Exploded watermelon

The first night of class arrived. Robert ran quickly to me when he saw me open the door.

“Hello Robert,” I said.

“Hello,” Robert said with a smile.

I put my tea pot on the table then laid my body into the lounge before I started.

“My ex-master’s family liked eating watermelon. One day my ex-master’s wife bought a big watermelon from the market and put it on a table in the kitchen then she went to take a shower. When she came out of the bathroom, her son told that the watermelon exploded. Hearing that, she went to the kitchen and saw the watermelon had a broken trace. When my ex-master came back from the office, his wife told him. Then he told his wife to call his son as he wanted to hear the detailed story from him. His wife was angry and said that he was not a good father since he thought his son lied. My ex-master said he didn’t think his son lied. His wife said if he didn’t, why did he need to call him to ask for the detailed story? My ex-master didn’t talk with his wife, he called his son and asked what he saw before he claimed the watermelon exploded. His son told he came into the kitchen and saw the watermelon had a broken trace. My ex-master said, “Because of that you called it exploded?” His son said yes. My ex-master asked, “Do you know the meaning of the word explode?” His son was silent. He asked more, “If we can call a thing that explodes, do you know what it should be?” His son remained silent. Then my ex-master explained that, “If you want to say a thing explodes, you have to see that thing blow up violently with a very loud sound and its part flies.” His son said, “No one tells me that. Since I was young when I saw something broken, I always said it exploded. Now, I know; I will change my words.” 

After telling, I asked Robert, “What do you think about this story?”

“I can understand your story. Because the son didn’t mean to say the watermelon exploded, but because he didn’t know the word, that’s why he said it wrongly,” Robert said.

I nodded my head.

“However, I wonder how your ex-master could see the problem.”

“Because my ex-master is a graduated student.”

“Wow! What’s about his wife?”

“The same.”

“If so, how could she not see? Moreover, she was angry with her husband and said that her husband thought the son lied.”

“It’s because she loves children very much. She cares and always protects them. No one can blame or say something bad about her children. Like the proverb said - love is blind. It’s the reason she couldn’t see her children’s mistake even if they did wrong before her.”

“I see.”

I took a sip of warm tea before I continued, “So before you want to say something to someone, you should think about the words you will use. You should know the meaning of each word and how it is used. Because if you use the wrong word, your conversational partner will misunderstand what you want to tell them; sometimes, it might cause the two of you to argue with each other. Like when you said to the crow, you might use not correct words, that’s why she didn’t agree with you and turned against you.”

Robert wagged her his head.

“One more thing, you have to be careful when people you are close to, such as family members, friends, or colleagues, tell you something. I don’t tell you to not believe them, I want to tell you to consider when you hear anything from them. Some people don’t lie, but they might misinterpret what they hear or see; then when they tell you a story, that story is converted to a different story from the original one.”

“Okay, I got it.” Robert nodded.