Tag Archives: Phil

05 Apr

go by vs take

Who taught: Phil

Shoes car (source : http://highclearing.com/)

During winter, I play soccer with Phil and other friends every Monday. Since Phil lives close to me, he usually picks me up on his way to the sports complex where we play soccer. Yesterday, he was gonna pick me up as usual but then I realized that my soccer shoes are in my new house. (FYI, I bought a house and now I am in the middle of moving things. So, some are in my new house and some are in my old house.) So, I had to go to the new house to get them. On my way to Phil’s house, I called him.

Me : “Phil, I should be at your place in 5 minutes. Do you want to go by my car?” (I meant we want to use my car to go to the complex instead of using his car.)

Phil : “Sure, either way is fine. Seeya.”

So, I picked him up. And he said, “Hey Terry. You said, ‘go by my car’ when you called. I could understand what you meant but ‘go by my car’ sounds weird to me. I would say ‘take my car’ instead.”

After the game, I looked ‘go by’ up in a dictionary again. It means ‘to elapse or pass’ or ‘to pay a short visit.’  Let me give you examples!

1. to elapse : As time goes by, you will feel better.

2. to pay a short visit : Phil was not at home when I went by his place yesterday.

So, using a verb ‘go’ followed by ‘by’ has something to do with flow or passage. It does not have the feeling of using something for the purpose of transportion. My initial thought when I used ‘go by’ was ‘go’ means moving from one place to another place and ‘by’ means ‘a mean for something.’ As separate words this could be right but when they are used combined, the meaning is not as I thought.

What an easy word, take, to use? And, I was not able to find it when I needed it. This happens all the time, especially when I speak. Sometimes, I realize something is wrong right after I say it. Then, it is too late to correct it. That makes me feel somewhat frustrated. But, I know I need to get over it by speaking more and more which means I will make a lot of mistakes. Isn’t it so true that people learn from mistakes as long as we try to do our best to correct them.

Don’t you make this type of mistakes? What’s your story?

My friends! There is another thing I want to share with you. Today is my 10th wedding anniversary. Hope Jessy remembers this time! 🙂 Last year, she forgot. We have a small plan. We will have a steak with wine at our very first house. And, most importantly, I will buy a charcoal grill today to grill the steak.

18 Jan

poser

Who taught : Pat, Rachel, Phil, Kelly, Lauren and Sean

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Source: Wikipedia)

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr birthday. It is one of the national holidays. 48 years ago, he made “I have a dream” speech. Here is the part of it.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day out on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat and injustice of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

48 years later, I see a lot of things he mentioned in his speech actually happening even though there are still many steps to go. Isn’t amazing? One man can make a difference. One man who has a dream can make a big difference. I am sure all of us can be the man. Let’s have a dream, a big dream! It will come true.

A few weeks ago, I was with my friends. And we were talking about some people. During the conversation, Lauren used a word, “poser.” Hearing it, I sort of figured out that it has negative connotation. If you look up a dictionary, I am sure you will find the following definition.

A person who poses.

Huh! What the heck? It does not help at all. Anybody can pose, right? So, this is not usually the meaning of the expression when you hear this expression from your American friends. Here is the meaning my friends told me.

A person who likes to be seen in trendsetting clothesin fashionable bars, discos, etc.

A person who attempts to blend into a specific social group.

My friends tried to give me good examples and they said a skateboarder or a snowboarder can be a poser. (FYI, I am a snowboarder. 🙂 ) I think this expression is kind of hard to fully grasp and use it. Hey, my American friends! Do you have any other thoughts or examples to give in relation to Poser?

22 Nov

caboose

Who taught: Kelly

A few months ago, Jessy and I went camping with Phil and Kelly. I think I mentioned this in one of my old posts. This morning, I suddenly remembered one expression Kelly used at that time. When we had a meeting to discuss what we need to prepare, she said, “We have OJs. So, that is good.” Hmm…. I did not quite get it. When I hear OJ, I think of only one thing(?), OJ Simpson. I heard so many times about him even when I was in Korea. But, it does not make sense Kelly’s saying OJ in the preparation of camping. Do you know what OJ is in this context? It is Orange Juice. I thought this is just an expression people use when they speak. But, I actually found one orange juice bottle in a market which has “O.J.” written on its label. Now, I am curious whether people say like “CJ” for cranberry juice or “LA” for lemonade. I have never heard of. Do you guys use it that way?

Do you know what is one of the most amazing things in the  U.S.? It is train. Why? It is really really long. One time, I tried to count number of cars that are pulled by one locomotive. How many? It was more than 100. Imagine that you have to cross railroad but there was a train passing by so that you have to wait! Wait for that long train could take more than 10 minutes. Not just because it is long but also it goes really slow.

