Friday, April 6, 2012

Language nerdery and my beautiful kid

J'aime ma fille. Elle est si mignonne.

Aujourd'hui, c'est son anniversaire. Aujourd'hui, elle a 5 ans. Elle aime apprendre un peu des mots français. Quelquefois, elle me demande comment dit-on un mot en français. Et quand je réponds, elle dit le plus souvent "Hrmm. That sounds complicated for me."

Je l'encourage à essayer de parler le mot ou la phrase en français, mais... elle est assez timide. Elle déteste avoir tort. Donc, je l'encourage, mais je ne force jamais la question.

I want learning things to be fun for her. And I love to encourage her interest in other languages. She's starting to actually grasp that we speak one language and other people speak other languages. At her age, it's a difficult concept to wrap her mind around... that the words we use to transmit meaning aren't the same words everyone uses. But she's getting there. She knows that Spanish exists. And French, obviously. And Japanese.

We were watching a cartoon that had been translated into English. I mentioned in passing that it had originally been in Japanese. "Daddy. I'm going to learn Japanese. I'm serious." I laughed, rather delighted, and told her I'll join her in that quest after my French is (much) better.

One mountain to climb is enough for now.

In any case, Norwegian is slated to be next. Don't know why. But I like it.

So, between the time she spends with her mom, getting grounded in music, and the time she spends here with me, et les langues...

Suffice it to say, we're totally raising a polyglot musician. =D

I leave you with the sure knowledge that she's better than the rest of us.

Luuuurve,
Mark

PS... Nothing, though, beats the time she ran up to me and snarled "Je t'aime Daddy ! Merci !" She kills me.

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