Tag Archives: james

03 Aug

big 10/4

Who taught: James and Kerry

Truckers' slang

James and I sometimes go to a coffee place, called 61c Cafe, near our company. Their cappuccino is one of my favorites. I would say the best in Pittsburgh. A few days ago, we went to the coffee place and on our way back to the office, James told me one story about how he used one of the truck drivers’ slang in his email. When Kerry sent an email to James, James responded to him simply saying, “10/4.”

Truck drivers in America use CB radios and, when they use this, they use a lot of abbreviated expressions. 10/4 is one of them, meaning, “I got it.” or “Understood.” One good example of conversation that would happen James gave me is as follows.

1. A truck driver says, “Where is your 10/20?”

2. Another drive answers, “I am at Forbes Ave in Pittsburgh.”

3. Then the first driver says, “10/4. I will see you there.”

10/20 means location.

And, James told me that this expression known to almost all of the people in America so that everybody understands it.

So, next time if your wife calls you, trying to say like, “Hey, Honey! Where is your 10/20?” Or, every time she asks you to clean your feet before you go to bed, you can say “10/4!” But, you have to really clean them when you say 10/4. 🙂

There are some other ones you might like or even use later.

1. Big 10/4 : I completely agree.

2. 10/100 : I need to go to restroom to pee.

Oh! a pop quiz for you here! How about 10/200? Here is a hint for you! Read this post, then you would get to know the meaning of it. If you still cannot figure out, leave me a comment! 🙂

02 Jun

Certifiable

Who taught: James and Mike

Raining cats and dogs

It is raining cats and dogs now. It is a pretty scary storm with thunder and lightning. Hope everybody is safe!

Near my desk, my company’s UX (User Experience) team members nest together to do team coding work to meet the deadline of the new version release of the software. There is also a big white board that they use for keeping track of all of the work items. Today, I noticed a piece of paper stuck to the other side of the board. It reads, “Everyone here is a certified genius.” But, for some reason, someone covered two words of the sentence so that it became, “Everyone here is certified.” I bet Jake did it. Jake, it’s you, right? Well, by looking at it, I was curious. “Why someone covered the words here?” I asked to James. He said, “It might be something related to the word, ‘certifiable’.” “What’s up with ‘certifiable’?” I asked again. He told me that if someone is certifiable, it means he/she is insane. “So, when I see this sentence here, it sounds to me, ‘Everyone here is insane’,” James said.

The origin of the expression is from “certifiably insane.” And, at some point, people decided to drop ‘insane’ and make it shorter. People should not do this. It makes non-native English speakers harder to understand. Seriously, let’s not do that, shall we?

So, next time if you see someone is really out of his/her mind or mentally ill or just crazy, try to say, “Dude! You are certifiable.” Now, I am not sure whether this is very serious or it has a feeling of pulling someone’s leg. My friends! Should I be careful using this one?

27 May

on your soapbox

Who taught: Jake and James

These days, James and I are working on the same project. It is really fun to work with other coworkers, sharing ideas and talking about different approaches to solve any issues. Today, there were some requests from the customer. As we work on the items, James and I were sending emails to them and ccing each other. I sent an email with the status regarding an item and, a few minutes later, he sent an email and, in his email, he started with the expression, “To add to that, …….”, referring to my status update. And, a few minutes later, as I finished one of the other items, I sent an email, starting with the expression, “Above that,….” After the email, James pinged me and taught me that he would use the other expression, “on top of that”, instead of “above that.” “To describe a situation when something is stacking up, ‘on top of that’ is correct,” he said. Well, I was kind of confused because I always thought “above that” is the same as “on top of that.” And the literal translation into Korean of the two expressions is exactly same. Well, again, this kind of subtle difference is something I have a hard time. But, it is good because I am learning from my mistakes. (As long as they are not really huge and critical ones to make. I hope I do not make those in the future.)

At around 4:30 pm today, Stan and I started to talk about a woman outside. (FYI, Stan and I are sitting right beside window so that we can see outside.) She was surrounded by some other people and it almost looked like she was trying to teach them. Suddenly, one expression that I learned from Jake the other day came to my mind, “get on your soapbox.” “Yeah, she looks like she gets on her soapbox,” I said. Stan was surprised by the expression I used. “Wow, that is really perfect one to describe her. Nice!”

The simple definition of the expression is : Someone is expressing his/her opinions openly.

soapbox

If you hear its etymology, you will have a better understanding about the expression. So, what is a soapbox? Let me guess! Do you now think about a small box which can contain soap? You know something you can find in your bathroom. Well, it is not that one. It is a wooden box where you can put bunch of soaps. Here is a picture for you! Think about a situation that someone is trying to get attention from other people to make a prompt presentation. You want to be taller than others. That’s why you are getting on a soapbox. But, remember! It does not mean that you need to literally get on a soapbox. The expression just describes someone is openly talking about something he/she strongly believes in. Now, what if someone becomes obnoxious, speaking about something stupid, what would/could you say to him/her? That is right! You can say, “Hey! Get off your soapbox!”