Remember those Hooked on Phonics commercials everybody used to make fun of and laugh about back in the day? Well, now it appears the joke is on me. I am now the kid on the commercials. Except I am not a kid, I am a 27 year old grown woman.
At language yesterday, I was working with a man here who actually helped write the dictionary in the language that I am learning. I was trying to learn something written out, which is not usually how we do things – almost all of my language learning is oral – and I was attempting to sound out and read the words. Four year olds in America could have read faster than I was reading. As I was sitting there attempting to sound out each letter “ddddddd……. diiiii….. duuuuuuuh” and then eventually getting frustrated and saying “Okay, okay I don’t know. What is it?” I couldn’t help but think how comical I must have looked. My poor roommate had to sit there and listen to me sound like a kindergartener and lets not even discuss the level of patience that my teacher had to have with me. I was embarassed enough for myself that I wanted to stop and apologize every 30 seconds for reading like a 4 year old. Then I had to make myself laugh about it and try to crack a joke on it to keep from crying.
I am really not as frustrated with all of it as I just made it sound, but it really is humorous (in a pitiful sort of way) as I think about me trying to sound out all those letters yesterday.