Learning Can Be Fun

As I walk the halls of my school, I really enjoy reading the wide variety of student compositions on the walls. I keep in mind that much of our student population is in the process of learning English, so I have to allow for fractured English and convoluted sentences from time to time. It is amazing what one can learn. Sometimes it is new, correct information I’ve never heard of; other times it contradicts things I already know. The other day I noticed in one composition the fact that cactuses eat lots of rats. Having taught a course in Desert Biology, as well as English as a Second Language, I think I know what the author really meant.

The inventive spelling is also very interesting. Many of the missteps arise from the fact that some sounds in English are missing in the Spanish language. It is also possible that, in our rush to get the words out, our pronunciation doesn’t hit their ears all that well, and the students end up writing what they hear, which isn’t what we think we said. Another possible source of error comes when we use new words that sound similar to words they’ve already learned. Not really homophones, but approximate homophones, if there is such a thing. Of course, this latter situation occurs with any child learning a language, whether it be the first, second, or even third one learned. And it is this situation that can lead to some of the more hilarious comments.

Last night, as she was getting ready for bed, our granddaughter asked her father if she could learn a new bed-time prayer.

“OK,” he answered. “Would you like to learn the prayer Jesus taught us?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“Repeat after me,” he said.

“Our Father,” he began, and she echoed his words until he had said, “Hallowed be thy name.”

At which point she said, “Howard is his name.”

The two were eventually able to finish the prayer.

Sometimes, what the Lord says to us is totally new to our understanding, and instead of asking for clarification, we use “inventive” hearing, ending up with the wrong response. Other times, we aren’t paying attention, and we hear things that were not said. And again, we end up with the wrong response. And then there are the times that what He says sounds like something we’ve heard before; we assume that it is the same old message, and once again, we end up with the wrong place wrong action, or wrong time.

I have so often wished my students could focus so clearly, and that I could/would speak so clearly, that my message would always get through to them, and vice-versa. Do you suppose God ever feels that way about us?

Watch out for them there cactuses, man! At least now we know why they grow so well.

Dr. G