Hardison

I only have one person in my life who sends me texts with the crazy shortcuts. I have gotten used to it. But it does take me a few seconds to figure out what she's trying to say. I also give her more leeway than the average person because English isn't her first or second language.

Great game.

My family also plays board games during the holidays. Some members of my family are very competitive. I often feels sorry for the guests during the holidays. Pictionary and Monopoly are the games of choice. A few of us play chess and backgammon. 

I lived abroad as child. My father was the US Army and he was stationed in Germany. We lived there for five years. My younger sister was born in Frankfurt.

I would love to live abroad as an adult for a couple of years. I have many friends and acquaintances who moved abroad. Not one of them has regretted the move.

I do use "lol" when chatting with friends and family when something is humorous. I he use the acronyms that have their origins on the internet. I don't use texting lingo such as "ur".

My absolute strictest teacher was my high school geography teacher. She was brilliant and expect a lot from us. Our exams were 7 to 10 pages of maps. I remember the maps being poor photocopies. Once she collected our notebooks to grade how well we took notes in her class. She told me that if I worked hard, I could get a "B" in her class. I was a straight "A" student.  :amazed: The upside is that I know more about geography than the average American.

My strictest language teacher was my Spanish teacher in college. She didn't speak one word on Spanish. You had to understand or figure it out someone.

I don't have kids or plan on having any. If I did have kids, I would teach them many languages especially Spanish and Mandarin. I believe all American should be at least bilingual.

I do have a young niece and I have been encouraging her to learn Spanish. We watch a lot of Spanish TV.

A lot of the slang words in the United States are derived from pop and hip hop music.  "Swag" is one of the more popular words amongst the youth.  It means confidence in one's self.

Kids are also saying "for real" all the time.  I hear a lot of "f'real" as an abbreviation of the phrase.  The phrase "PAWG" is also gaining steam.  It is sort of a demeaning phrase as it means "phat ass white girl".  Yeah, I didn't make it up so don't shoot me!

Swag is very popular. I am very tired of it. I can't wait for it to die out.

YOLO is also popular, but it seems to be dying out. It means "you only live once."

I haven't heard "PAWG", but I don't think it's a demeaning phrase. "Phat" mean "pretty hot and tempting (or tasty)" so when someone calls you phat it's definitely a compliment.

My nephews say "ratchet" a lot. I have no idea what it means. I do know it's not a good thing.

I do care about what others think about my grammar and pronunciation. I try not to focus on it too much because I get tongue-tied. I judge people on the way they speak. I know that it's being overly judgmental, but I still do it. I don't understand how some people can make it through school and still speak so crappy.  I don't expect people to be perfect. I'm not perfect.

I assume that people are judging me on my language skills because I'm judging them. There are exceptions. I don't judge those whose native language isn't English. American English is very hard to learn with rules and exceptions to the rules. 

I agree that when a person uses the word "like" repeatedly in one sentence is very annoying. Sometimes I find it torturous to listen to people like that. I have try hard not to be rude and ignore them while they're speaking. That's just so annoying.

I find the overuse of "like" very annoying and torturous too.  :amazed: I really have to bite my tongue. My nephew constantly says, "I was like" and "She was like".  I have no idea what he means. I have talked to him about it to no avail.

I like the word "rojo". I love to hear it spoken by a native speaker. I love the sound of the tongue roll. I can't do it  much to my chagrin. I also really like the color red so that's a bonus.

Rojo is red in Spanish for those who don't know.

I have wondered about the effectiveness of Rosetta Stone. I worry about my pronunciation and I'm not sure how a software program can help with that.

I wish that there was a Spanish version of Sesame Street. There might be. I need to research that.

I live in Southern California and Spanish is the second most spoken language. Many employers are looking for bilingual employees. To be competitive in this city, speaking Spanish is a must.

It's also a very beautiful language.

You know what irks me? People who grew up in an English speaking environment with English as the primary language of their country still mess up "you're" and "your". I don't know what to say, but in almost every comment that I see on youtube, facebook, twitter, all sorts of social media websites, there's at least this one person who uses your in stead of you're, or uses you're instead of your. It really enrages me, considering how English is not my first language, and yet I can still differentiate between the two and understand when to use which one.

This also boggles my mind. I don't understand it. It drives me crazy. The confusion between "there" and their" is another one.

I wince every time I hear the word "irregardless". I am very surprised that Anderson Cooper used it.

Hello everyone,

My username is Hardison and I live in Southern California. My native tongue is American English. I say American because I have a close friend from the UK and sometimes I feel like I need a translator.

I can speak a little Spanish. I read it better than I can speak it. My goal is to become fluent in Spanish. Also, I want to learn or re-learn German. I lived in Germany for the first 6 years of my life and spoke German fluently. I was talking to a friend about it. Spontaneously, I said a phrase in German. I understood it when I said it, but then it was gone as soon as I said it. I hope that makes sense. So, I know that the knowledge is within me.