September 12, 2008
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(in)Competent
Yesterday, I took Hunter, Wit, and Gockle to Wal-Mart to get their pictures taken. Wit was fiddling with the beach ball prompt and read aloud the warning on the side.
“Use only with co–some big word–supervision.”
“Parental?” I queried.
“No, com-pet-ent,” he answered.
“Competent? That’s not a big word. You know what that means.”
“Not really.”
And neither did the college-aged photographer.
We continued this conversation as we went into Long John Silver’s for supper.
“Can I take your order?” Guy Behind the Counter asked.
“Before you do,” I interjected, “do you know what the word ‘competent’ means?”
He looked a bit befuddled, his eyes as dull as hush puppies, and slowly said, “Uuuuhhh, no. Not really.”
“HA!” cried Wit! “Majority rules!”
(Which prompted Hunter, who is taking Discrete Math in high school to give a mini-lecture on voting theory and how majority doesn’t always rule.)
So now I know what is wrong with this country. Not only are people incompetent, they don’t even know the meaning of competent.
Comments (25)
That is hilarious! True, but hilarious.
*LOL*
*jaw drops* i guess it shouldn’t surprise me that much, but i’m still flabbergasted that people didn’t know what competent meant.
That’s discouraging.
I guess you have to understand the meaning of the word before you can be competent. Your story really surprises me as well. I guess it shouldn’t. Maybe that word should be part of the SAT vocabulary test. Or at least a requirement for high school graduation?
oh my! I can’t believe they didn’t know what competent meant! lol…what is this world coming to?
That’s a bit depressing, I must say. It’s like that random poll someone did: asking people if they had a pancreas, and if so, where it was located. Obviously those results weren’t very encouraging, either.
Ha ha ha!! I’m laughing right now…although when I stop to really think about it, I might just start to cry from the horror of it. Oh well…for now, I’ll enjoy a chuckle!
That is sort of funny.
Can you give the definition? I’d really like to know what it means.
Funny yes, but also sad!
I can’t believe you asked the LJS clerk, well I believe you asked it’s so TP. I’m also not surprised he didn’t know what it meant, but I am surprised David didn’t. BTY did the ball make it in the picture?
Oh dear!
Someone needs to be slapped upside the head with a dictionary, methinks….
But I find it amusing that they would specify _competent_ supervision. Mediocre, misguided supervision isn’t good enough anymore?
That’s pretty bad. My kids are always saying I use fancy words they don’t understand… so I try to explain the words to them. Vocabulary skills in our country seem to be sliding downhill fast. (Too much TV? Not enough reading?)
wow… just wow… unbelievable…
Oh my goodness. What a hoot!
It begs the question, if someone doesn’t know the meaning of competent, can they truly be so?
“competent: having or showing requisite or adequate ability or qualities” ~Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law
Uh oh, ‘requsite’…another big word.
haha wow. This is why i love your family! I can just hear Nate giving Dave a lecture on voting, haha what a nerd!
This is because people haven’t taken AP English with you, Mrs. Sellers. =)
uhhhh….competent? I aint so sure I’s know what that means.
I filled out an job application at a major retailer once. The majority of the questions asked me about being on time, stealing and actually working the shift. I think we as a society have lost the quest for knowledge and are only trying to attain just good enough. But like, who am I like to ask, like I am like only like a homeschool like mom!
O Kaaaay. Competent seems like an easy word to understand to me, but apparently it isn’t.
Something else to think about. What makes somebody competent to supervise the use of beach balls? What would they have to know; not to swallow them? Our German foreign exchange student was to use the word “ambient” in a sentence. She wrote her vocabulary words into a little advertisement about a better rat trap. Ambient was defined as surrounded on all sides, so she wrote that once the rat was in the trap, the rat was ambient. She got a good grade….
Haha, that’s too funny! Oh, how about some pictures of the new kitty, too? Does he live up to his name?
Ohmygosh that was disturbing! And I like what Hunter had to say…though I do remember an occasion when I took a survey to see whether others were familiar with the word. The word was “abeam.” The story: when my husband and I were dating, we were on our way to the party for a guy named Tom who’d been promoted to Major. (Yeah, they played the David Bowie song a lot that night). Steve was driving, I was navigating. I got to the point in the directions when the word ABEAM was used. and I was stumped. Steve had to interpret, and a good-natured argument ensued. See, it’s pilot’s jargon. It means “along side of” and I’ve never come across it before meeting Steve. But he said everyone knows the word, it’s simple and it’s used all the time. So I took a survey at the party and most spouses didn’t know the word…only the pilots did. My point was that it’s jargon and I’m not a pilot. That in no way applies to the competence of the people you encountered who didn’t know that word!
@RansomOfThulcandra - had to laugh at your comment!