Shrimps and Hepon

It never occurred to me that the word shrimps is difficult to pronounce and spell.

In my generation, I never encountered anyone having trouble pronouncing it. Lately, ang daming nabubulol. Below are actual encounters, I don’t want to be specific as to who and where so as not to embarrass these shrimp-challenged individuals.

Sremp
shhhimp
shirmp
shhhrim
shrrims
shirrp
shirim
shirimps
shrem
shremp

A—-“Miss, wala namang laman itong pasta, kala ko merong shrimps?”
Waitress ——“Shi..rim?”
A—-“Wala man lang hipon.”
Waitress——-“Ilang hepon?”