For the last month Ethan and I have had a roommate. I know that may sound weird, being that we are married and no longer in college. But, Ethan's uncle was hospitalized at the end of January and is still in the hospital here in Rochester. When we learned that he was in the hospital we also learned that he had a wife! That, not being strange enough, we also learned that she was from Mexico and could barely speak English! She had the money to stay in a hotel for a few nights, but that money quickly ran out. Since his uncle would not be out of the hospital any time soon, we knew we should offer our guest room, as we lived the closest of anyone to the hospital.
So, not only did we find ourselves in for the big challenge- learning to live with a room mate. But we were also faced with the challenge of the language barrier! She has been catching on pretty quickly and asking lots of questions. However, I still catch Ethan, his parents and even myself digressing in our own speech. Which brings me to pet peeve #1. For instance, I can longer say that "I don't like" something. My sentences now morph into phrases such as "I no like..." or "Me ask doctor...". I know this is happening because we are trying to "dumb it down", if you will, but she will never learn to properly speak English if everyone around her continues to speak grammatically incorrect. But, at the same time, I simply can not help it! I continuously think, on my drives home from work, that today - I will not do it! Then as soon as I walk through that door it's "Me no hungry", "I tired" and "Me go to sleep". It has become instant!
Pet Peeve #2. I don't mind the occasional nickname, don't get me wrong. However, it does bother me when people just blatantly call me the wrong name. My name is Laura. Has been since birth. It is not Lauren, Lori, Laurel or the most recent Lorena! I had no idea how much this gets under my skin. Every time I hear the name Lorena, I want to do one of two things. One, Ignore it and pretend that maybe she's not talking to me (But it's me or Ethan, so I doubt this will work). Or, two, scream at the top of my lungs "ME NO LORENA! ME LAURA!" But again, this is probably not the best thing for me to do. So I just suck it up and deal.
For now...
Yet you gave her the nickname cookie monster...
ReplyDeleteI said I don't mind nicknames! Cookie Monster is a nickname! It's not like I'm calling her Monique~ lol.
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