I am afraid I am becoming a snob. I used to be considered a snob in school I think, but I was really just incredibly shy. Now that I am older and a bit less shy, I find myself rolling my eyes a lot at people. I don’t mean to judge, but I seriously worry about some people and their ability to breath in and out on a regular basis. My reasoning comes from google and their amazing amount of pictures of people doing stupid things. You ought to check it out. This is just one of the choice pictures I found. Of course, this does look a bit fun, and I might even be tempted to do it, but only if I was wearing my super suit. “where is my super suit?!”
I was talking with my daughter tonight and she gave me a look that said something like,, “I am nodding in agreement with what you are saying but at the same time I am laughing at you.” This is a step up from the look her father used to give people. I lovingly called it his “idiot look.” He gave it to people when they amazed him with their lack of skill, knowledge or ability to do what he wanted and thought they should do. I had to get after him on many occasions because the look was powerful. It could take a grown man to his knees and a wife of fifteen years to a fighting stance. He learned to soften it over the years.
Mae also has the ability to give someone a look like that. Her look tonight was kind but a bit judgmental. I was commenting to her on how much I hate it when people say words ‘wrong.’ For example, Tattoo is pronounced Ta-too. NOT tat-too. It bugs the heck out of me. The whole topic came up when she said what sounded like “realize” but in fact she said RE-lax. I gave her a look, (uh oh…maybe I give them too….Lightbulb!) and we got into the ‘how to say words properly’ conversation.
I think part of my problem comes from living real close to the reservation when I was a child. The way the Navajos say English words has a different sound that the main stream anglo. They can make an every day word sound like a Navajo cuss word, just by how they say it. I know this because the only Navajo words I ever learned were cuss words. Don’t judge me. Maybe my mom was strict with me on how to say things. Maybe I paid attention in school.
Maybe I am just a snob. I don’t understand how people can watch all these movies and television and hear the English language spoken clearly most of the time and then turn around and say things like “ite?” and expect me to know they me “all right?” Do they not hear themselves speak? Maybe it is like being tone deaf. Some one can hear music and enjoy it but when they try to sing what they hear, something completely different and off tune comes out. I believe anyone can sing…not necessarily WELL, but everyone can sing.
I guess we might need to coin a new term for people that can’t speak even though they can hear. We can call them ‘language deaf’ or ‘talk deaf’ for short. What do you think? We can start a movement and make t-shirts and banners. Of course, I’m assuming these people can read…we might want to just draw pictures….just in case. Cause I said so.
Photo credit: http://thefunnyinbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/stupid_people_doing_stupid_things_5.jpg
