Super what???

Yesterday during language class, in the middle of translating a really difficult reading passage, Mark came across a tongue twister of sorts. It was just a couple of words describing a water bottle, nothing extremely funny. Our language teacher, almost immediately grabbed a piece of paper and started writing something down. Our tired and somewhat focused minds thought he was about to expound on the grammar rule for making nouns possessive as a review for our feeble brains. However, what he wrote had noting to do with what we had just read, and it certainly wasn't a grammar rule. The longer he wrote, the bigger his smile became. There was also a slight twinkle in his eye, I think! He wrote three lines of words, and in the last line were the very two words Mark had stumbled across as he was reading aloud. It was a tongue twister - think "Sally sells seashells by the seashore" and you'll have the right idea. He menacingly asked Mark to read it aloud a couple of times. Then, of course, Mark couldn't let the opportunity pass without cornering me to try it!! We had some good laughs before he started writing again. This time he told us he was writing the longest word in the language - it has 36 characters! And do you think we were able to say it?! Not a chance!!

Well, we got back to business and finished our lesson, but I couldn't leave without telling him about the most mysterious word kids growing up in my generation loved to sing and attempt to spell. You got it . . . supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. (No, I never did learn how to spell it correctly by heart - I had to look it up on the internet!) I explained that it comes from a movie and that it's totally nonsensical. In fact, I don't know how many children watch good 'ol Mary Poppins anymore. He found it rather interesting.

Last night I made a point to write the word down for him so he could see it. Before we started class, I opened my notebook, pushed it toward him, and reminded him of the word we had discussed the evening before. He took a running start and made it almost to "expi" before he started giggling. He made a couple of attempts, read it to himself a time or two, and then got brave enough to try the whole thing out loud where we could hear him. It was really a hoot!! He gave a little sigh, like he was ready to start class, so I pulled my notebook back toward myself. Then I noticed him peeking back over to see it again, giggling to himself. Finally, he grabbed a pen, turned to a clean page in his book, and wrote it down.

I don't know what the longest word in the English language is, but between the two words we were comparing, his won out by 2 characters! And to top it all off, that one word equals a sentence made of 10-12 English words. Maybe one day, we'll have the guts to give it a try. Today, I think I would lose my breath trying to get through the whole thing!!

Hope you're able to expand your vocabulary a little today!