Tag Archives: rachel

21 Mar

chip in

Who taught: Rachel, Emily, Liz and Nadire

Chips (source: http://www.donotyet.com/)

Spring is here! Yesterday was warm and beautiful in Pittsburgh. How about where you are? Hope you enjoy a lot today!

Today’s story is Nadire’s. If I remember correctly, she is from Turkey and has been in the U.S. for only a month. She lives with Rachel, Emily and Liz. A few days ago, they decided to have a small party at home. As Emily prepared the party, Nadire asked Emily, “Hey, Emily! Is there anything I need to do or bring?” “No, not really! Maybe if you can chip in with a bottle of wine, that would be great but do not worry about it too much,” said Emily. It is a very typical answer, right? Nothing special or hard for you, my American friends. A few hours later, Rachel saw bunch of chips and asked Emliy, “What are these chips? I do not think we bought them.”

I guess you probably realize it now. That is right. When Nadire heard Emily saying, “chip in,” she thought Emily want her to buy chips for the party. FYI, “chip in” means “contribute money or labor.” I think it is from the usage of chips for gambling. At least, that is my feeling about its etymology but I might be wrong.

Anyway, this is very possible. Nadire! If you get to read this post, do not worry about it too much. I have been here in the U.S. for about 5 years and I still have the same issue you just experienced. It will take time and you need patience. And also, most of all, you need to ask a lot of questions. In my case, whenever I am with my American friends, I do ask a lot of questions to them about expressions they use. Rachel and Emily said they now realize that native English speakers use a lot of expressions that might be hard for non-native English speakers to understand.

Admitting that you are a non-native English speaker and asking a lot of questions is the most important step to take to be able to learn new expressions. A lot of times, non-native English speakers are afraid of what native English speakers would think if they ask questions about expressions. They would think I am stupid. I think that thought itself is more stupid. If someone who is non-native Korean speaker would try to learn Korean, asking many questions, I would really do my best to explain expressions to them.

So, be always open to learn and ask questions to learn new expressions and probably use them later. I now get to use some of the expressions I learned from my friends. I feel very thrilled when I use them to my friends who taught them to me. I am sure they are proud of me too. Learning new things is so much fun. Keep up your good work, Nadire!

26 Jan

big cheese

Who taught: Drew, Jon, Emily and Rachel

The big cheese (source : http://www.ohgeez.com/)

Last Saturday, Jessy and I went to see Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra’s concert. My friend Liz is the assistant concertmaster of the orchestra. It was awesome. We were able to see some young musicians. They are all teenagers but performed like professionals. We were able to see their passion in music. One of the most beautiful things in the world is, in my opinion, seeing someone doing something with passion and happiness. Having said that, I would love to quote part of the President Barack Obama’s speech yesterday at the State of the Union.

One mother of two, a woman named Kathy Proctor, had worked in the furniture industry since she was 18 years old. And she told me she’s earning her degree in biotechnology now, at 55 years old, not just because the furniture jobs are gone, but because she wants to inspire her children to pursue their dreams too. As Kathy said, “I hope it tells them to never give up.”

Very inspiring, isn’t it? At 55 years old, she decided to learn a new thing to pursue her dream. Hope I keep my passion at 55 or even older. Oh… and I also hope you do too.

Going back to the story being with my friends… Before the concert, we all went an Italian restaurant to have dinner together. During dinner, we talked about Emily’s story about her not properly being covered by health insurance. She has been waiting for a while to be covered by the company health insurance but did not happen yet. Hearing this, Drew said, “Who is the big cheese at your work? You should talk about it.” Well, based on the context, I was able to understand what they were talking about but the expression itself would not give any hint to me. The meaning of the expression is “most influential or important person in a group.”

I was so curious about the origin of the expression that I had to look it up. I found a few different theories but there is one very believable or probable. The Persian or Hindi word “chiz” means a thing. So, big cheese or big chiz is what? That’s right. It is a “big thing.” Now, are you a big cheese at your work? 🙂

I have a question. Can I say the big cheese in America is Barack Obama?

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?

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?

26 Jul

sunday dinner at Browns Hill Bible Chapel

Who taught : Emily, Rachel and Liz

Cake for Leah and Zac's farewell dinner made by Mandie

When I knew that I am coming to the U.S., my father asked one of his friends who is a missionary from the U.S. to find out the church for me to go. He recommended Browns Hill Bible Chapel to my father and me. Since then, Jessy and I are going to the chapel and it has been such a blessing for us. If you are interested in coming, please tell me. We should go together.

A few weeks later from our first visit to the chapel, Debby asked Jessy and me after the church service, “Hey, do you guys want to have dinner together?” I responded, “OK! What time do you want to meet? Maybe around 5:30 pm?” She said, “No, it is now!” “But you said dinner,” I asked again. She then realized and explained to us, “Oh.. we use dinner for Sunday lunch.” I was quite surprised. I have always thought dinner is a meal we eat in the evening. Do you guys really use dinner, meaning lunch or something?

And, yesterday, we had a special Sunday dinner after the service at church to say good bye to our friends, Leah and Zac. They are moving to Spain because of Zac’s new job. They will be staying there for about 5 years and COME BACK to PGH. Right, Zac? They have to because we all miss them so much and I am pretty sure they will miss us too.

Right before the dinner, I was talking to some friends and Emily and Liz were talking to other friends. But we were pretty close. And for some reason, I felt that Emily and Liz were talking about me. When I looked at them, they were like, “Nothing! How did you know we are talking about you.” I said, “I do not know! I just felt it.”

Then, we sat down together to have dinner and Rachel was right next to me. So, I said to Rachel, “Hey, Rachel. You know what happened? Emily and Liz made fun of me.” And Emily said, “No, we did not! We were just teasing you.” At that time, I was kind of confused and thought about the previous post about “Popular VS Famous.” Again, make fun of someone and tease someone have the same meaning in English-Korean dictionary. Thus, it is hard to find out the proper usage of them in a proper context.

So, here is what I learned. Tease is pretty much same act as making fun of but it does not really involve a bad intention.

Am I right? I am still kind of confused. This kind of subtle difference in expressions is so hard to catch.