It takes chutzpah to protest what you've created.

I have no rational reason as to why this sub-title from an article in the Wall Street journal gave me the proverbial giggles. I suppose it was more of a stark reminder of the audience which the WSJ panders to, when Jewish words like chutzpah, are used in article sub-titles. This got me thinking about language in a broader context and how many different languages & cultures have influenced the English language. I wonder if any of my ESL (the school's term for English as a Second Language people) friends would know, or be able to contextually infer, the meaning of 'chutzpah.' And, for that matter, how do I even know what it means, without deferring to the mystical, magical Wikipedia? That's right, I just referred to Wipikedia as both mystical & magical. Do not be alarmed, I'm a simple girl.

I recently received Bill Bryson's "Mother Tongue" & various other literary gems via the wondrous amazon.de that (although I must order in German, which can get a touch tricky) delivers to the tiny land of Switzerland who is clearly not relevant enough to amazon to warrant their own site. But I digress, so unlike me. The book promises to enlighten me on this exact topic of how the English language has changed & evolved over time. (Honestly, only a person attempting to learn, or simply exist in, a foreign world would give a shit about how ridiculously challenging it must be to learn English). I may post more on this topic post-reading (when I am all enlightened about the English language) if anyone else out there gives a shit as well.

Righto, so, have I yet noted that one of my favorite (that's right, I play favorites, you are all shocked, I'm sure) kids in Cal's class is Spanish? She is the most blunt, hysterical little girl. She must drive her mother nuts with her crazed verbal diarrhear, but I love her for the few hours a day I am around her. This is, and I quote, how she asks me to open her juice for her, every single day, despite my corrections; "Can you open me this?" Sometimes she adds por favor as she knows I speak that much Spanish at least. Of course, this only endears her to me more. She is six, that magical time when everyone says it's "easy" to learn other languages. But, she still cannot remember the correct way to ask me to open her juice. Or, maybe it's just her strong sense of chutzpah that makes her continue to ask me the way SHE wants to.