Martha shares a letter from a San Antonio, Texas, listener about a child’s misunderstanding of the word sophisticated. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “A Child’s Sophisticated Misunderstanding”
Welcome to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
We asked our listeners to send us stories about when they were young, picking up words and using them that maybe they didn’t know the meaning of completely.
And we heard from Maggie Joseph in San Antonio, Texas, who talked about having overheard a friend of her parents talking about a movie that had some nudity in it.
And this friend of her parents said, well, that’s just a little too sophisticated for my taste.
And Maggie writes, I liked the sound of the word and I remembered it.
Early one summer morning, about a week later, my younger brother jumped out of bed and ran out into the front yard bare naked, likely from the pure joy of awakening to a summer’s day when you’ve neither school nor any specific plans or duties.
As an older sister, I was horrified and embarrassed and ran out on the front porch after him and yelled, don’t be such a sophisticated little brat!
She says my mother heard this and laughed until she cried.
And then after getting my little brother back into the house and dressed, explained to me how to use the term sophisticated.
She didn’t make me feel bad about misusing it and made me feel brave for having tried to use a new word.
She was always curious about words and encouraged my curiosity.
That’s outstanding.
A sophisticated little boy running around, pantsless in the yard.
Yeah.
It reminds me of when I’m told that when I was three years old, I used to go around and if some adult said something to me, I would just fold my arms and say, that sounds logical.
And I think I got that from a cartoon character, but can you imagine little Martha Ann just running around and saying, that sounds logical.
Did you do anything like that?
The three-nager, right?
Trying to be big.
Three-nager.
Exactly.
Trying to be big.
This is a show about all aspects of language.
We’d love to hear your funny stories about kids and the things that they say.
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