Crap or Crap?

Ever since, I came home from my mission I've had to readjust to the English language. Speaking Hungarian for a year and a half will take a toll on your grammar, spelling and listening abilities. Oh how it pains me to spell words incorrectly nowadays *sigh* Despite the inconveniences of having to readjust to being home in the motherland and hearing my mother-tongue, there are a lot of funnies that come out of an overly trained Hungarian ear.

Today's focus is on the word "crap". We hear it often in conversation among teenagers, sometimes around adults and we hear it on the bus, at home, on the street and just about anywhere and among any group. This past week I've heard it quite often from not only my peers, but also from my teachers. Personally, I say it a lot,  but it still amuses me to hear the older generations use it as nonchalantly as we do. Today in class one of my art teachers said, "I don't want ya'll to bring all that crap in here." In this situation she was referring to students who were working on homework for other classes during her class. Later while explaining a future project she said, "Just go through all your crap at home and bring whatever you find and we can get ideas from it." Someone, to be funny, asked her if he literally could bring crap. Oh high school... I mean college kids. Anyway, to my surprise she actually considered it. :) I heart art teachers. Then she went on to tell us about a performance artist who actually used crap in his piece by covering himself in it. True fact. So, these were just three examples of people using the word "crap" in one setting.

Afterwards I went to another class and while we were drawing a still life and the teacher says, "I want you to draw everything you see. I don't want you to crap." Wait, WHAT?!? I was so confused. What on earth is she saying? My English-turned-Hungarian-brain told me, "Yeah, she just said that in perfect english." Then my left brain told me, "No Delz, you heard it correctly. Of course she'd say crap. She say's 'shut up' all the time and it sounds so funny because of her accent. Remember when you had an accent? Just listen harder. Maybe she actually said 'I don't want your crap' or maybe it was a reaction to something and the 'crap' just interrupted her thought." Well if Hungarian brain says yes and left brain confirms it, then I really have no idea what she's talking about. So while I was contemplating and trying to figure out what she was saying, I heard it again, "Don't crap this side because you like the box, make sure you draw everything. Everything, everything, everything." I turned to the girl next to me and she gave me one of those looks with the raised eyebrows and said, "We what?" Thank heavens I wasn't the only one that was hearing that. Then my Hungarian brain turned off the British English mode it defaults to when among foreign english speakers and we both realized that the teacher was saying "crop".  

Can you see how this would be confusing? I think we've all learned our lesson - don't crap or crop at school, especially in art class.

First still life drawing for 2012.