Knowledge is Power

I have tried to instill in my sons that the more you know the better off you will be. I learned this first hand from my parents. My father was especially keen for me to study, study and then study some more. Some things I loved to study, like history and anything scientific. Language is also something that has a certain amount of power to it. I was recently in Ottawa ( although to be expected, as it is a government town, and Quebec is right next door) and was impressed with the amount of young people who could and would switch from English to French with such ease. I took French in high school... grade nine French, three years in a row (I hated my French teacher, see there's that old rule of how a good teacher can make such a difference) yet when I took French at the local college I did quite well (much better teacher!). When I was in Paris you would almost think that I was a local with my accent (in my mind anyway). I also have the influence of Swedish in my language repertoire as well. My mother was a Swede and when I was younger we would move back and forth from Sweden to England. I would arrive in England unable to speak any English, we would stay in England for a few months so I would learn lots of English, then when my father went back out to sea for maneuvers, my mother and I would return to Stockholm. Unfortunately, I had left my Swedish at the English border and would have to spend the next couple of months relearning all of my Swedish vocabulary. With all this muddle going on in my brain I had no problem at all learning the most important language of all, Pig Latin. I could ream off sentences faster than you could say "Whathagat dutha hethagel". I was always baffled at how I could learn to divide the words and insert the proper bits, and yet could not remember if it was "blanc chat" or "blanche chatte?" or whatever it is in French, then again French is almost all grammar. Grammar is one of the most difficult things to learn. I have taken grammar at the college level and managed to pass, but don't ask me what a dangling participle or an adjective is 'cause I don't remember. All I know is that ya' all need to talk right to get your message across. So really is all this knowledge and language and grammar stuff really necessary? Hmm, that is a matter of personal opinion, just like putting perfume on a pig, it's all up to you.
Till next time, working my way through the Britannia series...
Cat x