Big words...yeah, but nah...

"Miss, do you use big words because it makes you sound intelligent?"

This is an honest quote from one of my students, bless them. My reply was this:

"I use profound words that appeal to my innate love of the English language."

After the baffled looks I responded:

"I use big words because I am intelligent." *

And reading that makes me seem like some giant know-it-all with a superiority complex. I can assure you, dear readers, that I am neither. I quickly followed it up with something about how I love reading and I love words so why shouldn't I use big words or different words. Then I tried to explain that it is better to have a lot of words in your mind because you never know when they may come in handy. They seemed satisfied with that but it got me to thinking...why do people think using words that may not be overly common makes one appear more intelligent?

I was reminded of a poem I saw by Taylor Mali where he said something about how he never uses the words 'um', 'uh', and there were a couple of others that I can't quite recall but his reasoning behind it was very interesting and I feel as if I have begun incorporating it into my normal conversations. I have found it difficult because you suddenly become aware of how often you actually use those words but it is also interesting to notice how many people actually do use those little words. Here's the link to it because it really is brilliant. Click here

Plus, I am an English teacher now so I should be allowed to use momentous words around my dear wee students. If I don't encourage them to foster a love of words who will? I swear, trying to get them to read is a job in itself.

Insert tangent here: I saw Cowboys vs Aliens last night. It was bloody weird and, as my father so aptly put it, it was as if the director was making a pizza and just couldn't stop adding toppings. It was a fun movie, don't get me wrong, but it seems as if it would have been more enjoyable had I been in a crowd of like minded people. I had to bite my tongue far to often to stop myself from shouting out "There can be only one" or "Dr Jones?" or even "Shaken, not stirred." Though I do believe I heard someone humming the Indiana Jones theme behind me.



*I actually think my proper response was, I use big words because I know how to use them but I can't be sure.

On knowing my own address...and X Men

I technically* started work yesterday. Let's just say that it hasn't really changed in five years. (Just to let you know I haven't been unemployed for five years, I've been travelling and studying and writing...so not unemployed just not employed consistently...)

The day dragged as only a day can when working retail and re-training but it was after work that I was waiting for. X Men First Class came out in New Zealand yesterday and I dragged my dad along to see it. So, after a mediorce feed we got our tickets, popcorn and sweets and meandered our way up into the cinema. Firstly, I do have to say that our home town cinema has really let itself go, which is sad because it used to be rather pretty.

Anyway, we settled down into our seats and tried to ignore all the tweens and teenagers** who were talking obnoxiously loud, playing on their phones etc. We also ignored the guy who came in with his ipad or tablet or whatever and seemed intent on checking it every five minutes therefore creating a brilliant burst of light in the front row. Finally the lights went down and they chucked on one trailer after the other before the goodness that is X Men started to roll.

I'm not going to spoil the movie because that's not my job but I will say that I thought it was bloody well done. I'm now going to list five points that I thought were done brilliantly:

1. The actors who were playing Russians, Germans etc actually spoke their native language - there was none of that awful fake accent and no language. 
2. The actors playing Xavier and Erik did a really great job at portraying their differing points of view on the same problem. 
3. Nicholas Hoult, as beast, was amazing. He really seemed genuinely confused and tormented by his small 'disfiguring' mutation which led to 'bad' things. 
4. The attention to detail was excellent. Right down to costumes and everything. The 60s is my new favourite era...for now. 
5. There are a couple of squee points for those of you who know the universe - it's kind of like guess the character/guess the mutant. 

Oh and Kevin Bacon was pretty awesome. But then again, it's Kevin Bacon so...

It was the drive home that nearly ruined the night. For the first time ever, I got pulled over my the police and asked to do a breath test. Now, I know I hadn't been drinking, but the moment the cop asked me to state my name and address into the little machine thing my brain farted and I forgot my address (which is ridiculously simple). Luckily there was some recess of my mind that was still active enough for me to spew out the first line and that was when the cop said, "that's fine, you can go..."

That's all for today, folks, since I have to work in the shop and maybe try and scrounge a couple moments of sleep...

*It's still not official but they needed me in to rip covers off magazines...totally thrilling work, I know.
**Parents, do you know what your kids get up to in the theatre? I swear I'm getting old because some of this kids were right little...well you know...