As an English teacher, I suppose, people may expect me to correct their language. Or they expect me to know the right pronunciation or usage of a certain word. But I know English well enough, appreciate its usage enough, make enough mistakes myself that I rarely interfere in conversations, in writing, unless it's my student whom I am under obligation to correct. I know words such as plethora are pronounced differently on the East Coast than on the West. Correcting is an embarrassment to the one corrected and in my Book of Manners is considered the greater offense than mispronunciation. Correctness is seldom kindness.
I recently finished a timed essay, turned it in, and got a response from my professor chastising me for the grammar and punctuation mistakes that distracted her from the reading. I was abhorred at my performance. Me, of all people know that a writer rarely sees her own mistakes especially under the pressure of time. I needed a second eye and I failed to find that editor--usually Tony.
So the other day, when my sister used the word "covet" again and again, repeatedly wrong, when my mother looked at me with pleading, the English teacher jumped out of her seat and corrected her. Publicly. Just family, but nonetheless. It started a mini war over territory she would never annex to me.
Days later, she called to tell me I was wrong. A friend had used covet in the same way she had, and she corrected her. The offended friend didn't mince words, "You're wrong," she retorted, and added "Look it up." A third person in the trio looked it up, and according to my sister, it supported her use of the word. As she tells me this, I look up the word, searching for the same definition. Nope, it isn't so. Covet seems to have the same meaning since the days of the ten commandments, and I read the several definitions I pull up on my trusty app. But my sister has poured concrete over her position, and it's dried fast and she isn't budging. Not willing to fight over language, I pronounce, "That's what I love about the fluidity of the English language. It's mutable, it changes, it adapts to different cultures," I say hoping to end the controversy.
"That's what I don't like about it."
My knowledge of English teaches me once again, 1. My own lack of knowledge and tendency to make mistakes, 2. Never correct anyone, especially one's family, and 3. Wars are started with words. Pronounced correctly or not.
I recently finished a timed essay, turned it in, and got a response from my professor chastising me for the grammar and punctuation mistakes that distracted her from the reading. I was abhorred at my performance. Me, of all people know that a writer rarely sees her own mistakes especially under the pressure of time. I needed a second eye and I failed to find that editor--usually Tony.
So the other day, when my sister used the word "covet" again and again, repeatedly wrong, when my mother looked at me with pleading, the English teacher jumped out of her seat and corrected her. Publicly. Just family, but nonetheless. It started a mini war over territory she would never annex to me.
Days later, she called to tell me I was wrong. A friend had used covet in the same way she had, and she corrected her. The offended friend didn't mince words, "You're wrong," she retorted, and added "Look it up." A third person in the trio looked it up, and according to my sister, it supported her use of the word. As she tells me this, I look up the word, searching for the same definition. Nope, it isn't so. Covet seems to have the same meaning since the days of the ten commandments, and I read the several definitions I pull up on my trusty app. But my sister has poured concrete over her position, and it's dried fast and she isn't budging. Not willing to fight over language, I pronounce, "That's what I love about the fluidity of the English language. It's mutable, it changes, it adapts to different cultures," I say hoping to end the controversy.
"That's what I don't like about it."
My knowledge of English teaches me once again, 1. My own lack of knowledge and tendency to make mistakes, 2. Never correct anyone, especially one's family, and 3. Wars are started with words. Pronounced correctly or not.
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