Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh

Sometimes you just gotta laugh at yourself.

Today was one of those days.

We had our regular substitute teacher today (she now comes every week for one day a week to allow our regular teacher to take care of admin responsibilities). I really like her and sometimes she is funny without meaning to be.

So for our homework last night, we had to write eight sentences in present perfect. I decided to try to be a bit more complex than your standard present perfect sentence.

This is a profoundly bad idea.

I realized as soon as I read my first sentence.

Our teacher just looked at me. And then asked me to repeat myself.

I did. She asked me to read it again. And again.

When we finally finished my first sentence, I announced I had not written any more sentences (which we all knew was untrue...I always do my homework).

So I read the next one...over and over.

The lesson for today, when you are new to a language, write simple sentences.

It got to the point where she would just crack up every time I even looked at her when she asked me a question...but she is so polite she looks away and covers her face (so you don't have to see her laughing at you!).

By the time I finished my sentences, I had started answering every question, in Estonian, with, "I don't know. I don't speak Estonian."

At one point, I said something in English and she said, "No, say it in Estonian." And I said, "What is "Oh for god's sake!" in Estonian?"

And she answered me.

By the end of the day, one of my classmates had caught my disease...and like me, he has a tendency towards being a smart aleck.

So I succeeded in destroying our class. Ah well...there is always tomorrow!