I Learn a New Word

I’m  no John Steinbeck, I’m not even Terry Pratchett, but I think it’s fair to say I have a better grasp of the English language than most.  I  write in it every day, I teach it to foreigners, most of whom are reasonably happy with the service, and I cruise the comment sections of Huffpo,

straka obecná

correcting people who write your instead of you’re, could of instead of could’ve, and, my personal pet peeve, loose instead of lose.  It just proves to me that not only do they only know the word from having heard it, as opposed to seeing it in print, but they’ve usually heard it in a taunting, drawn out  fashion, i.e. “You’re gonna looooooooose!!”

People accuse me of being a grammar nazi, a nitpicker, an overly pedantic poopyhead, but loose is just not tight.

But, I don’t know everything.  In fact, I learn new words in English all the time.  I’m way behind  the times on tech terms, for instance, and not nearly up to date on whatever slang terms the cool kids  are using these days.  One other area where I’m  lacking is flora and fauna.  Oh, in many cases I might know the word,  without actually knowing what it is.  For instance, I know that dahlias, nasturtiums and forget-me-nots are all flowers, but you could put the three of them in a vase right in front of  me and  all I would be able to say is ‘nice flowers.’

Anyway,  last week my son brought a pamphlet home from school with pictures of all the common Czech birds, and it linked to this website, where you click on the sound and then try and mousedrag it over to the correct bird.  It took forever, but it was kind of fun.

There was one, in Czech it’s called straka obecná, which translates as common straka, and our neighborhood is filled with them.  It’s a beautiful bird, about the size of a pigeon (we’ve got plenty of those, too) but much more aerodynamic.  They are black and white, and they make black and white look colorful.  Black head, back and tail, white breast, and a black stripe at the outer edge of their wing, so that when they’re at rest and the wings are tucked in, they look like a black and white version of a red sports car with flames painted on the side.  They can fly pretty fast, too.

So, I went to the dictionary and found out that a straka is a magpie.  I love knowing that.  Of course, I always knew there was a bird called a magpie and they’ve got a reputation for being thieves, particularly of bright, shiny objects, they figure prominently in many stories, but I’d always pictured a much smaller bird.

Now, when I read those stories or hear those songs, I will know, I will have a visual image to go with the word, and I feel that my world is enhanced, my existence is improved by that knowledge.

You learn something new every day.  If you’re lucky.