As some of you may know, from peering into my Slavic soul, I was born in Russia, and English is my second language.
Yes, I am an ESL person.
Don’t get me wrong, I get by.
But there are times that I appreciate keenly that English isn’t my native language. I’ve been told that I use “also” unnaturally. As in I use it in conversation, and according to this one person that I met in college, Americans don’t. He may have been making it up. And also insane. People were weird in the 1990’s.
I remember when Mama got one of her first jobs in New York City, waaay uptown, she picked up some local vernacular from her co-workers and referred to everyone as “scumbags.” It was a very memorable car ride when, while I sat in the back, Papa told her that “scumbags” wasn’t just slang for “ladies and gentlemen”.
So with that memory in mind (and intact) I present this week’s I’m Right, You’re Wrong.
Disagreers: Marinka and Husbandrinka
Scenario:
X:Â So then, he told me that this wouldn’t work, and that’s why everything had to be rescheduled-
Y: Oh, right, I remember you were going on about that.
Disagreement: Is “you were going on about that” rude?
Position One:Â Yes, it implies that the person was blathering on endlessly and you wanted to kill them and sell their skin and cook their bones to shut them up.
Position Two: No, it just references a previous conversation and shows that the person you were speaking to was paying attention.
Cast your votes!
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(also! If you have a second, hop on over here and vote for Kristine Cook. She’s a friend, and a fellow Mouthy Housewife and she’s funny. And with the exception of Newt, I think it’s always good to vote for funny! Oh, and then go to her blog and tell her that you voted and you can win an iPad2. Which you can then give to me. But only if you want, that’s not a rule or anything. Yet.)
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