I am a proud speaker of the English language. Ask anyone who knew me in my annoying phase when I corrected everyone's English all the time (started when I was about 16, ended about... yesterday).
I am also a good helper.
I am also dating a Peruvian girl who is majoring in English, even though she grew up speaking Spanish with her family. She has almost graduated BYU having majored in English. She was working on a paper yesterday. Put the three above facts together, and you get the following conversation:
Nadia: Okay, I'm going to read it out loud to make sure I got it right... "The level of feelings between the two characters..."
Me: I think that should say "levels". There are different levels of feelings.
Nadia: No... I mean to talk about that one specific level. It's right. Anyway, "...of feelings between the two characters keeps the..."
Me: That should be "keep", not "keeps". "Feelings" is plural, so you conjugate it to be "keep".
Nadia: The main subject of the sentence is the level of feelings. Not the feelings. I promise I know how to speak English- especially grammar and spelling. In vocabulary I sometimes have to ask questions, but grammar and spelling I have down pretty good.
Me: You mean "well". You have grammar and spelling down pretty "well".
Nadia: I know. I did that on purpose because I wanted you to feel useful.
You see, folks? Nadia practically said it herself. I AM useful. At least I feel useful. But in any case, I have to be more useful than this guy:
For those of you wondering, Nadia DID get her paper in on time. I helped by printing out her paper not once, but 3 times after getting it wrong the first two times. That's right- Trent goes not just THE extra mile, but THE extra MileS!
Seriously, I need to be an action figure. Hasbro? You listening?
Go Nadia!
ReplyDeleteBy both learning another language, and by being paid to edit other people's English for The Daily Universe, I can provide my expert opinion (maybe) and completely concur with Nadia.
And since when did you correct everybody's English? I don't remember that phase of your life. But maybe because it was while I was either a missionary in Argentina or when I was a punk teenager.