Tag Archives: pat

14 Sep

donkey

Who taught: Alex, Sangeetha, Ari, Juan, Pat and Rachel

Donkey (source: www.shadowridgedonkeys.com)

A small warning for today’s story! I do not like to use this kind of expression but it does not mean that you do not need to know the expression, right? Are you ready?

A few days ago, Jessy and I visited Ari’s place and there I learned one thing totally new. I mean the thing I did not know at all.

“ASS”

When you hear this word, what do you think of first? In my case, it is butt. But, apparently, it also means a silly or stupid person. Do you know why? It is because ass is donkey and donkey represents silliness in English. Well, more precisely, jackass is a donkey. I am sure many of you heard the following kind of sentence in American TV shows.

You, Jackass! Get out of my sight!

Yeap! It is basically same thing as “You, Donkey!” I am not sure what donkey represents in other languages. I think donkey is also recognized as a silly animal in Korean. But, I doubt we use it to people. Does any Korean have different opinions?

Well, I guess some non-native English speakers out there might already know that ass is donkey but it was the thing I have never known. It was quite shocking to know that ass is donkey. In my brian, I have never connected ass to donkey at all. It has been always butt. Do you know why? It is because the word, asshole. Asshole is anus. If asshole is anus, ass should be just simply butt. Isn’t it? What do you think? Is asshole also from donkey’s anus?

12 Sep

Newbie vs nOOb

Who taught: Andrew, Pat and Jean

n00b (source: dayumdana.tumblr.com)

It is amazing to see that almost all of the languages keep evolving. A few days ago, I was watching “Everybody Loves Raymond” with Jessy and heard a new expression I have never heard of, schmuck. An old guy told that Raymond is a schmuck. Do you know what it is? It is basically a jerk, idiot or moron. When I heard it, for some reason, I thought it is kind of an old expression. Why? I think, during the last 4 years and 2 months in the U.S., I have never heard of that one from any of my American friends. Am I right, my friends?

But, I have heard some other expressions that a lot of people use these days. In fact, I used them about a week ago to Andrew. I assume many of you have a facebook account, right? I also do have. If you search for “Terry Lee”, you might be able to find me on facebook. Anyways, a few days ago, Andrew wrote on his status, “I just found out that my iPhone headphones have a built-in microphone.” As soon as I read that one, I was like, “Oh, Andrew! You gotta be kidding me! How could you not notice it?” and added a comment, “You are such a newbie!” Newbie is a term that have been used by a lot of gamers first. When there is a new person comes into an online game, they say “Hey, here comes a newbie!” And, people started to use the term to describe any person who is new at something. For instance, if I go to a tennis court to try it out with bunch of friends who are already good at it, I can say to them, “Hey Guys! I am a newbie here. You gotta serve slowly.” There is a short version for this. It is “newb.”

Following my comment, Jean added another comment saying, “No, no, T-bone, like this: You are such a nOOb!” When I first heard this expression from Pat, I thought it is the same thing as newbie. Well, as you can imagine, it is not the same thing at all. Thus, you should be careful when you use this one because it has the same meaning as “Schmuck.” Here is the definition I found on urban dictionary.

A n00b or nOOb is someone that lacks intellegance or common sense, most people think that noob is a word used only in the online gaming world, but in reality it is becoming an ever popular word.

Maybe you would not want to use nOOb one too often or to someone whom you do not know well. Furthermore, since newb and nOOb sound very similar if you do not pronounce correctly, you might want to use newbie when you mean to say newbie to other people. Most of the times, you would find yourself speaking the word in this type of sentence, “Man! You are such a newbie!” or “Dude! You are such a nOOb!”

P.S.: Schmuck also means penis. Be careful to use this word too! Or maybe, try to pay attention closely to find out the context when someone uses this word in conversations. 🙂

18 Aug

beat around the bush

Who taught: Pat

Beat around the bush (source: amazon.com)

As Jessy and I live longer in America, we become not craving for Korean foods anymore. But, for some reason, we wanted to have Korean food for dinner today. So, she cooked one of the traditional Korean foods, Chung-Guk-Jang JjiGae. One of its ingredients is fermented bean paste. After having this as dinner, we took a walk for about 40 minutes around our neighborhood. It was very pleasant weather to walk today. After the walk, I opened the door and we came into our house. Wow….. it smelled horrible. (Alex, sorry for the bad smell if you did smell it. 🙂 )I cannot believe what is happening for Jessy and me. In Korea, we used to love the smell but not anymore. So, the first thing we did was lighting a few candles in the house. I think many of the American houses have a few candles not just for the source of light but for the source of fragrance. I might be wrong but we do use candles for fragrance.

A few days ago, Jessy and I went out to dinner with Rachel and Pat. During our conversation, Pat said, “Right! Jessica does not beat around the bush.” I remember I studied the expression when I was in Korea but that was actually the first time I had ever heard someone using it in a sentence. It simply means, “Jessica does not talk about something indirectly.” I think the reason why Pat thought that Jessica is not the person who beats around the bush is because of her English. I mean if you cannot speak good English, then it is not easy to say something or make sentences which are a little indirect or implied.  Am I right, Jessy? ……

I am just pulling your leg, honey, here! Jessy is actually not the person who likes to beat around the bush. She speaks very directly to other people. Especially in case she does not like someone, she does not hesitate to talk about it even in front of him/her. But, I think that is really good. Good for her health! I like it. Good thing is she does like me and she said, “I love you,” to me. And… I can trust what she is saying. 🙂

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.

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?