That's Your Mother Tongue And Stuff

Last night I said to my friend, "Tell me how much money that cost for me to give you."

HUH? We both started cracking up, because a weird phenomenon happens to all of us here: you forget how to speak English like a native speaker, even though you've been doing it all your life. I think it's because most of us spend days and days not speaking to other native English speakers, and we develop our own slow, simple dialect of English to use for our students. Combine these two things, and voila, we sound like idiots. (What I was trying to say is, 'How much do I owe you?')

I was not able to get the pictures I wanted of the panty flags yesterday due to the rain, but I will try again later today. In the meantime, I wish you happy every day! (A favorite Chinglish phrase of ours.) 

(The post title is from the movie The Sure Thing, with John Cusack. The full quotation is "You're failing English? That's your mother tongue and stuff!")