Tag Archives: Jessy

14 Jun

bombshell


 

Watching TV in the U.S. requires a lot of patience. Why? there are so many advertisements. Watching those advertisements in the middle of shows is annoying unless those ads are either funny or sexy. A few weeks ago, I was watching TV and there was a sexy ad. 🙂 It was a Victoria’s Secret ad. I assume you all know what Victoria’s Secret is. (Just in case, here is the url of the company, http://www.victoriassecret.com/)

In the ad, it started with “Hello Bombshell.” You guys all know how I am. I do not know any kind of slangs that are related to women. So, it is not surprising that I did not know what bombshell means. So, I asked Jessy. She knew and told me what that means. But, I did not get it. I asked to her and myself. Why does it mean that?

My non-native English speaker friends! Do you know what it means? It means an outrageously & exotically beautiful or attractive female. It is usually a blonde.

Again, why bombshell means those females. As we may know, bomb+shell is a bomb or artillery shell designed to explode on impact, right? Eventually, it could kill people. In that sense, in Korea, if someone says a lady is a bomb or bombshell, that means she is so ugly that she could kill men by just showing up.

Very interestingly, on the other side of the earth, here in the U.S., it means totally opposite. My guess is that bombshell in the U.S. just means something that is very surprising, shocking and eventually amazing or sensational.

If I did not know what bombshell means in Korea, it would have been a lot easier for me to understand what it means in the U.S.

Anyway, there are so many bombshells in Korea and in the U.S. (Which bombshell? Well, no comment.)

31 Mar

couch surfing and muffin top

Who taught : Jessy

muffin top (source: http://everythingarie.wordpress.com/)

Hello, my friends! Where are you now? I am not just asking whether you are at home, office, or somewhere else. I am asking where you are sitting in. Are you in your chair or couch?

When Jessy and I moved into the current apartment one and half years ago, we decided to buy a sofa. It is pretty long one. Ever since that time, we have spent a lot of time in the sofa, reading, watching TV, talking, eating and sometimes sleeping. Don’t you think we, people, do spend long hours in sofa, or couch, doing a lot of things? I am glad that I invested a little bit more money for the sofa than I usually spend on things. I now strongly believe it’s worth it.

A few months ago, we were sitting in the sofa as usual and Jessy asked me a question, “Hey! Do you know what ‘muffin top’ means?” “You are not talking about the top of a muffin, are you?” said I. And she said, “Of course not! It is an expression.” It was hard for me to come up with the meaning of it. She said, “It is the fat that are pushed out at the top of one’s pants. Mainly when people wear tight jeans.” “Huh! What a great one! That is awesome,” said I.

And, a few days ago, watching NBC Nightly news, I heard Brian Williams was talking about new expressions that were newly added into Oxford English Dictionary. Do you know what is one of them? That’s right. It is muffin top. Are you curious what else were added?

1. OMG (Oh My God!)

2. FYI (For Your Information!)

3. LOL (Laugh Out Loud)

4. couch surfing (?????)

This number 4 was new to me. What the hack is couch surfing? Is it like people physically trying to surf on couch for fun or what? So, I looked it up and Urban Dictionary says….

A cheap form of lodging used mainly by college-students or recent college-grads, where one stays on acquaintance’s couches rather than a hotel.

Have you ever done couch surfing? Why is it surfing? Shouldn’t it be like couch lodging or couch settling?

The world is continuously changing. There are new words and old words. They are coming and going. You should keep abreast of those new expressions. In that sense, Oxford Dictionary is way slower than Urban Dictionary. 🙂

By the way, today’s post is 200th one. I feel like I hit a milestone. It took me one year and one month to reach 200th. At this time, I would like to thank you for your support and help, my friends. Hope I can really help your English and to see you more often here! Have a great day!

28 Mar

bucket list

Who taught: Deb

bucket list (source: http://www.imdb.com/)

Two months ago, Jessy and I were invited to Dave and Deb’s house. Deb showed us her house. As we walked into the kitchen, we saw some pictures of beautiful places. One of them caught my eyes. It was the picture of a resort in Bora Bora, Philippines. So, I asked her why the picture is there. She said, “Dave and I really enjoy traveling and, one day, Dave was reading a newspaper and found that place. As we see the picture together, we decided to put it into our bucket list.”

As we heard her saying, “bucket list,” we were like, “What? What is bucket list?” She said, “Oh! That is an expression we use to refer to the things that people want to do before they die, mostly, in relation to places to visit before they die.”

Ever since we got to know that expression, we have heard the expression from our friends. More importantly, I have used it when I talk about going to Europe, especially to Paris, to my friends.

Once again, I was curious about its origin. When I first heard it, I thought the expression totally makes sense because people put things in a bucket. Putting the list of items into your bucket is so perfect to mean having something to do in a bucket before dying.

But, I found this very interesting resource, this wikipedia page.

