Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Really, I've been teaching them Cimbrian all along

I was wondering how long it would take for my supervisor to discover I don't actually speak English, and similarly, have no credentials, knowledge or experience when it comes to teaching the language I don't speak...at least not grammaticaly correct. And, now I can say, it has taken almost five months. Wow, I thought I was oblivious. She was clued into my ignorace after asking the much dreaded, and always anticipated, who/whom question. I've got no fucking clue. That's terrible to say. I think with one you can reorder the sentence structure and it'll still make a sentence and the other just exists to stare at the other in jealousy, or to confuse the hell out of me. Honestly, I learned this minute English grammar eight years ago, and have long since forgotten. Or maybe I never really understood at all. Some self-imposed ignorance, a learning barrier, like the refusal to learn math, or how to read a map, or even how to remember the order of planets based on that anagram which escapes me now. Something about a mother and pine needles...maybe.

6 Comments:

Blogger Wander Lust said...

my very educated mother just served us nine pizzas. Concerning who/whom, you've got me.

10:33 PM  
Blogger Chishiki Lauren said...

That's not it...is it? My version definitely involves the mother sitting under pine needlesor upon the needles, but that would disrupt the order of the planets. Is it possible I'm just making this up? Somebody help me out!!!

10:39 PM  
Blogger Wander Lust said...

I'm not sure what they're teaching the kids in your part of town. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Was there once a planet between Neptune and Pluto?

11:11 PM  
Blogger Chishiki Lauren said...

My version, the one I suppose was created within my subconcious, involves My V__ E__ Mother Just Sat Under Pine Needles. I distinctly remember the pine needles. But, maybe, in keeping with the order of the planetary lineup, it was Under Needles of Pine. But that's just lame. And now that I wrote it out, I think it was Very Excellent...back in the day of Bill and Ted.

11:26 PM  
Blogger Brian said...

You think I'd have something better to do with my spare minutes on this Internet kiosk than answer grammar questions, but I have this obsession with grammar that simply can't be ignored. Can't help you with the planets, but the who/whom question is more in my line of work. 'Whom' is used for the object of the clause; 'who' for the subject. A quick and dirty method is to remove the clause from the sentence and rewrite it as an independent clause. If 'he' is required, then 'who'. If 'him' is required, then 'whom'. Take 'I don't know who/whom to call', for example: 'who/whom to call' as an independent clause becomes 'call him'; therefore, 'whom' was required in the original sentence. I know that's about as clear as concrete, but I'm pressed for time ... The truth is, anyway, that 'whom' is disappearing from the language and only a few geriatric English teachers are going to be bothered if you only use 'who' ...

1:33 PM  
Blogger Chishiki Lauren said...

I knew I could count on you. That does sound vaguely familiar, but I guarantee I'll forget it yet again in the near future...so maybe you should stick around.

6:58 PM  

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