then you should say, “I am active in the lifestyle.”

So, today’s lesson: You want to be careful with the word swing and lifestyle. For example, you mean to say, “I like swing,” but you make a mistake to say, “I like to swing.” Oops! It could be awkward. What do you think, my American friends?

14 Nov

nice meeting you vs. nice seeing you

Who taught: Jake, Carol and Mark

Nice to meet you. (source: funny-cats-pictures1.blogspot.com)

Last week, I had dinner together with Jake, Carol and Mark, watching Univ of Pitt’s football game. As I walked up to the second floor of the restaurant, I saw a big group of people and one of them was Christian who is also one of my old colleagues. I thought Jake, Carol and Mark were all together with Christian’s group and was kind of confused to see so many people that I do not know at all. Looking for them, I realized that they were not within the group. They were sitting separately and the group was for Python programming language discussion.

Like an hour later, Christian came to us to say hello and chatted with us. Then, as he about to leave, he told me, “Hey! See you, Terry!” Then, I said, “Sure, Nice meeting you!” As soon as I said it, Christian and Jake were like, “What? Did you just say, ‘nice meeting you’?” “Yeah, what is wrong?” said I.

Do you see any issue with it? I mean, the word, meet, means literally, “come together” or “get together.” With that said, the sentence I said was perfectly fine. Don’t you agree? Well… Jake explained to me, “People say ‘nice meeting you’ when they meet for the first time.” He continued, “If you already know someone and you get to meet him/her again, you should say, ‘nice seeing you'” What the h**k?

Carol also told me a story of an episode of 30 rock, one of the famous tv shows in America, in which one lady tried to play a mind game with another guy, by trying to say “Nice meeting you,” even though she already met him beforehand. So, be careful with your choice of a word.

Another thing I want to point out is when to use “meeting” and when to use “to meet.” When you meet someone for the first time ever and introduce each other, then you should say, “Nice to meet you.” Then, you had a chat with him/her for a while and you need to say good bye to him/her as you leave the place, at that moment, you need to say, “Nice meeting you.” It is because ‘to verb’ implies the future whereas ‘verb + ing’ implies the past. Pretty complicated, huh? I am sure most American would not care this kind of subtle difference but that is the correct way. But, the point is do not make the same mistake I made. Sorry, Christian! I did not know that. Next time, I will remember to say, “nice seeing you.” It was really nice seeing you, Christian. Take care!

05 Oct

cougar

Who taught : Jake and friends

Cougar (itpleasesme.com)

A few weeks ago, I was having lunch together with my friends. During lunch, we had a few different talks and one of my friends talked about a guy who is dating a lady. Pretty typical until that moment. But then, she mentioned that the guy is young like 25 and the lady is old like 37. As soon as she said that, all of the other friends asked the same question to her, “Is she a cougar?”

Well, I was the only one who did not understand what that means. As you know, cougar is an animal. I think it is Puma but not sure. They look pretty much the same.

I will give you the best example for you. Do you know Demi Moore? She is 47 years old. Now, do you know whom she is married to? He is Ashton Kutcher and he is 32 years old. The age difference is 15 years. It is quite big, isn’t it? So, in this situation, people call Demi Moore cougar. Interesting thing is she said, “I am a Puma not a Cougar,” when she had an interview with CBS. What is the difference? No idea!

There are a few questions I have related with this expression.

1. If a lady is a cougar, does she have to be hot?

The answer is NO but she should be a little bit attractive, though, to be qualified for being a Cougar.

2. How much age difference should be there?

I guess it should be pretty significant because small difference is not really interesting at all. Maybe more than 10 years? What do you think?

3. Why cougar?

I have no idea about this but Jake told me people used cougar because the mental image of her is hunting the boys.

Speaking of cougar, there is a TV show, called Cougar Town, and its story is totally about a lot of cougars. I mean ladies of hunting young guys if you know what I mean. 🙂

One last question! Is this expression offensive or not?

26 Sep

English pronunciation

Who taught : Andrew, Jake, James and Carl

There is a new tv show started last week. It is called, “Outsourced.” I love it. It shows a lot of cultural differences between America and India. You should really try to watch it and let’s talk about it later.

Do you know what file type I hate most? It is zip file.

