Watching my toddler figure out how to language is fascinating. Yesterday we were stumped when he kept insisting there was a “Lego winner” behind his bookshelf – it turned out to be a little Lego trophy cup. Not knowing the word for “trophy”, he’d extrapolated a word for “thing you can win”. And then, just now, he held up his empty milk container and said, “Mummy? It’s not rubbish. It’s allowed to be a bottle.” – meaning, effectively, “I want this. Don’t throw it away.” But to an adult ear, there’s something quite lovely about “it’s allowed to be a bottle,” as if we’re acknowledging that the object is entitled to keep its title even in the absence of the original function.
Another good post to read for those writing small human characters.
My son was about three when he came to me in the middle of the day and said, “Mommy, there’s a knight behind the bush.” I thought he meant a toy knight or something. So I follow him outside and he goes, “Listen. Do you hear it? It’s night behind the bush.” It was a cricket. A cricket was standing in the little patch of shade under the bush, chirping. So, my son saw this dark area with accompanying nighttime sounds and decided, okay, well, that is a night right there. Their brains are incredible.
My little bean knows she’s two, constantly saying proudly ‘I’m two!’ And the other day she saw this very frail old lady who looked one foot in the grave, pulled a face and said ‘oh shiiiit. She’s three.’ I almost screamed.
I live in Korea and have a lot of international friends, and the same is true with language barriers in adults.
*Looking at a bowl of pears* “Can you please pass me the… apple’s friend?”
anti sjws: lol those ess jay woos get hash tag triggered by everything. have you tried not being a little bitch?
a 16yo: *goes by they/them pronouns*
anti sjws:
Was going to make an actual debate but I just found out op thinks grammar is a SOCIAL CONSTRUCT. LMAOOOOOOOOO op probably didn’t pass high school English anyway this is pointless
Are you unaware of what a social construct is or do you think we pick grammar off grammar trees or something?
i imagine getting my own place all the time and going down to the grocery store early in the morning before everyone else and to the coffee shop and having a really small place with wide windows and lots of plants and shelves of books and a tiny kitchen where i can make tea and noodles and a bed with a pile of blankets and just a place i can make uniquely my own or maybe a place i could share with someone but i just think about this place a lot idk
One of my professors is an extremely famous, well-known painter who has been in galleries since he was a young man in the 80s. He once asked me in class, “Alyssa, what are your dreams and aspirations for the future?”
You should have seen the puzzled look on his face when I described something similar to the post above.
“Why so humble?!” He laughed. “You know you’re talented, right? You could aspire to a lot more than that for sure.”
And I had to take that moment to explain to him that this is what my generation is given, this is how low our standards for happiness have to be. A humble existence, a small piece of the world for ourselves, and comfortable stability are just as out of reach for some of us as fame and reknown was for him in the 80’s. His face went somber immediately.
Dude, people back in the day were savage with words. When Thérèsa Tallien got arrested and was about to be guillotined, she sent a message to her influential lover who wasn’t doing anything to save her. The message only read “Je meurs d’appartenir à un lâche”, which can be translated as “I’m dying because I belong to a coward” or as “I die in despair at having belonged to a coward like you”. I dont know if i properly convey the savagery of these words through the translation but anyway she SNAPPED. And like, the dude was so shook by her words that the next day he participated in the overthrowing of the chief of the Terror (which was the current regime that consisted of guillotining literally every aristocrats and people not complying to the new government) and she got released instead of guillotined lol
valar apologist 