Wung it?

"Hey, Mrs. H? The past tense of 'wing it' do you say 'we wung it'?" This was the question one of my darling senior boys asked me last week.

Hmm...That's an interesting question. And one that made me stop and think. How would you say that? English is a difficult language. In fact, it's one of the most difficult languages to learn. Oh, and try teaching it to someone. Talk about confusing.

There are so many rules about everything. But there are no rules without exceptions. Trying to teach kids for whom (or is it 'who'?) English is not their first language how to write reminds me of when I taught my sister-in-law, H, how to play cribbage.

We were in my dorm room at college, waiting for Bryce, my high school friend, to come pick us up and take us home to my house. He was in a frat, and apparently didn't know how to tell time. So while we were just hanging out, I picked up the board and asked her if she would like to play. When she confessed she didn't know how, I was determined to teach her. My cousin Brian had taught me when he was 12 and I was 8 because he wanted to play and the adults wouldn't let him join their game.

I think 8 was the right age to learn, and Brian was the right teacher because I just listened carefully and tried to remember all the rules. Cribbage is an incredibly simple game once you learn the basics, but trying to remember all of the crazy rules can be overwhelming when you first start. So, when I was teaching H how to play, I decided to just jump right in and play a game "open" with all of our cards showing. Then I could show her what I was talking about, and as things came up we could talk about them. Sounds logical, right?

Well, H is smart. Very smart. She picked the game up really quickly. But she kept getting frustrated every time I would stop the game to explain a new rule. Eventually, a Jack was cut. I stopped the game once again to explain the "nibs" rule. When a Jack is cut, and it is the starter card, it counts two points for the dealer automatically. I was the dealer that hand. This was the point at which H threw down her cards and said, "Now you're making shit up!"

This morning I was sitting with one of my seniors in my WASL writing class. She has only been in the U.S. for a few years, and while her spoken English is practically flawless, her written English leaves room for drastic improvement. It's very difficult to explain the nuances of the English language in terms kids understand. Especially since I was never really taught grammar myself. For me, language is just intuitive. I don't know why I know something is wrong, I just do. I don't know why it should be a certain way, it just should.

For the most part.

There are times where I get stumped though. One of those times is with certain verbs. For example, swim. I know swim, swam, swimming. When the heck do you use swum? Or another technicality question, I referred to it earlier, what's the difference between who and whom? When do you use affect and effect (I think I do this one correctly, but I have no idea how to explain it to someone else)?

So when B asked, "Hey, Mrs. H? The past tense of 'wing it' do you say 'we wung it'?" I was glad it was an easy question.

"No, B. The past tense of 'wing it' is not 'wung it' - the past tense is 'winged it'," was my response.

"Oh. Thanks, Mrs. H," B responded before turning to his neighbor and saying, "See I told you you were an idiot! She just proved it!"

I'm just glad I didn't prove myself the idiot.