It Build Character

My mom speaks and even writes in broken English.

I think it's my favorite kind of English. I like the gaps and spaces, the wrong tenses, the missing articles, and mixing up the genders. It adds a sense of mystery and opens up her meaning to limitless possiblities.

I like that I know what she means beyond what she just says. Sometimes I tut-tut about grammar, but she never really fixes her mistakes, and that's great.

I was reading the graduation card she wrote me today:

"I don't have to worry a thing about you"

-- I like the double meaning of the "I don't have to worrry about you" and the phrase she mixed it up with: "you don't have to worry about a thing." It's better than a normal phrase with only one meaning---like maybe you get upset because you have broken a mirror, only to discorver the beauty of the web the cracks weave.


It must not be a disadvantage, because I'm an English major now.