Tag Archives: labor day

06 Sep

table it vs shelve it

Who taught: Jeff

table (source: http://www.everyfinehome.com/)

Yesterday was Labor Day in the U.S. In most countries including South Korea, May 1 is Labor Day. Do you know why the U.S. chose a day in September to be Labor Day instead of May 1? It was because President Cleveland was concerned that observance of May 1 would be associated with the nascent Communist, Syndicalist and Anarchist movements.

If this one would show up on the U.S. Citizenship exam, I could get a point, right?

Speaking of the U.S. being different from other countries, I have a very shocking expression to share today.

Last week, I had a meeting with my friend, Jeff. Talking about English expressions, he asked me a question, “Hey, Terry! Can you guess what ‘table it’ means?”

I thought it should be very easy. So, without hesitation, I said, “That should mean to put something on the table so that people can see what it is and start to discuss it.”

What do you think, my non-native English speaker friends? Don’t you think I got it correct?

Here is the very strange result! If I were in any other English-speaking countries than the U.S., my answer  was totally right. But, it is not in the U.S. In the U.S., a motion to lay something on the table means motion to postpone consideration of a pending motion.

Here is a good example. If your wife wants to talk about having a baby and you think you are not ready, then you can say to your wife, “Honey! Can we table it?”

Sounds awkward, right? But, that is what it means in the U.S.

Now, if you look around your office, what do you see above or beside the table? I bet you have a few shelves. Suppose you put something on one of the shelves, what does it mean? Usually, you do not see or consider it for a while till you grab it from the shelf. Hence, “shelve it” means to postpone consideration of a pending motion. This one means the same in all of the English-speaking countries including the U.S.

So, you may want to stick with ‘shelve it’ instead of using ‘table it’, especially if you are on a trip to the U.K. or Australia, etc.

But, you’d better be able to distinguish ‘table it’ and ‘shelve it’ in the U.S. They are totally opposite.

It is still not very intuitive to think ‘table it’ to mean to postpone something. But, I am in the U.S. and When in Rome!

06 Sep

pepper in talk?


Pep talk (source:http://brownsharpie.courtneygibbons.org/)

Today was Labor day which is one of the national holidays in the United States. In addition to the fact that people do not go to work, it has a few meanings to the American people. It is the end of summer. To enjoy the symbolic last day of the summer, people go for a picnic where they grill a lot. Labor day also meas the start of NFL and college football season, which I am so happy about. After labor day, the number of people playing golf decrease a lot because people start to watch college football on saturdays and NFL on sundays. These are a few things I know about Labor day. Do you guys know anything else you want to share?

Moving on to today’s expression, let me ask you a question! Have you ever experienced any situation that your boss or boss’s boss call a meeting and make a short or long talk about work, work, work? Well, more specifically, the main thing that he/she is trying to say is that you need to work harder? I am sure you do have that experience, (In which you would be talking to yourself like, “Oh! Great! Here it goes again!”) Maybe you are the one who is making that talk? Oh… good luck with that! Well, either way… Do you know what is the English expression you can use for that kind of talk? It is called, “PEP TALK.”

Definitions I found on the web are:

1. a vigorous, emotional talk, as to a person or group, intended to arouse enthusiasm or increase determination to succeed, etc.

2. This is usually a 5-10 minute speech given by your Supervisor at work,so as to make you work twice as hard for the same amount of money.

Well, the first one sounds pretty good but, in reality, you would hear pep talk in relation to the second one. Don’t you think?

Anyways, I had to find the origin of “PEP” to figure out why people started to use the expression. PEP is a shortened form of pepper. Now, in general, putting some peppers in your food sort of stimulates your appetite, doesn’t it? (American people use pepper a lot in the food. And, I do also love peppers.) Having that kind of feeling, what would be your feeling if someone add pepper in their talks? That is right! It is encouraging and stimulating. Another very good example of pep talk is the time when a coach of a football team tries to encourage the players before they go out to play a game, like “Hey, Guys, It is the time that you guys just go out there and show what you have! Let’s go! You can do it!”

Now, let’s put some peppers in your talk when you want to encourage yourself, shall we!