I was walking past the students' food stalls two days ago when I spotted a very interesting sign: SANDWISH Are you selling sand that can wish? A wish made of sand? Wishing sand? Okay give me one sandwish O my sandwish... I wish I were 19 (so that I can be a stupid teen auditioning for Akademi Fantasia) Suddenly I came back to reality Disappointed, I saw the sandwiSH turned out to be a dull sandwiCH I was perplexed and going nuts. How amusing the seemingly petty error in spelling could be, that it could fool my perception, that it has driven me crazy. Perhaps, the possible answers might be more insane. And these are my students' oral responses when asked about few simple things. Me: Where are you studying? Students: colleSH Me: What is the antonym for 'poor'? Students: riSH So what on earth is the letter 'G' doing in 'colleGe'? So what on earth is the letter 'C' doing in 'riCh'? Perhaps, the pronunciation error breeds the spelling error in 'sandwiSh'. So people, waTCH out our mouths and tongues when we want to MEAN things (so that we don't mean the things that we don't want to mean). Television that we waSH And clothes that we waTCH? Thieves that we caSH And money that we caTCH? Potatoes that we maTCH And pictures that we maSH? A girl who goes to biTCH And a sex maniac who goes for a beaCH? Or hoping to be a wiSH so that you can grant a wiTCH? Poor me I am an EngliTCH teaSHer (and I am crazy for a sandwiSH now...)
(This post was originally published by cekmi at dannyhussainy@blogspot.com on February 21, 2005) Labels: cekmi's linguistic fever |