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The oddest things come out of our mouths sometimes.
I don't mean unintended revelations--that's a topic for another day, or another century, in private and later at night.
I was in the cheese shop, waiting to buy my sandwich (brie, watercress, sun-dried tomatoes on an onion baguette) and chocolate. As the cashier rang it up, I looked over some little rectangular things in a basket, tried to read the label, gave up, and said, without thinking, "I'm sorry, my Greek is very bad, what are these?"
Saying "My Greek is very bad" implies that I speak a bit of the language. What I can do, actually, is read the Greek alphabet, and recognize an occasional word that hasn't changed in 25 centuries: "Parthenon" on another package was my first clue that what I was looking at was extra-virgin olive oil. But "my Greek is very bad" is a statement on par with "Passenger service from Earth to Mars is irregular." It implies greater knowledge than exists--and, at worst, could leave me dealing with someone who thinks even a minimal knowledge of Greek will help them get on the next Mars flight.
I don't mean unintended revelations--that's a topic for another day, or another century, in private and later at night.
I was in the cheese shop, waiting to buy my sandwich (brie, watercress, sun-dried tomatoes on an onion baguette) and chocolate. As the cashier rang it up, I looked over some little rectangular things in a basket, tried to read the label, gave up, and said, without thinking, "I'm sorry, my Greek is very bad, what are these?"
Saying "My Greek is very bad" implies that I speak a bit of the language. What I can do, actually, is read the Greek alphabet, and recognize an occasional word that hasn't changed in 25 centuries: "Parthenon" on another package was my first clue that what I was looking at was extra-virgin olive oil. But "my Greek is very bad" is a statement on par with "Passenger service from Earth to Mars is irregular." It implies greater knowledge than exists--and, at worst, could leave me dealing with someone who thinks even a minimal knowledge of Greek will help them get on the next Mars flight.
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