…That Doesn’t Mean It Will Hurt

I’ve decided to have this baby without pain medication.  And every time, every single time the concept comes up, I get a universally negative response.  The exchanged looks and facial expressions from the kind.  The confident pronouncements of “oh, you’ll change your mind” or “when those contractions hit, you’ll be begging for the epidural” from [...]

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Non-native speakers don’t get tonal subtleties…

…including “I’m not going to discuss this.”
A full half of my lab grew up speaking some language other than English, and none of them (well, of those who are fluent) have trouble with this.  Frenchie or Noodles will occassionally ask me to explain some idiom or piece of slang, but they are perfectly polite and [...]

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