Home again. Good to be back. When I got home the house was clean and laundry done. And my hubby was feeling great again. Oh so good to return.

Back to class too!! These days I think a lot about language learning. I am really not a good language learner. So, sometimes it's a bit of slogging for me, the grammar really bogs me down.

There are some funny little moments in the classroom though. Thought I'd post a few of mine below here- this is origionally from an email I sent last year...sorry if these sound familiar to you!!

Our teacher was a little giggly today too. I made up a sentence this morning saying that after breakfast I put on my clothes….(assuming I was in my pj’s for breakfast) and my teacher started laughing so hard I didn’t finish the sentence. Apparently people here get dressed before breakfast, not after. Of course maybe she thought I was saying I was naked eating breakfast. She was too polite to spell out why exactly she was laughing so hard.

Then I meant to tell her I was reading a book, and instead said I was writing a book. She looked surprised. This Russian guy in my class told me that he wanted the first copy. I told him he could have the first copy when it comes out in Russian.

OK, while we are on the topic, the other day we were amazed that our teacher could keep a straight face-( same teacher) we had this lesson about being sick and going to the doctor but it was about someone with dysentery … so there were words like diarrhea and poo. We could not figure out how the teacher could keep a straight face with 10 foreigners all saying “Poo” …..“Poo” over and over again. And also one time when she was quizzing me on the word list, I was supposed to say the one for poo, but instead I said "Big Bread. " (which sounds very similar) My friend informed me of my mistake later, as she was talking about things that made her laugh in class.

I guess it's all part of acquiring the language, if you try to perfect it before you speak you will never speak well.

It’s the same for those learning english.

One of my friends- her english is excellent. She is at the point where she is adding idioms into her daily speech.

Just before Christmas a friend explained to her what it meant to “nurse a grudge” in your marriage. This really impacted her, and so once in awhile she will ask me, “Oh! Are you nursing a grouchy baby?” ( I think she thinks this is the idiom “to nurse a grudge”) She makes me laugh every time, she laughs too.

She is quite inspiring because she has learned english so well, and I think it is partly because she isn’t afraid to try things,and make mistakes.
She also got the idiom “Quit cold turkey” down just recently.

She went through
"Quit cold turkeys”
“Quit a turkey”
and I’m sure I heard her say “Kick a turkey”

That email exerpt was from last spring I think.

Actually today a friend of mine about one of his language follies. A few years ago he took a trip to a foreign country. He was shopping around for a pair of jeans, and many of the vendors were after him to buy from them in the market place. So, after awhile he became frustrated and tried to say something to the equivalent of "Forget it!" which he said making the appropriate arm crossing motion in the front for extra emphasis. Apparently what he actually said was "I have a rash on my butt." But he didn't know that at the time. Who knew two phrases with such different meanings could sound so similar?