Tag Archives: jake

17 Sep

quiche or quickie

Who taught: Andrew, Jake and Carol

Quiche (source: www.rosieleescafe.co.uk)

Do you guys all know who George W. Bush is? I believe so. He is a former President of the United States. OK then… here is another question. Do you know what the Bushism is? What do you think it is? It sounds like Bush’s political policy principles he set up during his presidency, doesn’t it? It has nothing to do with any political stuff. Here is the definition of Bushism on Wikipedia.

unconventional words, phrases, pronunciations and semantic or linguistic errors that have occurred in and defined the public speaking of George W. Bush

Here is one example for you. On Jan 11, 2000 he said, “Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?” when he gave a speech in Florence, South Carolina. What do you think? Doesn’t it sound familiar, my non-native English speaker friends? I have made so many mistakes like that, wrong BE verb, when I am speaking. It is quite hard to use the correct BE verb, especially with the choice between “is” and “are.” But, he was a former President of the United States and he is an alumnus of Yale and Harvard. So, I guess you do not need to worry about your wrong BE verb too much when you speak.

In relation with the Bushism, I heard another joke from Carol. I do not think this is a real story but who knows it could be. 🙂

1. Bush wins the election. He and Cheney are having lunch at a diner near the White House.

2. Cheney orders the Heart-Healthy salad.

3. Bush leans over to the waitress and says Honey, “Could I have a quickie?”

4. She’s horrified! She says, “Mr. President, I thought your administration would bring a new era of moral rectitude to the White House. Now I see
I was wrong and I’m sorry I voted for you,” and she marches off.

5. Cheney leans over and says George, I think it’s pronounced ‘QUICHE’.

Do you get it? Maybe not! OK. Let me give you a little bit of context here. So, Dick Cheney served a former Vice President of the United States under George W. Bush. In America, there is a food called, “quiche.” It is French food and a baked dish that is based on a custard made from eggs and milk or cream in a pastry crust. It is Jessy’s one of the favorite foods. As you can see, it looks very similar to quickie. Then, what is quickie? Quickie is from another word quick. But, it has a total different meaning from quick. It means a very quick paced version of sex. I am not sure how quick it should be to be qualified as quickie? Maybe it depends on a guy? 🙂

Now, the issue is pronunciation. Quiche’s pronunciation is /ˈkiːʃ/ whereas quickie’s pronunciation is /kwiki/.

It is not a surprise at all for Bush to make a wrong pronunciation. Apparently, the waitress did not want a quickie with Bush. One question for my American friends! “Could I have a quickie?” Do people even ask this kind of question in the real world?

01 Aug

watching the grass grow

Who taught: Jake and Carol

Seoul (Source: Wikipedia)

There is a street near my company where most of employees of my company park their cars. In my case, I walk from my house to the company and, sometimes, I meet my friends as I walk through the street. Last week, I met Jake and Carol on the street. We walked together to the office and we talked about Carol’s house improvement projects. She bought a house and Jake and Carol are working on a lot of different parts of the house. This is one thing I found very interesting living in America. In Korea, people do not want to buy a house which requires a lot of works. Instead, they buy a house which is perfectly fine as it is. In America, many people buy a house which might require some works and they actually work on those things by themselves. It is called DIY (Do It Yourself!). You can buy a lot of things such as paint, hardwood floors and even doors from places like Home Depot or Lowe’s. Literally, they have almost everything you need for your house.

Anyway, one of the projects they are working on is seeding lawns in their backyard. I saw some of the pictures she posted on Facebook and it was growing very slowly. We talked about that it would take a while to be looking good. During the conversation, I said, “It will take a while and needs patience, right?” And Jake said, “Exactly, it is like watching the grass grow.” At that moment, I did not know the expression and I just thought that the grass indeed grows slowly and he was agreeing with me. But then Jake asked me, “Oh! Do you know the expression?” “No!”, said I.

Jake said, “It means something is boring!” Carol added, “There is another one! It is like watching paint dry.” So, we were basically taking about the origin of the expression and it itself really explains the meaning of the expression. How funny it is!

We do not have this kind of expression in Korea! Do you know why? It is because there is no space for lawns in Korean houses, especially in Seoul. The city is almost like 10 times bigger than New York city and there are 12 million people living in the city. The population of South Korea is 48 million. So 1/4 of Korean population live in Seoul. According to Wikipedia, it is no 8 in the world largest cities, bigger than any cities in the U.S.

22 Jul

popular vs famous

Who taught : Jake

Honda Civic

Popular and famous….

Is anyone out there who does not know what these words mean? I doubt it.  In English-Korean dictionary, they have almost same meaning in Korean. It is pretty hard to distinguish each other. I am not sure how they are in other countries’ dictionaries.

