I've just decided to write something in English everyday or at least every weekend, in order to improve my writing skills. I am reading the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and it's a very long story compared to The Man who would be King that I read sometime ago. But the problem I have with Twain's book is concerning the speech and improper grammar used by the characters which sometimes leaves me confused. Huck and the slave Jim are always using strange words and improper English. I must to be careful with these words and speech while trying to build my vocabulary.
Yesterday I found a verb used by the author that I can't find a meaning for. Huckleberry said of his father: "He used to always whale me when he as sober and could get his hand on me". So, I looked for this word in two dictionaries, but I couldn't find a reasonably meaning. What does he mean by "he whale me"?
Someone taught me:
To whale on something is to beat or whip severely, and Huck should say He whales on me.
What do you think? The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is proper to foreign students?
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