Kiddie Talk

One of the facsinating things about being here is watching my kids learning a second language. They are learning and catching on to so many verbal and nonverbal cultural clues. Edan came to me today to explain that Spanish is backwards from English. "You usually say the words in the opposite order." Then he gave me an example and said, "You know, like instead of saying orange shoe you say shoe orange."

To keep David interested in studying his Spanish words Brian quized David and me to see who would win. I made a run for his money and we tied quite a bit. (I think Brian was giving David a lot of those ties as wins.) Anyways, I was so impressed at how quickly he could spit out the answers. I didn't think he knew them as well as he did because he hems and haws when it's just me giving them to him. Make it a competition and he's all in!

Out of all the kids, Joelle has been the most interesting to watch learn another language. She spends the day repeating all the things she is picking up. Many times bableing in Spanish made up words. The other day she said, "Chicito y Grande no the same" while she shoke her finger back and forth like the Mexicans. We were walking down the street and there was this little dog with a pink collar. She shouted, "Ohh Chicita, Que Bonita!" She sounded just like my students sound when they see something really cute (like my children). She some times goes to the door and knocks and shouts, "Quien es ahi " (Who's there). The other day she came home saluted and began trying to sing the Mexican national anthem. Almost every night now she tries to pray in Spanish. We got some respadas (glorified snow cones) and the lady asked if we wanted Large or Small in English because she knew I spoke English. Joelle answered her back "Chico" (small).