Contagious

Today I walked into a teacher friend's room. I meant to ask her about the colored printer paper she kept in her room (we all share it), but that's not exactly what came out of my mouth.

"D-d-d-d-do you have colored paper in the cab-ab-abinet?" I stuttered.

If that was an isolated incident, I wouldn't even worry about it. However, my speech problems seem to be following a pattern: the quality of my speech is decreasing in direct correlation with the time I spend with this particular class.

I think it is supposed to work the opposite way. I am supposed to speak correctly and enunciate and use correct syntax and they start to increase the quality of their speech. Instead, I am speaking more like them every day.

Here are some troubles I've had recently:

*Finding the correct preposition is really hard for me. I'll say things like, "Everyone sit on your desk, in your desk, at your desk, by your desk."

*Sometimes I use words that aren't words, and then my statements usually dwindles into a question. "Picks up your book and--pick up your book? What was I saying?"

*Sometimes I can't remember simple level 1 vocabulary. "Please get your notebook, paper, clipboard, I mean binder--binder!"

Today, when I found myself stuttering after school, I realized I had hit a new low. Generally, I am pretty well spoken. Yeah, I am so detailed in syntax, I would make sure to use "me" only as an object, direct object or indirect object and "I" as a subject. Yet, listening to the speech I hear every day all day is starting to effect me.