This morning I got an email from the powers-that-be here at the University about the flu vaccine being available. Near the bottom of the letter, I was amused to see an example of how a very small mistake can completely change the meaning of a sentence.
It said, "We are notable to accept cash, no exceptions."
I know it meant "not able" but that was an amusingly bad place to suddenly lose a space, as it really changed the meaning of the sentence.
English is a tough language, even for those born here (just take a look at many of the posts around Gather if you don't believe me). Last night I went into a local Chinese food takeout (well, Hunan is Chinese, right?) and after I'd gotten my shrimp egg rolls, the young girl behind the counter pulled out a book and asked me to pronounce some of the words for her.
It was an "English as a second language" book with the English word, the Chinese word under it and a picture illustrating each concept. I was in no hurry at all, and I was happy to encourage her, so I read and went over pronunciation of a whole page worth of words.
These were not easy words, and I was a little worried that they were teaching sight-reading (a notoriously bad way to learn how to read), but who am I to question the textbook? I read words like "hedge", "trowel", "flower pot", "hedge clipper", etc.
Partway through, the girl's parental unit came up and asked (in Chinese) what she was doing. I'm sure after I left mom told her not to annoy the customers. I guess I've just gotten to the point where I look like a grandma, non-threatening and willing to help. Either that or she hits up every American-looking person for a few words! Both concepts left me grinning.
(Five minute freewrite, no editing or corrections done.)
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Comments: 31
(Though I admit a Mongolian grandfather who didn't speak a word of English did use to drive me crazy on the playground after school, a couple of years ago when one of my kids was in kindergarten. He insisted on trying to communicate by drawing. There were two of us initially who responded positively and tried to follow his complex stories, but it got really tiring after a time and the other person bailed, while I had inadvertently revealed that I understood a few words of Russian and could read his Cyrillic script, so I was stuck for the rest of the year...)
My fave is still that sign on my apartment door about the water shutoff for the property -- with a last line of "we apologize for any incontinence this may cause."
And yes, I think that sign about the water shutoff is about the funniest thing I've heard of in a long time. I pictured myself laughing so hard as to have that very problem.
What about the quote my husband keeps referring to from the cartoon South Park about "three fitty" ...