As you may find from the page, there are mainly three theories with regard to its etymology. I am very leaning toward the first theory which says the expression, kick the bucket, is from the usage of a bucket for suicide or execution by hanging. What do you think? What is your choice? Knowing the origin of the expression, I now do not really like to use “bucket list.”

Anyway, what do you have in your bucket list? I think, this Thursday, I will scratch out one of them, buying a house. Wait, buying a house can be included in a bucket list?

Deb also told me that there is a movie called, “Bucket List.” I think I should watch it. Is there anybody who wants to watch it together with us? It’s a date.

21 Feb

deadbeat vs dead beat

Who taught: James

Deadbeat (source: http://www.babble.com/)

About two weeks ago, there was Ari’s birthday party where I danced with her. She is an amazing dancer. On the other hand, I have no experience in dancing. She led me the whole time when we danced. Now, I do not even remember what happened. Maybe sometime in the future I should try to learn. It is interesting to see how people are different from each other and enjoy different things. Anyways, my friend, James also was there. Jessy and I picked him up to go to the venue of the party. On the way to the place, we talked about the time Jessy and I spent together for more than 13 years. I cannot exactly remember how this kind of conversation started. But, I think we talked about why we are trying to buy a house now. We said we want to buy it now because this year is the year of our 10th anniversary.

In the middle of the conversation, we had a chance to talk about how we met and how much I was poor back then. When we were dating, we both were college students but, right after we started to date, I told Jessy, “I think you are going to marry me.” Her reaction??? She laughed!! And after a few years of dating…… what happend?? We got married. I was right, wasn’t I? But, the problem was I was still a student. She had to work to support me till I graduated. Jessy’s parents, of course, did not like it.

When we talked about this story to James. He said, “So, Terry, you were like a deadbeat to Jessy’s parents.” As it usually is the case, I did not know the expression, “deadbeat.” From the context, I was able to kind of feel it. But, not really fully grasp it. What does it mean? Here is the definition for you.

A lazy person or a person who does not do what he/she is supposed to do. A person unable to pay his/her bills. Someone of low financial standing.

Well, James was right. I was not the one who was paying anything. Jessy even payed for my books. It was a hard time for me because my father was also very close to being a deadbeat because of his failure from his construction business. As I look for this expression, I found that this expression can also be used to mean differently.

Soppose that you just finished a triathlon competition. How would you feel? You would feel so exhausted, right? Then, here is what you can say. “I am dead beat now.” Interestingly, in this case, you need to put a space between “dead” and “beat.” It does not really matter when you speak though. So, be aware of these different usages of the same expression.

FYI, I do not think I am a deadbeat anymore. 🙂 Am I right, Jessy?

15 Feb

PDA

Who taught: Office

PDA (source: http://metropolitician.blogs.com/)

Back in Korea, my parents used to say to Jessy and me, “We have never seen a couple like you guys. You guys are so happy together and show love to each other well. It is great to see.” The reason why they said like that was because we did not hesitate to show our affection in front of them. We hugged and kissed a lot even when they were present. It sounds very normal in America, right? But, it is not in Korea. I am not sure how much things have been changed in Korea ever since we left but, when we were there, people did not like seeing other couples’ hugging and kissing in public places.

It was kind of socially and culturally prohibited. Sometimes, old people say some harsh words to young couple who are showing their affection in public places. For example, Jessy always wanted me to show my love in public places. Whenever we are in a subway train or a park, she was asking me to kiss her. Then, I was like, “Hey, this is not our home. Don’t you see other people here? We cannot kiss here.” Then, she became sullen till I really kissed her. To save her and me from that unhappy situation, I had to kiss her. So, I looked around and around and around to find a proper time, then, if no one was looking at us, I kissed her very quickly. Well, then, Jessy became happy again. As this happens again and again, Jessy asked me more. She wanted to me get bolder to kiss her even people were looking at us. I was so embarrassed to do it. So, what I said to her was, “OK, here is the deal. Since we know we are gonna move to America, I will kiss you in public places in America because people there would not care about it and all of them do kiss in public places, I think.” She accepted the deal.

So, when we got here, she wanted me to kiss her in Time Square of New York City. Well, I did it and Jessy was happy. Most of all, nobody cared as far as I remember.

A few days ago, there was an episode of Office TV show about this behavior. Do you know what American people call this kind of behavior? It is called, PDA. Let me guess! Now, you would be saying, “What? PDA? That is like a small mobile device, Personal Digital Assistant.” That is right. But, at the same time, PDA means “Public Displays of Affection.” Based on the episode I saw, it looks like American people do care about PDA and they are not really fine with seeing PDA. So, the question is how much is fine and how much is not fine? Maybe it was because PDA happened in the office? So, if it is in subway or park, it is fine? I need to know the answer because Jessy will ask me to kiss again in the central park of NYC. Somebody please tell me!!!