At least, I think the problem is with me not understanding British English. It might be a problem with me not understanding English, period. I've gotten used to some differences, like "zed" and "full stop," but I can't for the life of me figure out what "whizzing" means. One afternoon Cherno, one of the boys in an adjacent compound, asked me if I was whizzing. I thought the miscommunication was happening on his end, because the only other English I've ever heard him say is "chicken." However, a few days later I was flipping through the grade 12 textbook (Comprehensive Mathematics for Senior Secondary Schools) and came upon the following passage in the chapter on probability:
"Can you whiz with your mouth and blow your nose at the same time? Throw a die to score a three and a four at the same throw with the die (single dice)...From these little experiments, it will be discovered that each of those events cannot happen at the same time. When you are whizzing with your mouth, it is impossible to blow your nose. The performance of the whizzing will prevent that of blowing the nose."
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