In today’s ESL Cafe 153, Jeff is too polite and gentlemanly to say the phrase “to kick (someone’s) ass.” We’ll let someone else do it for him.
Although “ass” is one of the bad words that parents don’t want their children to say, it is not considered one of the worst curse words. However, it is a little surprising to hear it said by a three year old.
~ Lucy
When a three-year-old is asked about monsters (imaginary creatures that are large, ugly, and frightening)…
Mother: And tell Mommy (mother) again what you said you were going to do to him if he came here.
Daugher: I said, I’m gonna (going to) kick his ass*.
Mother: Oh, that’s not nice.
Daugher: If he’s going to come in here, he’s going to kick my ass.
Mother: He will?
Daugher: Yeah…He’ll come out of the movie, come out. He’ll come out and kick my ass.
Mother: Okay…
Daugher: And I can kick his ass.
Mother: Okay, but that’s not a nice word. You should say, “kick his butt.”
Daugher: Oh!
*Note that she pronounces the word incorrectly with a “k” sound at the end of “ass,” making it sound like “asK”.
Hahaha funny… It´s really admirable to see how her acts is “innocent”.
Humm … it seems that her mother had taught her. So i thinks that the mother maybe want to “kick his butt” and the child want to “kiss his ass”. I also agree with Google Group that the daughter is innocent.
I am not very happy about kids that think so serious about IMAGINARY things. It doesn’t matter what she is going to say. In fact 3 years old child cannot determine where is real life and where is TV life, that leads to nightmares. I could strongly recommend to throw TV out to the parents of this little girl.
Don’t think so complicated, folks! I raised tree kids – they are grown-ups now…and in the age of 3years the little ones went to the kindergarden…and they came home with all these words :o) you never taught them! They pick all the ‘bad’ words up very fast and you have to deal with that!
And it’s not because the mother, father or the kindergarden is so bad … no, that’s life! Important in these case is how you as parents or the grown-ups react! This is the way how the kids learn and also learn to distinguish good and bad.
You can’t avoid anything – once again it depends on us, how we deal with that :o)
I love the ESL family and especially the teacher!
Keep going!
Maria
from Lake Constance – Switzerland