MOTIVATION

살다보면 이런 사람들을 봅니다.

  • 미팅에서 귀아플정도로 말을 많이 하는 사람.
  • 페이스북에 시도때도 없이 자기 status업데이트를 하는 사람
  • 미세한 머리카락이 떨어진 것을 보고 웨이트리스에게 버럭버럭 소리치는 사람.
  • 이들을 지켜보는 입장에서 “에이 그냥…좀 조용히있지..” 라고 생각이 들지도 모릅니다.

하지만 아무리 그들이 obnoxious해보여도 결국에는

  • 그들의 아이디어가 채택이되고,
  • 그들의 포스트는 수많은 like를 받고,
  • 그들의 불평은 곧 공짜 피자 한판으로 치환이 됩니다.

이런 현상을 보고 한국어로는 “목소리 큰 사람이 이긴다” 라는 표현을 쓰는데, 영어에서는 같은 상황을 어떻게 표현할까요?

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease…”

DEFINITION

DEFINITION

  • The loudest complaints get the most attention (freedictionary)

COMMENT

  1. “제일 삐걱(squeaky) 거리는 바퀴(wheel)부터 기름칠(grease)을 하는” 형상에서 이 표현이 유래되었습니다.
  2. the grease말고 the oil 을 쓰기도 합니다.
  • the squeaky wheel gets the oil
  1. squeaky wheel gets the grease의 패러디버전으로 짜증도 잦아지면 해가 된다는 것을 squeaky wheel gets replaced라는 표현도 자주 쓰입니다.

FROM MOVIES

  • I once told Ruthie, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so she started blowing math tests to get more attention from Mom. (7th Heaven)
  • A: Well, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, Colin. B:Sometimes a squeaky wheel gets removed and replaced with a quiet one. (Underbelly)
  • Problem is, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. l mean, all these idiots who rant and rave about low test scores. (Dawson’s Creek)
  • Apparently, being a responsible adult around here gets you nothing. Turns out the squeaky wheel does get the oil. (Young & Hungry)

IMAGE

FROM NEWS

  • “Nine out of 10 schools say no (to appeals) right away,” Siegel says, “but the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” (Bloomberg)
  • In America, we say that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. In Japan, people say that the nail that stands up gets hammered down. (NYT)
  • AS the parents of young children know all too well, it is the squeaky wheel that gets oiled. (Economist)

IMAGE

FROM TWITTER

-The squeaky wheel gets the grease. This is how I deal with government bureaucracy. I call until they are tired of me

  • The fact is “squeaky wheel gets the grease.” and since the world isn’t going to change THAT, I don’t see another option.
  • No saying describes social media better than “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

VIDEO

VIDEO

  • HOMER: If I hadn’t written that nasty letter, we wouldn’t have gotten anything. MARGE: Well, hmm. Then I guess the moral is, The squeaky wheel gets the grease. LISA: Perhaps there is no moral to this story.

META & CONTEXT

META & CONTEXT

  • Is it a slang? No.
  • Can I use it in a formal setting? Yes.

(data source: Davies, Mark. (2008-) The Corpus of Contemporary American English: 450 million words, 1990-present. Available online at http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/)

PHRASE HISTORY

PHRASE HISTORY

image source: Google Ngram

1950년이후에 갑자기 인기가 많아진 표현입니다.

TYPICAL MISTAKES

TYPICAL MISTAKES

  1. 스퀴끼할때 스펠링이 squeaky 입니다.
    • the squeeky wheel gets the grease! (X)
    • the squEAky wheel gets the grease! (O)
  2. THE를 까먹지 마세요. get THE grease입니다
    • the squeaky wheel gets grease! (X)
    • the squeaky wheel gets THE grease (O)