Caboose (source: wikipedia)

A few weeks ago, Jessy and I was watching a TV show and, in the show, one guy said, “She’s got great caboose.” From the context, it sounded like he meant her breast. You know, b**bs. But, as we watch it longer, we realized that that was not what he meant. So, I looked it up. You know what I found. It is actually a type of railroad car in which crew members can take a rest. Thus, caboose is always located at the end of a train. Also, this is not really common anymore due to the development of faster locomotives. So, a lot of times, you can find diverse kind of cabooses in railroad museums. But, then what did he mean in the show? Well, he meant butt. Why? I have no idea. The only guess I can take is butt is something you can see in the back and also, as I said, caboose is located always in the back of a train. What do you think, my American friends? Would you agree with me? If you agree, say, “Terry has nice caboose.” (Jessy have always been teasing me that I do not really have a real butt. 🙁 )

17 Nov

the name of the game

Who taught: James

This cannot be true. NO NAME?? (source: crunchberry.org)

In the United States, there are two major communication tools that are used in many companies. One is email and the other one is IM(Instant Messenger). Back when I was in Korea, most of the companies did not like the usage of IM at work. They believed that it is used only for informal chats with friends or coworkers and not for work. Thus, they thought it is really bad for work productivity. Some companies actually blocked a few most common IMs. Not sure how it looks like these days in Korea.

But, in the U.S., IM is one of the critical parts of the communications at work. I have used it so many times to share ideas with my coworkers or even to give updates of my work to my boss, etc.

A few days ago, I had a chance to talk to James using IM. He is my friend and works for the company that I used to work. We had a chance to talk about some sort of work-related stuff. One point I said, “We had to get the things out the door for the customers.” He said, “That is the name of the game.” When he said that, I kind of felt what he meant by it but was also puzzled. So, I had to ask him to make sure what I thought was correct or not, “What is the name of the game? Are you saying ‘Get the things out the door’ is another game or something?” “Oh, no, it is an expression,” said he.

Here is his explanation about the expression, the name of the game.

The essential part or quality necessary for the success of an enterprise or the fulfillment of a goal because when you’re trying to make up games, you try to name them whatever the main point is

To make it easier for you to understand, the name of the game is pretty much the same as “the way the game is played.” One of the best situations you may use this expression is when you really try to play any kind of game with your friends. You can simply say, “So… does everybody know the name of the game?” (I am kind of afraid this would sound like I am really asking whether they know literally the name of the game, though.) Am I right, my American friends? I am going to use this one next time I play a game with Andrew or play squash with Phil.

11 Jul

dry county

Who taught: Phil and Kelly

Mountain pie

This afternoon, Jessy and I got back from camping with my friends, Phil and Kelly. We went to one of the Pennsylvania state parks. We were going to be there Friday night but, due to the heavy thunderstorm, we instead left Saturday morning. It was really fun! We definitely would like to try longer one next time. One of the surprising stories of our camping happened Saturday night. We left some of our food on the tables and some animals came and had their own feast while we were sleeping. They ate all of our breads, beef jerky, chocolate and marshmellow. We think it was raccoons. But who knows? It could be bears. This would never happen in Korea. So, one lesson for you if you are going to camp in America. “Never leave your food outside! Safest place would be in your car!” Anyways, it was a lot of fun. Especially, Jessy and I finally get to eat mountain pies and s’mores. Furthermore, Kelly told us a few scary stories, sitting around camp fire. I sill think about them, especially black little dog story, and feel scary.

Another thing which I found very interesting is no alcoholic beverages are allowed in all of the state parks in Pennsylvania. I was curious and of course asked Phil and Kelly. “So, I do not understand why they do not allow alcoholic beverages here. Is Pennsylvania most conservative state in America?” And They said, “No.. not really! You can find so many dry counties in many states.” “Wait! What is dry county?” I asked. Phil said, “It is a county where you cannot buy or sell any alcoholic beverages at all.” I was not able to believe it. “What? Really?” (For your information, all of the states in America have counties and counties comprise cities, townships and municipalities.) In fact, I looked into this a little bit more. There are three different types.

1. dry county (dry city, dry town, etc.) : bans both the sale and possession of alcohol.

2. wet county : permits both the sale and possession of alcohol.

3. damp county : permits possession of alcohol but bans the sale of it.

And, believe it or not, there are so many dry counties in America. You can find the list of them here. So, apparently, Pennsylvania is not the most conservative state in terms of alcoholic beverage consumption or sales. Honestly, I cannot imagine that people cannot even see any of the alcoholic beverages in their neighborhood. What do you think? Do you want to live there? Another question is what if you break that law? Is there any severe consequence for that?