Yesterday, I made a mistake with these words. It was a very subtle thing but Jake taught me the correct usage of the words.

After we had dinner together, Pat, Jake, Carol, Mark and me started to walk to the street where we all parked. As we were approaching to the cars, we realized that there are so many people who have Honda Civic in our company. Pat has Civic SI which he really loves. (I mean he is really into it.) Jake has Civic Hybrid. Kara has Civic coupe. Jessy has a regular 4-door Civic. Wow, I realized another thing, writing this. We have all different kinds of Civics we could have in our company. It is such a practical and fuel-efficient car. In addition, reliability is so great that you can easily drive it more than 100,000 miles without any major issue. So, if you are now considering buying a car, I would totally recommend it to you. Well, so, yesterday, I said, “I think Civic is the most famous car in our company.” Hearing it, Jake told me, “T-Bone, you should say the most popular car in our company.” Till that moment, I was not sure what is the difference. “Why? What is wrong with famous?” said I. Jake added, “So, for instance, I would say ‘Ferrari is the most famous car in the world.’ But, when you are tying to describe that many people like and have Civic, I would say, ‘Civic is the most popular car in the company.'” By hearing Jake’s examples, I was able to catch the subtle difference of the two words. Could you also understand? Interesting, isn’t it? Maybe, if I was writing, I would be able to find the proper word but it is again hard to find and use the proper word in speaking. Sigh! But, I really appreciate Jake’s help to make my English better and preciser.

21 Jul

peach fuzz

Who taught: Jake, Carol, Kara, Mark, Patrick, Angela, Stan, Alex and Andrew.

Last Friday, Andrew, Jake, Angela, Stan, Alex and I were having lunch together. Angela used to live in New York City area and, more specifically, her place was in New Jersey. Her house was on the second floor and there was a hair weave place on the first floor of the house. Do you know what the weave is? Here is the definition for you I found from the Wikipedia.

a very general term used to describe human or artificial hair used to alter one’s natural hair appearance by adding additional hair to their natural hair or by covering the natural hair all together with human or synthetic hair pieces.

I think I saw a lot of African American women try to have this weave. One thing I am curious is that how they can maintain or wash the weft hair. It would be really hard to wash regularly.

Speaking of washing hair, on our way to a restaurant this evening with my friends, Mark and Jake taught me one expression that some of the women would use when they would like to say no to some sort of asking from a guy or her friends. Supposed that Jessy, my wife, is a single and a guy asked her out and she really does not want to say straightforwardly no to him, then what she can say to him is “Oh… that is sweet but I am sorry. Tonight, I need to wash my hair.”

Mark and Jake told me it is an expression that WOMEN (maybe men with long hair) can use and it is politer than just saying no. Then, I thought that it is harsher than just saying no. What do you think?

peach fuzz

In relation to hair story, there is another expression I learned in the restaurant today from my friends. During dinner, we ended up talking about some women with bunch of different body hair, especially hair on face.

Do you know what you can use to describe bunch of short hairs on face? Jake said, “peach fuzz.” So, I just wrote that down on my iPhone. But, here is the thing!! So, I looked that expression up in the Urban Dictionary. And…… look what I found here. Jake!!! Can I really use ‘peach fuzz’ for short hairs on face? It sounds dirty. 🙂

28 Jun

let’s talk about talk!

Who taught: Andrew, Jake, Carol, Pat and Jean

Last week, I went to a bar near my office to have dinner together with my friends. Andrew asked me, “Hey T-Bone! Do you know what small talk is?” Due to that question, we started to talk about a few different expressions in which we can find “talk.”

Reggie Miller

1. small talk

1) Definition (Urban Dict) : Useless and unnecessary conversation attempted to fill the silence in an awkward situation.

2) Example: We all agreed that weather is the most common example of small talk. Jake also said, “You can break the ice by small talk.”

As I think about it, we do a lot of small talks with coworkers/friends, right? What is your main topic for small talk?

2. pillow talk

1) Definition (Urban Dict) :  The conversation that happens after making out/sex. It’s infinitely better than normal conversation because there’s touching involved.

There were some disagreements, though, about whether there should be sex or not to become a pillow talk. I am not sure. What do you think? Also, does it really require a pillow or pillows?

3. trash talk

1) Definition (Urban Dict) : In the course of a competitive situation, putting down your opponent verbally or saying how good you think you are, often, involving talk of moms or sisters.

Andrew told me that this talk usually happens during sports games such as basketball. He also told me that Reggie Miller is considered as the best trash talker. I found one good example from the Urban Dictionary.

I’m so fast you couldn’t see me with a telescope

To be a very effective trash talk, you should find a sentence that is really mentally bothering your opponent.

What is your best trash talk?