Pet Peeve

One thing that has always - and I mean always - irritated me is when people mispronounce common words. Two instances - a contestant on American Idol who could not pronounce words like trachea and larynx. What's with that? The other word that really bothers me is when people say libary instead of library. Back in the cold north where DH and I lived for most of our lives, I worked with a woman who said libary on a regular basis, even going so far as to answer the phone where we worked by saying "Civic Center Libary." Grrrr. Here in Tennessee, I am shocked by the number of people who say it wrong.

It reminds me of people who say aks instead of ask. How can you expect to be taken seriously when you can't even say common English words. Unfortunately, the people I am talking about are not people for whom English is a second language.

Lost in Translation

The internet is a wonderful thing. Yesterday I received an email from Poland. And no, it was not spam. This was forwarded through a service that matches family trees. The family this gentleman was researching is one of my DH's lines. I had to copy and paste his email into a nifty online Polish translator which didn't do a great job of translating what he said and what I wanted to say, but I think he understood me.

This morning, the first email in my box was from him and it included image files of a family chart of this line of my DH. Very cool. I forwarded the email to a Polish friend, hoping she can translate it better than the online translator. The charts I can read fortunately.

I spent an hour this morning trying to word a thank you note to the researcher. I flipped it back and forth between English and Polish. I hope it didn't lose anything in the translation.

Language Barriers

There has been a certain amount of confusion when we talk to people here in the green state of Tennessee.

First, we learned lunch is dinner or lunch, but supper is the meal you eat in the evening. Then there is the phrase "I don't care to cut your grass on Tuesday." It took us a while to catch on what our landscaper meant was "I don't mind cutting your grass on Tuesday."

Then there is the custom of referring to a woman, any woman, as Miss [Insert first name here]. I quickly became Miss Anne. Our next door neighbor is Miss Ruth. And the people here have a hard time with DH's first name? Maybe they only know the breeds of hunting dogs and not big mountain rescue dogs?

Iced Tea here is Sweet tea. And sweet is right. They like a little tea in their sugar here. Actually preparing Sweet tea is an art form. I'll fill up my cup with unsweet tea and just a little squirt of the supersweetened stuff. One of my sisters would love this tea. Reminds me of her coffee cup from bowling, but that is another blog.

Then there are some things we just have no idea what they are saying to us. This usually happens at Walmart. So we just nod our heads and tell them to have a nice day.

Then there are the Spanish speaking people. Sure it's nice to go to an authentic Mexican restaurant, but it is also nice to be able to understand what they are saying to you and vice versa. So we do lots of head nodding there, also.

I used to think that deer hunting season was a big thing in Michigan. You have no idea. Being a small town, the local newspaper daily prints photos of children with their first deer. I think children are allowed to hunt starting at age 10 here. And I think they have a special week just for them, or so it seems. I just find it hard to wrap my mind around the concept of a 10 year old girl/boy hefting a firearm.

A couple weeks ago, squirrel season opened. Gah! I had thoughts of neighbor children stalking the neighborhood squirrels. Do I need to put No trespassing! No Hunting! signs on my trees?

I realize that in large part this is farm country. After all we have stockyards here in the city across from the County Fair Grounds and opposite Walmart. I am just now really absorbing the cultural differences. And nodding my head!