With English being my second language, I have become very analytic of its (very unclear) rules and exceptions; its occasional but annoying nonsense on how certain words should be pronounced and its very confusing and often misused meanings: is a troop a member of the military or a group of them? Is COED a woman or a place where there are both men and women in it? Why is Chicago pronounced “Shicago”? Where did the “CH” sound go? I have found numerous inconsistencies in the English language, it just makes it so hard to speak it well. To make things worse, my children have started to correct my usage and pronunciation – both- of THEIR native language. Today my daughter told me I should have said, “in the meantime” instead of “meanwhile”. Yesterday they made fun of me for pronouncing “wafers” like “waffles” with the short sound, not the long. Why does it make me so frustrated? It just doesn’t feel good when you are throwing a speech to your kids about helping out at home, or finishing their homework when suddenly the TOTALLY wrong word comes out…and they start to laugh. UUUUGH!!!! I guess I should accept my role as an English Part Time student in my own home. 🙂