Tag Archives: speak english

11 May

Who’s wearing the pants?

Who taught: Julie

This evening, Jessy and I talked about something and Jessy used one Korean expression.

사돈 남말 하시네! (Sa-Don-Nam-Mal-Ha-Si-Ne.) Korean people use this expression a lot. This can be used in a situation where someone is talking about something but it basically applies to himself/herself.

For example, supposed that Jessy is telling me that I have to stop shopping, then I can say this expression to her because she is the one who should stop shopping. 🙂

When she used that expression, I was like, “What would be the best English equivalent for that?” And, I searched the Internet. The closet one I found was “Look! Who is talking?” Frankly, I would not have a hard time to use this English expression in a proper context but I had a hard time to find the equivalent one when I use Korean first and try to place the proper English equivalent.

Do you know why? It is because I was trying to translate the Korean expression into English one. It is harder to translate an expression than to just get to know an equivalent expression and use it. This is something, I guess, most of non-native English speakers have trouble to overcome. Especially, if they moves to English-speaking countries after they become older than 20 or so. In that sense, one of the best ways to learn and be able to speak English better is memorizing as many expressions as possible. It is even better to memorize the whole sentences or paragraphs. I strongly recommend this study methodology.

By the way, do you think “Look! Who is talking?” is the best equivalent here? Or, are there any other better ones?

Here is one quick question for you! Are you in a relationship? Then, who is in charge of the relationship? Is it you?

I hope it is you. Well, maybe, it would be a easier life that your significant other is in charge so that you just listen to what he/she says. There is an expression you can use to describe someone who is in charge of the relationship.

“Wearing the pants in the relationship!” For example, if you want to figure out whether your friend is in charge of the relationship. Then you can simply ask, “So, who is wearing the pants?” And, I believe, it should be “THE” pants, right? Always be careful with Article. It is very tricky and only because of missing Article, the meaning of the expression could be totally different. What about “wearing the skirts in the relationship?” I guess, if I use it, people might understand what I am talking about even though that is not exactly an expression American people use, right?

01 Apr

Can you really speak English?

It was really amazing day! Sunny and warm! Besides, I had a real fun time with my friends, playing basketball. After the game, we went to Thai restaurant for dinner. We also had frozen yogurt. It is so great to have a nice fro-yo place near my office. Today, there has been one big question in my mind, “Can you really speak English?” What does it take to be able to SPEAK English? Throughout my life, I think I had gone through a few steps to be able to at least communicate in English.

1. memorizing vocabulary : Initially, I thought I need to know a lot of words to be able to speak English. So, whenever I saw new words from books, I looked them up in my dictionary and memorize the meaning of the words, writing in my exercise books. This definitely helped my reading but not speaking.

2. memorizing sentences or paragraphs : But then there was a big change in my studying pattern after I met the greatest English teacher in my life, Jinyoung Kim. She told me, “You cannot SPEAK English if you do not practice to use words in sentences or phrases. You think you can easily make sentences by organizing some of the words you memorized. That is not going to happen especially when you try to learn English after you are all grown up.” From that time, I basically memorized almost all of the paragraphs of many TOEFL books. The other thing she asked me to practice was INTONATION. Korean is monotonous. That is why it is so hard to speak English with intonation for Koreans. For example, “만나서 반갑습니다(Man na seo ban gap seup ni da.)” is “nice to meet you!” in Korean. Korean one is so monotonous whereas English one has high pitches and low pitches. I guess if you say “nice to meet you” without intonation, then American people would think, “I do not think you mean it. Maybe you do not want to meet me any more??” Well, to practice these, everyday, standing up in front of a mirror, I talked to myself in English. Even in subway, I just talked to myself, memorizing all of the paragraphs. People looked at me like someone crazy. Even Jessy told me, “You are crazy! Are you married to English?”

3. Learning culture : The longer I live here in America, the more I feel like it is really required to learn and understand the American culture to be able to speak English. That is why, whenever I hear a new expression, I have to ask, “Why do you use it in that case?” or “Why does it have that meaning?” For example, today, Andrew taught me two new expressions. One is “throw down” and the other one is “mano-a-mano.” Then, I asked him like “Why do you use it for that case?” and “So, when you are young, did you use mano-a-mano when you are drunk and having fun with your friends by like pretending fighting?” I mean… Think about it! If you know the origin of the words or expressions, it is really a lot easier to understand, remember and use them in the right context. I know I am still far away from being able to speak English well. But one lesson I would like to share with you is: “Do not afraid of saying, ‘I am sorry! I do not know what it means? Can you explain it to me?'” I mean you have to admit that you cannot be perfect and need to continue to learn as much as you can in your whole years in America, right? No pain, No gain!

I guess this kind of processes would be the same for learning any languages. Do you have any special tricks when you try to learn other languages?

Korean equivalent of “throw down” : ‘한판하자'(han pan ha ja)

Korean equivalent of “mano-a-mano” : ‘일대일 대결’ (il dae il dae gyul)

Don’t use these Koreans to Korean people! They know TaeKwonDo. You would get hurt. Did I tell you that I have a black belt? 🙂