I hate numbers!!! But, it’s, everywhere I go, translated…
The very first peak I’d needed to cross as I took up French, was actually the “numbers”.
As I’d spoken in my mother tongue, I’d not felt that the numbers are hard to manage, but, not in French, other than the pronunciations, causing me to get tongue-tied, I can’t differentiate between fourteen and forty.
What was worst was the addition and multiplication! Seventeen is “ten plus seven”, exactly like how it is in Chinese, but, seventy became “sixty plus ten”; while eighty wasn’t “eight times ten”, but “four times twenty”; as for ninety? It’s “Four times twenty, plus ten.”
After I’d learned the grammars, I’d come to the understanding of numbers being everywhere, from when I was young, the age, the time, the dates, “how old are you?” “What time is it?”; to the train schedules, I.D. numbers, to the telephone numbers, “XX:XX for the X Trains, Wait for it at X platform”. “Do go to Xth Floor to the X counter to get the XXX forms”. “Do call XXX-XXX-XXXX”, ahhhhhhh, I’m about to, CRACK!
And, the most widely used was, paying for things, as I’d waited in line, I’d, calculated the total costs, and, waited for my listening comprehension given by the store clerk. With the long line behind me, I’d, clenched tight the bills, the coins, the answer is………
So, there’s, NO way we can, rid ourselves of the relationships we have with the numbers, because, it’s EVERYWHERE, our I.D.s, checking out at the grocery stores, everything is related to numbers, and this would be trouble, for those of us who HATED calculations, and dealing with the numbers!