Say it right

We had to start learning foreign languages back in fifth grade. By sixth grade you had to choose one, a "major" if you will. I chose French and have many memories of the classroom with Mrs. Gerard. Most of them were in the same vein as "I cut the cheese, you cut the cheese, he/she/it cut the cheese" followed by snickering. It was fun, though, and sometimes I think I learned more in grade school there than I ever did in high school or college.

We started learning French the usual way- numbers, colors, adjectives, nouns, and basic facts about France and the French. Mrs. Gerard was adament about describing France's flag as "bleu, blanc, et rouge." We all wanted to say, "rouge, blanc, et bleu" because the American flag is red, white, and blue. It seemed like a lame point to make at the time, and if it weren't for her emphatic corrections, I probably would have continued saying it wrong until eventually I stopped getting half-hearted corrections. Incidentally, that's how I got through seventeen-ish years of schooling without learning cursive. I always sort of laughed inside when I correctly described the flag's coloring because I always pictured her peculiar reaction.

Later on, the experience symbolized for me various things like "giving them what they want" in the academic setting and then later still, cultural competency. Being the social nimrod that I am, I totally missed the most obvious lesson: it's all in how you say it. I mean, the colors come across the same, but you're giving an unspoken message when you conform. I don't usually understand why it should matter (those are my dad's genes coming through) but it does. Some people are more attuned to those subtle things while there are those of us who blunder right past, quite possibly never realizing the accidental implications.

I feel like recently that's the story of my life. Maybe because I'm in that mode to take in chunks of information to process later? And in the meantime it all just comes out garbled? I mean, I know what I'm trying to say (usually), but asking questions with new information becomes difficult. Add in the social factor and feelings and I'm ready to hit the woods. Oh well, you live and learn (and then you die and forget it all).

So I just finished a stretch of eleven days in which I worked nine of them. I'm sort of over it all. I've been sleeping well, though, so that always helps. The problem is that I can't relax completely on my days off. I feel like I'm wasting my life away if I'm not doing something. Along the lines of, "Quick! While you're young! While the sun is out!" ...only it wasn't really sunny today. It rained and sleeted and snowed. Thankfully it stayed sunny long enough for Erica and I to take a long walk downtown during her lunch break. The clouds really decided to let loose when Gazza and I were wandering around Golden Gardens. My teeth are still chattering!