Life episode: Banana



Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.
Bill Gates
This is a story I always share with my students. I called it banana episode.

It was a long journey from Houston – Texas to Orlando- Florida; we wanted to visit one of my favorite places on earth Disney World. We always enjoyed our journey in my big car from one city to another city. Each trip always had  at least one story to share.

My husband and my daughters started their conversation with random topic. At one moment to topic was about English language. They talked that I mispronounced some words but I was so sure about the pronunciation. They laughed about my mistakes. Definitely I couldn’t compare their English with mine. My husband studied in America for his bachelor and master degree. My daughters had the opportunity to study in junior high school in America.

If I thought that was a humiliation, I might not want to speak English anymore. Since I thought I was fine with my stupidity and I always had time to improve my skills I didn’t mind at all.

I told them, “Please teach me how to pronounce the word”
My daughter picked the word, “Banana”
I started to pronounce, “Ba… na …na.ba…na…na… ba…na…na”
After three days I practiced everyday in the car, my daughters were exhausted to hear me. They asked me to stop, “Mom, it is okay. You need to stop practicing”
Unfortunately my eagerness to study wakened and they couldn’t easily stop it. I kept continuing practicing for a week. 

AHA… after a week my daughters really wanted me to stop because their ears full with banana words. It was a time for me to laugh.

People might laugh at us because we couldn’t do what they expected us to do or if we failed. Just take it easy! Don’t let everyone stop you from learning.

I just remembered that Pablo Picasso said, “ I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

In my life I started to learn more when I could laugh about myself. It was a great lesson for my daughters, at least they saw “the older we started learning the harder we could get it”

They were so happy when I stopped pronouncing “banana” once I met Mickey and friends at Disney World.

**Lina Kartasasmita**Jakarta, 11 May 2013, at 7.43PM

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