say what???

We have established a nightly reading ritual over the summer vacation. Several nights a week we read out loud from a book picked by one of my daughters. We all take turns reading. We are reading a book called 'Zen and the art of Faking it'. My husband was a bit unsure about it in the beginning, but he seems to be enjoying it now.

We also try to find and list any words that either of the girls don't know the meaning of, and it goes on the assignment sheet for next day for them to learn. Once in a while we come upon some words that I don't know the meaning of as well (like geodesic) and it goes on their list of the words that they have to explain and teach to mom the next day. Very rarely we find a word that my husband doesn't know the meaning of and we are all amazed since he is Mr. Dictionary around the house. Anyways, this reading ritual is fun and educational for all of us.

A couple of nights ago, as my daughter was reading it, we happened upon a line "I didn't mean to diss her". My husband interrupts -- 'didn't mean to WHAT?' 'diss her' the three of us say simultaneously. 'What is that supposed to mean' he says??

All three of us stared at him in disbelief - how can he not know what 'diss' means?

So, we have another task at hand now - corrupting my husband's perfect English and infusing it with the newly adopted slang words in this wonderful adopted language of ours :)