GarretTS#16

October21st, 10pm

I am meeting with TaeYuen for the third time today. We met earlier this week to work on an assignment that he had wherein you were to formulate 25 idiomatic expressions. TaeYuen and I had great fun doing this, however, he misinformed me of the assignment. I thought that the assignment was about idiomatic expressions in general. What I came to find out tonight was that the kind of idiomatic expressions that were supposed to be covered in the assignment are what as known as phrasal verbs, which are idiomatic phrases consisting of a verb and another element, typically either an adverb or a preposition. We spent a little over an hour discussing the importance of context when analyzing any kind of idiomatic phrase, especially phrasal verbs. TaeYuen was having issues understanding that these parts of the English language cannot be pinned down specifically. A pretty funny example is the phrasal verb "make out." I explained to him that this can be applied in many different situations. He thought it was synonomous with sex, and I thought that was pretty funny. I spent 10 minutes explaining to him that making out, which can, in fact, often lead to sex, is actually a kind of kissing verb that involves intense kissing and intimacy. I found myself struggling with trying to explain to him what it actually was. I couldn't help but to feel deeply humble by the gorgeousness of language, and how it has come so far and evolved in such a way that one can fully know a word or concept (like what "making out" means), but yet still have trouble explaining it. I then continued on with the other common meaning of "make out," which means to seek clarity. I used an example that he thought was pretty funny, which was, "I am trying to make out the meaning of make out, but I am having trouble." He got a kick out of that.