There is a game Latino and I play every night. It was not my invention and I do not particularly even care for the game. It involves a communication problem. This is "funny" because it does not involve an ACTUAL communication problem but a PRETEND one. That is the game. It proceeds, nightly, as follows: I like to read at night before bedtime. I even try to read out loud to Latino. He knows the drill, yet he comes into the room and turns off the light. I kindly ask him to please turn the light back on. He pretends not to understand and he comes over to me and says in the sweetest possible voice he can muster, "What? What, sweetie? What would you like?" I am finished being polite by this time so I yell in a non-inside voice, "TURN THE LIGHT ON!" This is his favorite part. He laughs and laughs and laughs. I realize that I play right into his little game and that if I were to react differently the game might be different or less funny to him. As it is, I have little control over my reaction. Oh well, it brings him amusement. And he does turn the light back on, eventually.
Once I outsmarted him for a few days by duct taping the light switch on so that it had to be switched off on the floor lamp itself. He laughed harder than all of the other times put together. Of course he realized he just had to take the tape off, but he humored me for a few days to give me credit for my resourcefulness.
He always acts like he does not understand what "turn off the light" means, but my favorite quote from him is this: "What? No comprende, sweetie. I think we have a language barrier."
Clearly.
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