Language » CoupleDumb

PeePee, Caca and the F-bomb

Sep 222009

La La La La La Scooby Doo
         Happy Tuesday everyone! If you have stumbled onto our site today you are probably here to read about kids. You are either a parent or going to be or have a friend or once heard there are such things as little people. We encourage people without children to read our Tuesday posts because it helps put things into perspective by showing you a different point of view on all those horrible things that happened in your childhood. We can’t wait to see what our kids write about us and the language they’ll use.

          Lee says: Kids are the coolest things when they start talking. Their use of language is just fascinating and it shows their inner workings better than an MRI. All three of our kids are talkers. Jeannie spoke in sentences, both English and Spanish, by 10 months. The boys took a little longer but made up in volume and quantity.

          Bobby, our precious 5 year old, won’t shut up. I’m serious. If he stops talking he falls asleep. That’s how we know he’s sleeping! There was a time when he was very young that we were concerned about his language development. Jeannie was not a fair benchmark for him. At this point, he creates words that he thinks are correct. At his age it is still normal for him to mix up certain sounds and pronounce words incorrectly which makes for some fun listening. Also, since we don’t dumb down our language at home, he has a better vocabulary than most 5 year old.

          For example, he uses words like ‘combine’ and ‘actually’. Truth be told he says ‘convine’ but we know what he means. Instead of saying ‘I stuck them together’ he says ‘I convined several Lego to create this edifice. A fortress from our foes!’ O.K., I’m exaggerating, slightly. He said castle not fortress.

          While Ricky, our brutish little animal who is part game show host and part American Gladiator, is talking so much now that it’s hard to remember when he wasn’t communicating. His language is deliberate and I can truly appreciate the personality that is choosing the words he uses. Ricky doesn’t say ‘I love you’ to me, he says ‘I love you, baby’ and then accentuates that with a fist slamming down in the air and saying ‘BAM’. Only I get the ‘Bam’. What does it mean? I have no fucking clue but when a two year old says that to you there is no reason to interpret the utter cuteness of the moment.

          All of our kids are receiving instruction, on different levels obviously, on how to talk to people. We teach them to use their words as tools, weapons and platforms. Paul was a master debater (had to say it that way) back in his college days. His understanding of how to formulate an argument or convey the heart of a story is impressive (must be all the master debating practice). I, as a trained therapist, listened to the words someone says very carefully. Did the person say they were sad or depressed? Did they say pissed or angry? Did they say I felt like killing them or I want them dead? The subtle differences are anything but. These kids of ours will be the only kids speaking of pathos, logos, mythos, rhetoric and perception while still in centers in their classroom!

          Language is an instrument that can make some wonderful music if used properly. I like to mix it up from the classical to urban, raw funk, while my boys can discuss the motivation of the Penguin in Batman Lego or just say ‘peepee caca’ and laugh uncontrollably.

          Paul says: I actually questioned, albeit briefly, why my boys so loved the bathroom talk. I think that the peepee caca talk is directly related to the miracle of creating something that has such stigma. When the two year old, who is still being potty trained, does caca in the toilet, he gets candy. If he plays with it, mommy and daddy freak. If he talks about it, he gets a laugh from his brother and a scowl from his parents. Oh, the power!

          Just like an adult, who drop the F-bomb for emphasis, kids have their power words too. Along with words of excrement, ‘no’, ‘stop’, and ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy’ are all power words. Of course, it helps when it is said ‘moOooOooommmeEeEe’ (the capitalization denotes changes in volume).

What U Said?

Monday, Heavy Monday

Sep 202009

Paul was a rocket surgeon once. Or was he a just a mad scientist?

          Welcome to a new week! Are you ready? Are you prepared? Are you still waking up? We have been burning the candle at both ends for the last week and we can safely say we are pooped. This is our 8^th straight day blogging and there seems to be no end in sight. Why do we do it? Simple, we do it because we’re nuts, bonkers, loco, batty and all things insane. We also do it because we love to write. It’s all about the words for us.

          Lee says: Did you know that there are 6913 spoken languages in the world today? That is amazing; 6913 ways to say water or baby. Do you think those languages have different ways of saying love like we do? We can say enamored when we are in love which is just a hairsbreadth away from saying enamorado which is Spanish for ‘in love’. Language is a fascinating thing and those people who command it are truly gifted.

          In our world, we put little energy in choosing the right word and yet they come to us when we need them. The use of one word over another occurs in an instant as certain neurons fire and the information is communicated. However, spoken language is only one part of the equation. We can use all the right words and place them in an order to have the most impact but this means very little if the listener has poor receptive language.

          As writers and pseudo-intellectuals, we tend to use ‘big’ words since they more aptly describe or communicate what we want to say. Many a time we have been told to ‘dumb things down’ so that people could understand us. We have both worked in places where our expansive vocabulary separates us from the crowd. We are seen as elitists because we don’t speak like everyone.

          For example, I worked in a place years ago where I provided support in the form of counseling to those people in physical therapy. Most of them were older individuals who tended to suffer from depression and, due to a loss of function, were really in need of some help. My co-workers were educated people, so I thought. What I found was that my language was too advanced for them. In fact, they once had me write a recommendation letter for one of their interns. I obliged and handed the letter to the physical therapist who requested I write it. As she stood there reading it, she burst out laughing and proceeded to show the letter to her colleagues. When I asked what was so funny, they pointed out to me that ‘behooves’ was not a word. I had to produce a dictionary to stop the mocking and my judgment that these people were ever well educated went out the window.

          It’s not like we drop ‘thous’ and ‘hithertos’ on people. We’re talking using the same words you would read or hear from more educated people. Yet you drop one ‘f’ bomb and all of a sudden you become common or, even worse, beneath the same Neanderthals that didn’t know what ‘behooves’ meant. ‘Fuck’ is an incredible word and I use it to pepper my communication. I also use this word to accentuate and punctuate what I say.

          Language is a gift that is taken for granted. Nobody knows that more than a parent waiting for their child to get old enough to tell you what they want or why they are crying. Language is what unites and divides people and I for one thank God I can work it to my advantage. Kind of like putting a little English on the ball so you don’t scratch. People I’m still speaking in English, don’t freak out.

          Paul says: With the amount of times that I got bet up as a youth because of my command of language, I better be good at it. In truth, if I had not been bitten by the science bug at a young age, I would have been a rhetorician. I am fascinated by the use of language. So, that being said, language is …ummm…cool and…ummm…like…ummm…

OK, language only works when you have something to say.