There are times when my children are foreigners to me. I visit Katrina’s blog and sometimes I have to read at least half the words twice in order to understand their meaning. And I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I actually need an interpreter! You see, my daughter is a scrapbooker, a SERIOUS scrapbooker and her blog is filled with ideas and information. Beautiful stuff, but the terms belong to the world of scrapbooking and at times can be confusing.
Robert is a computer geek with an obsession for all things political. He can discuss politics on any level, from our local commissioners to heads of state and has an uncanny memory for names and dates. I have to stop him sometimes and say “now who is that?” or “how does that work?” Of course he knows me well enough to preface a LOT of things with pertinent questions, such as “Do you know what a super delegate is?", before we begin a conversation. LOL That is essential if we begin a discussion of anything having to do with a keyboard and chips.
Karen is a teacher, but of course she works in a different state in an entirely different field- deaf education- with its own concepts and language. I can’t even get a break with a child in the same general career as mine! She, too, has to explain terms and specialized jargon to me.
And don’t get me started on the texting that all of my children and grandchildren seem to understand without the slightest difficulty. I understand only the most basic abbreviations. Others would take me longer to think about than it would take for me to just type out the whole word. And I’m not alone. My BFF doesn’t get it either!
When you stop and think about the specialized vocabulary many of us embrace for work or hobbies, it’s no wonder that people from other countries have difficulty learning our language. Add to that the fact that we borrow words from them, and create new ones, and invent new ways to use old ones…it’s a wonder any of us can communicate at all!
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