Monday, November 06, 2006

Homeschoolers and Word Confusion

I think the "socialization" myth has been overblown for years. Most homeschoolers I've known (and I've known a LOT in more than 22 years since I first became a homeschooler) are very well-adjusted and get along with homeschooled and non-homeschooled peers very well.

Once in awhile, you do get funny little glitches, though. Not serious, just funny. For example, as a high school student who did most of my studies independently, I had a few occasions of embarassment when I didn't have a clue about how to pronounce a word or name. The most striking example was during the time I was attending classes at Kolbe Academy once a week and doing the rest of my studies on my own at home. (Kolbe Academy was about a two hour drive for us each way, including a drive through San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge). At that time, a music professor from the University of San Francisco, Maestro Golfredo Corradetti (I hope I got the spelling right) was teaching a music appreciation class at Kolbe. He was a wonderful teacher and had fabulous stories to tell. Anyway, one day we were studying Richard Wagner. All I can say in my defense is, how was I supposed to know that his name was pronounced Reekard Vogner??? (heehee)

I was quite amused to read awhile back on Melissa Wiley's blog about how her children didn't understand the coloquial meaning of the word "duck". I happened to notice this summer that at least one of my kids (Terri) had the same problem. I said, "duck" and she looked around, asking, "where?"

I'm still laughing about this one, though... Yesterday I said something silly about going home after church and "dressing like slobs". Ria and Gus both thought I said, "dressing like Slavs."

3 comments:

Suzanne Temple said...

Dressing like Slavs? How funny. They're just too smart.

love2learnmom said...

It's probably just that they had seen the Pope John Paul II movie recently. The word "slavic" came up quite a bit.

mrsdarwin said...

That sort of thing happened to me as well -- I was tripped up by "Pythagorean". I think I pronounced it Py-tha-GOR-ean.