Tag Archives: sub

24 Apr

[Series 1] a story about sandwich

Who taught: Mike

sub sandwich

Sub (source: http://www.new-jersey-leisure-guide.com/)

Have you read my old post about ordering a sub sandwich? If not, check it out! As you can notice, it has been more than two years and now I learned a new thing about it.

When it comes to names of things, you do not question it because it is just what it is and how it is called. So, I have not really questioned why sub sandwich is called sub.

A few days ago, I had a chance to talk to Mike. He has a whiteboard in his office and there was one thing that caught my eyes.

“Sub -> Submarines”

I asked him, “What is that?” He said, it is about why sub sandwich is called sub. And he went on, saying “It is because sub sandwich looks like submarine.”

I never thought about it. Interestingly, he also told me that people in Boston or New England area do not call it sub. Instead they call it “grinder.” The reason being that it needs a lot of chewing (grinding) to eat.

I have never been to Boston but I will definitely visit the city soon. You know what one of my plans is? I am going to go to a restaurant where they sell grinders and order one but I will not say I want a grinder. I will say, “I want to order a sub.” What would be their reaction? Do you think they would understand? I doubt but it will be fun. Ahh…. the joy of learning another language. πŸ™‚

P.S.: I will update you later with what happened in Boston.

10 Oct

expressions in sports

Soccer (source : www.treehugger.com)

Are you a soccer fan? I love playing soccer. The winter league just started and I play soccer every Monday from Oct to Feb. Last Monday, I noticed a few expressions, playing soccer, that you might be interested in.

1. Sub!

This is not a sub that you would order at a restaurant, as you may imagine. πŸ™‚

In the league games, there are 7 players in each team but we usually have around 18 people coming regularly. That means each team has two substitutes.Β When one player is trying to come out, then he/she says, “Sub,” to the people waiting. This is shortened version of substitute. There is no time during the game to say the full word. In fact, I have never heard anyone saying the full word when I play soccer.

2. Back or Front?

But then, when you sub, the person who will join the game would ask you, “Back or front?”, to you as he/she goes in. Why do you think he/she asks that question and what are the right answers? That is right! He/she wants to figure out the position you played and your answer would be like “Back center” or “Front right.” Well, how simple and short! Interestingly, this is exactly what happened to me last Monday. When I try to come out, saying “Sub!”, the guy who is going to go in asked me “Back or front?” Well, I did not get the meaning as quick as possible. Like 5 seconds later, I realized that what he meant when he asked that question but it was too late to answer. How stupid? I mean, it is such an easy question but I missed it (Honestly, I did not know whether he was talking to me or not.) and did not say anything to him when he asked it. The problem is this kind of conversation happens so fast and hard to catch up later once you miss it at the moment.

3. Got your back!

Speaking of back and front, there is another saying you can say during the game. “Got your back!” You can say this when anther player who is in front of you, having the ball, but cannot figure out how to go forward. If he heard you, chances are he will pass the ball to you.

4. It is all yours!

Can you guess when you can use this expression? Let me describe you the situation when you can use this. I was up front center and a midfielder passed the ball really well to me. Then, there is nobody who is blocking me and I got the ball under control. The only thing I need to do is calm down and put the ball into the goal. In that situation, all of my team players would be like, “Terry, it is all yours!” What do you think? Do you think I made that goal?

25 Apr

Super Salad

Whose story: My brother, Eunwoo

Terry and his bro, Eunwoo

Hello! My friends out there! Good to talk to you again! My apologies for the absence of new posts for a week! As I told you, my brother and sister-in-law came to the U.S. from South Korea. We took a trip to Tampa, Florida, having a wonderful time together. It was only one week being together and they went back to Korea. Came back to the house from the airport, Jessy and I felt so lonely and the house looked so empty. The week really flew by and now they are not here and we do not know when we are going to see them again. Man, I miss them already. This is one of the things I do not like about living abroad, being apart from family.

During the trip, we of course had been to many restaurants. For the first day, we went to an Olive Garden in Tampa for lunch. After we ordered drinks, my brother talked to us, “They are going to ask us about super salad later.” We then asked him, “What is super salad? We’ve never heard of it? Is it a special salad you had before?” He told us the story he experienced on his biz trip. He went to a restaurant in New Hampshire and ordered one main menu. Then, the server said, “Soup or Salad?” It was so fast that my brother understood as “Super Salad.” He thought it is just a kind of a salad and answered, “OK!” The server was like, “What do you want? Soup or Salad?” My brother was, “OK, I want the super salad.”Β  Then, the server was, “No, I mean it comes with soup OR salad. Which one do you want?” Finally, my brother got it and ordered salad. We all laughed about it and, hearing the story, Jessy and I realized that it really sounds like SUPER SALAD if we speak it fast. As soon as we finished the story, the server in the Olive Garden came to us to take our orders. As soon as my brother ordered a food, the server said, “Soup or Salad?” We all laughed again and talked about the story to the server. I was like, “Wow, that is really like super salad.” We also went to a Subway. I ordered sweet onion chicken teriyaki sub. My brother watched me ordering and, as soon as we got back to the table, he told his wife, “OK, there is a lesson today. We should not go to Subway in the U.S. They ask too much and it is not simple at all.” Well, I guess I am not the only one having a hard time to order a sub in the U.S. (Not any more though πŸ™‚ ) I guess ordering a sub in Subway could be the real English test for non-native English speakers. Travel guide book authors should add the step-by-step guide of ordering subs in the U.S. in their survival English travel books. What do you think?

Today’s injuries in English taught by Andrew : Athlete’s foot

Definition : A fungal infection of the skin of the foot, usually between the toes.

Korean equivalent : 무쒀 (Moo-Zom) Well, I think this one should be SOLDIER’S FOOT in Korea because almost all of the Korean soldiers experienced this. When I was in the Army, I had this too. Such a horrible infection to bear with! So itchy πŸ™‚