Do you know why? Well… it is so hard to pronounce. A few months ago, I was having a meeting with a client and there were James, one of my old coworkers, and Carl, my old boss. After the meeting, I went into Carl’s room to have another meeting and, at the end of the meeting, he taught me how to pronounce zip correctly. And, interestingly, when James and I had brunch together last Saturday, he mentioned about his feeling about my pronunciation of zip file. It is actually kind of frustrating to have the feeling that I would never be able to have a correct pronunciation for some of the alphabets or words.

There are a few other alphabets or words that are hard to pronounce correctly. (Here, I mean really correctly like Americans, not like mimicking the sound!)

1. v and th

A lot of Koreans, or Asians, pronounce this incorrectly so that many American people think we are saying “b” instead. For example, when you are looking for a “vase” but if you pronounce it incorrectly, then it becomes “base.” The other example is any word having “th.” More specifically, if you trying to say that you are “thinking” now but, if you say it incorrectly, then it becomes to mean that you are “sinking” now. Then your American friends would be like, “to where are you sinking down?”

2. wood

This one looks pretty easy to pronounce but it, in fact, is very hard to pronounce correctly. Jessy has a friend who came to the U.S. around 20 years ago when she was around 25 years old. She has children who of course are native English speakers. One time, she had a conversation with her children and she said “wood.” As soon as she said that word, her children said to her, “Mom, that is not correct. Say it again!” So, she tried again and again but still the pronunciation was not correct. You know what happened eventually. Her children said, “Mom! You are never gonna be able to pronounce it correctly at all.”

How frustrating it is! Remember! She has been living in the U.S. for 20 years. 20 years!

3. Square or Squirrel

Well, I had a very similar experience with what Jessy’s friend had. I live in a neighborhood, called Squirrel Hill, in Pittsburgh. One time, I was talking about this neighborhood to Andrew and Jake. As soon as I said it, they were like, “Terry! What? Say it again!” So, I kind of realized that I spoke it incorrectly and tried really really hard to pronounce it correctly. Then, they said, “That is pretty good. Before, it was not correct.”

Then, a few days ago, I was talking about something and I said “Square Root” to Andrew and Jake. Then, they were like, “Hey! Terry! Say it again?” Yeah, they challenged me again. So, I tried again. Andrew and Jake! How was I? Do you think I need more practices? I guess so, right?

So, as a non-native English speaker, what is the hardest word or alphabet for you to pronounce? I think mine is “Z” alphabet and any word having it like Zoo or Zip. The real hope I have now is I wish I can speak those ones really good so that no one can recognize me as a non-native English speaker. There must be some ways to practice. Does anybody know how to practice to pronounce those alphabets correctly?

19 Sep

Jones

Who taught : Jake and Andrew

Jones is one of the family names you can find here in the United States. Original meaning of Jones is “son of John.” There is no problem with name, Jones. But, people in America use this word as a verb many times.

For example, I have really been wanting to have Vietnamese Pho soup for a few weeks. And finally, I had it this afternoon. It was very good. While eating, I told Pat, Rachel and Jessy, “This is so good. I have been craving for this one for a while.” You all know the expression, craving for. Right? It basically means you want to have something very much.

Jonesing for (source:www.arhband.com)

Now, instead of saying “craving for,” you can use “jonesing for.” I could have said like, “This is so good. I have been jonesing for Pho soup for a while.”

I believe “jonesing” has even a stronger desire than “craving.” Do you know why? It is because of its origin, I guess. Here is what I found on the Internet about how people started to use this word to mean strong desire for something.

In early 1960’s, the word, “jones,” first appeared in African-American slang, it was as a noun meaning “a drug addiction, especially to heroin.” There are a few different stories why this word became to mean it but there is one story I can believe.

It may be that there once was an infamous drug dealer by that name, of course, or that “Mister Jones” was a common euphemism for one’s local heroin pusher.

In 1970’s, people started to use this word to mean, “gotta have it.” Since I have no experience of any type of drugs, I do not know how badly addicted people would want it. But, I believe it should be something so strong that people cannot wait any more. Am I right? Hey, I know some of you people out there have some experience. So tell me! Am I right? 🙂

Well, maybe smokers would know how it feels to jones for smoking when they try to quit. That is the feeling of this expression. Let’s now then practice, shall we. “Honey, I jones for iPad. Can I buy it?” 🙂