For such a smart person, I'm pretty stupid

I have started an online TEFL course. That isn't pronounced "teffle," as much fun as that is to say. It's T(eaching) E(nglish) as a F(oreign) L(anguage). I have always thought of myself as someone who has a pretty firm grasp on the English language, at least until the Jagermeister starts flowing. I try to use correct grammar, and my closer friends will tell you how often and how obnoxiously I correct their grammar. (As far as that goes, I stand by my story; it is my parent's fault for constantly yelling "FINE!" every time I answer "How are you?" with "good.") I am one of the planet's least anal retentive people, except when it comes to spelling. I cannot stand a misspelled email and my respect for a person PLUMMETS the first time they write "alot" or use "there" when they mean "their." Not to MENTION using "4" instead of "for" and "2" instead of "to." And if you ever say "irregardless" in front of me, it will take a Supreme Act of a Divine Being to keep me from telling you that you have the I.Q. of a monkey's left nut.

HOWEVER, I have discovered that I wouldn't know a Past Progressive verb if it sat down at the bar and started taking shots with me. Shoot, I wouldn't know it EVEN IF IT WAS BUYING THE SHOTS. And when that's just one of eight different verb choices and you are only on page 15 of 38. . .let's just say I am sitting at my computer with grammar books in a semi-circle around me, and I'm feeling like that monkey's OTHER nut. This stuff is HARD, and it is MY NATIVE LANGUAGE!!

I'm keeping my chin up, though, by filling in the non-graded sections with sentences like, "Suzy has bitten the head off a bat." and "Tommy is drinking his own blood."