Henne Lärarna Tala Mig Hur Hon Er Skarp*

For most of last week, Bear would intermittently whack the keys on her laptop and sigh in frustration. She would mutter something about "darn punctuation keys" under her breath, and go back to typing. After about the seventh episode of this, I asked her what was up.

Bear: My punctuation keys are all messed up. I go to type an apostrophe, and I get this weird symbol. The quotation mark is some strange kind of "a", and I don't know where the semicolon went.

Me: You need to go to one of the computer teachers at school, and see if they can fix it.

Bear: OK.

Two days later, she stops typing her science homework and lets out a primal yell.

Bear: AARRRRG.

Me: What?

Bear: AarrGRR ... stupid ....grrrrrAAAAGG.... dumb .... RRRRAAAGGR.... punctuation.... (disintegrates into feral muttering).

Me: Did you ask a teacher about it?

Bear: I asked Ms. E., and she thought she knew what it was, but it didn't fix it.

Tom: Did you take it to the computer teacher?

Bear (staring belligerently at the screen): No.

Tom: Give me the computer. (He closes out of the applications and looks briefly at her desktop). Hm. Bear?

Bear: (grumble)

Tom: Why is there a tiny Swedish flag up in the corner for "nationality"?

Bear (perks up): I like Sweden. I want to go there some day.

Tom: I think that's your problem. Let's change it back to "United States."

Bear: Nope, that won't do it. I know because my friend Kendra changed hers to "Hawaii", and she's not having any problems.

Tom (deep, steadying breath): Bear. What language do they currently speak in Hawaii?

Bear (thinks): English?

Tom: Yes. And what language do they speak in Sweden?

Bear: Swedish!

Tom: And does the Swedish alphabet look anything like those strange symbols that keep showing up when you type?

Bear (considers, then light dawns): ..... Ohhhhhhh!

*Her Teachers Tell Me She Is Smart