Fuck

A shout out to anyone who manages to learn English!

I'm fucking tired of you

I'm tired of fucking you

If you can laugh at the difference, then you're in. Because while everyone thinks that cursing is crude, an ESL learner knows that it's a delicate art. Even before you deal with pronunciation and stress, you have to get those fucking words in the right fucking order. Dios mio.

This shout-out was prompted in part by my students. I just finished my evening class, which marks three weeks of teaching in the Galapagos. Administrators in Quito warned me that the students were true islanders, i.e. that they would stroll in an hour late without homework or apologies. Not so! Most of them break sweats under the classroom's single fan in their efforts. English is idiomatic, filled with annoying phrasal verbs, and stressed so strongly that people must think we learned it sipping gin and riding roller coasters.

So, bravo, all you ESLers!