Thursday, April 19, 2012

Q ~ Quality Friend


We have arrived at the day that most participants have been dreading. Q. You think Q is hard in English? Check this out:



So I'm calling today Q is for quality. As in quality friend. You know how they say that only a true friend will tell you when you have spinach between your teeth or that you have spaghetti on your tie? It also takes a true friend to tell you that you have, in front of the entire blogging community, while trying to teach a foreign language, made TWO blunderous mistakes. Anna, you rock.

Let's go to the oldest mistake first. Mispronunciation. Our lesson on ovanligt. Here's what I used:

Pronounciation:
owe-vaughn-lit as in “I need to repay Vince for the lighter he just let me borrow.”

Here's Anna's much better one:
Om jag skulle beskriva hur man uttalar "ovanligt", så skulle jag inte välja det engelska ordet "owe" utan snarare "pool" minus "p" och "l"="oo-vaughn-lit" ("vaughn-lit" går bra).

Oh, maybe you want that in English. Ok. I can do that.
Pool – p- l + vaghn + lit.
She's absolutely right. It's a much better oo.

Now for the more embarrassing one. In teaching you a word, I misspelled it. Sigh. This is from our lesson on namsdagar. Only I should have said namnsdagar. I swear I know how to spell the word, but when open office objects to every single Swedish word I write, it didn't occur to me that I'd actually gotten it wrong. You know how if you look at something 20 times, you can't see the glaring error because your brain skips things since it's so familiar? Or at least that's my excuse.

So there you have it. Confession over. I think you should pay Anna another visit. She makes beautiful jewelry and writes a delightful blog. In English!

To Anna, thanks for being a true friend and telling me about the spinach...

20 comments:

Laurita said...

I know exactly what you mean about those glaring errors. When I edit my writing I read it until it looks perfect, then my Quality Friend will point all those whoppers I missed. :)

That's what friends are for.

Janeofaustralia said...

Ok I'm struggling now. lol but I'm loving the struggle

Rebecca Alexander said...

I'm so glad I didn't A-Z in Swedish! I've loved your word posts, and have a few words to play with now...should I ever go there (it's just past Scotland, on the right, I believe, from where I live!)

Lynn Proctor said...

those kind of friends are the best kind

Dani said...

Wow! That's the smallest Q list ever.

That is a great friend. Anna contacted me about Swedish stuff via your site. She's sweet!

Anonymous said...

Quality friends are in high demand and hard to come by. Like life, quality friends are good!

Brian Miller said...

smiles...it is def good to have friends watching your back like that and helping us gently....my tongue is enjoying the acrobatic tricks...haha

wsbhark said...

What a great friend to gently point that out.

Great Q post!

Hart Johnson said...

Uh oh... teehee--I think you've done great with your teaching. I think every blog I post has a couple errors. I'm just not compulsive enough and my single proofing of it doesn't catch them.

Tasha Seegmiller said...

I try to proof everything I write, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. Hopefully I have learned enough that there are very few mistakes though.

Great post!

loverofwords said...

I like the word quisling--it sounds "swarmy," great word for traitor. Oh no, I'm off the subject again. Good friends are treasures.

Unknown said...

Quality is a good word...I'm glad I didn't A to Z in Welsh...we don't even have some of the letters (j, K, q, z..but we have others such as dd, rh, ch, etc).
Rhia from Five Minute Piece for Inspiration (about #776 on A to Z list).

Marianne (Mare) Baker Ball said...

I thought it was going to be hard to find a good Q word in ENGLISH. Only two options in Swedish? You did a great job with that!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Hey, two mistakes isn't bad!

Jess said...

Wow, only TWO WORDS!!?? That's crazy!!

So nice to meet you, by the way!!

http://writeskatedream-jmckendry.blogspot.com

Annalisa Crawford said...

I'm glad you found something to write about for Q - go on, admit it, you made the mistakes on purpose so you'd have something to write about today, no?

Tracy said...

I am so anal about grammatical errors, conventions, etc...and when I see that' I've made one I want to melt; UGH! good you have someone to point those out and Hurray for quality friendships!

klahanie said...

Ah Tina,
Yay and right on "Q", you are receiving another much loved, highly cherished, eagerly anticipated comment from me. Yes me, shy and humble me.
That's good someone would point out your mistakes, yet nobody points out when I get my metters lixed.
Good to have Quality friends and even though we are but electric friends, your Quality friendship is greatly appreciated.
And now my Quest to delight folks with my Quotidian articles will soon resume after my selfless and altruistic continuance to be of support and encouragement to you A to Zedders, had reached its conclusion.
Gosh, what a guy!

Heather Murphy said...

I don't think many, if any, of us would have caught your errors unless you pointed them out. You do have quality friends, but we forgive you :) Your posts have been extremely educational and fun!

Unknown said...

Dear Tina,
(I'll write this in English so that everyone will understand.) You are truly a quality friend. It is not easy to admit making a mistake. I make spelling mistakes in both Swedish and English, ALL THE TIME! So I know how it feels.

Best wishes & hugs,
Anna
----
Kära Tina!
Det var storsint av dig att erkänna detta så öppet.

Stora kramar,
Anna