My mom loves to tell embarrassing stories about my past because they are cute. I think that is a lame reason to tell embarrassing stories, at least when they are about me. One of her favorites is about the time I asked why we call vehicles that don't work "oranges." The reason that is embarrassing for me is I distinctly remember asking that question. It's probably one of my earliest memories. Our family had gone to watch my cousin race his go-kart, and his kart kept breaking down during the races. Two or three times my mom or my aunt called it a "lemon." I developed a good idea what that meant, and I was quite proud of myself for having picked up this new bit of English vocabulary, so a couple of days later I plotted a way to show off my new-found vocab to my mom. I nonchalantly went up to her and asked the deep probing question, "how did this fruity twist in our language come to be?"-- except that I used kid language and I got my fruits wrong. She not only interpreted it as me having no clue what they had been talking about, she also thought I couldn't tell my fruits apart. Well, I guess the later was true. But it was quite embarrassing for me, and it made me squirm inside whenever she retold the story.
However, that story no longer makes me cringe. Why? Because now I am that 5-year-old again, saying stupid things when I'm trying to sound intelligent! And I've become okay with it, at least most of the time. Grunting and hand motions are now my most fluent and frequently best understood language. I have had great success with "Je parle un peu du français," but if I try to say almost anything else in public (outside the school where people are used to newbies who use the present tense to talk about tomorrow, yesterday, and last year) people look at me like I am speaking Mandarin or something. And yes, the fruits give me grief. I'm rather nervous about the first time I have to pray out loud, because the word for sin is only slightly different from the name of a hairy fruit, and it is going to take all of my concentration to not piously ask, "forgive us for all of our peaches."
The Most Important Visit We've Ever Made
6 years ago
2 comments:
John, your comment about asking forgiveness for "all our peaches" made me laugh. Learning a new language has got to be very interesting and very challenging, I'm sure. I also enjoyed watching and listening to your speech, especially since I kind of knew what you were talking about since I listened to Ben's sermon too. I'm impressed. Keep up the good job journaling. I enjoy your blog so much.
God bless you!
Shirley M
Ha, ha, I totally get what you mean, too! In Spanish the word for sin is very similar to the word for fish--pescado (fish) versus pecado (sin). Unfortunately, in my case, the ecuatorianos pronunciation was my problem. They drop their s's often, so I'm sure my eyebrows went up at least 75% of the time when we went to dinner while we were on the beach!
PS: John, I knew we had to know someone in common! I just looked at your followers, and I know Alex Devick through a few mutual friends. She went to our IVCF's fall retreat with us last year. Considering how small the world is, and how small semi-rural MN is, I knew it was a matter of time! : ) Hope you're doing well! Do you Skype? We should chat sometime!
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