Thursday, March 26, 2009

tongue talk

Something I forgot to post before:

I was waiting in the lobby of my building for a friend so we could go to quiz night at the local pub, (it's a British thing- they're really big on it here...), and there was a man, woman, and three little kids sitting on the sofa there, too. When the kids, who are probably around three and four) see me, they instantly call out, "Hello! How are you? Goodbye!" The woman (their aunt) explains to me they're from Kuwait, and this is pretty much the only English they know. (She also says with a smile they are "trouble.") The kids proceed to greet every other person who comes in or out of the building with at least one of the phrases, in no particular order. (Goodbye! How are you!) One of the little girls has also picked up her own version of "twinkle, twinkle" composed almost completely of that one word.
The man invites me to sit on the sofa with them, and he begins saying words in Arabic to the kids to practice in English, like car, or dog. He them repeats them so I can learn them in Arabic. (He said I was really good at it, but of course they're all gone now.)
I realize this must have been how I seemed to the Czech, with my proud little "Prozims" and "Dekujis", or in France, when we were teaching David to count to ten on the train. It's both amusing and a little mortifying. But that's how you learn, I suppose.

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