The Latest in Language Lessons

It has been a good long time since I have posted any language-related stories here.  But I have to share the latest trend I am seeing in Lilly. 

We are still speaking lots of Chinese at home, but her predominant language is most definitely English.

For the most part, she is very understandable, even to total strangers.  But there are still times when her speech is slightly unclear, even to me.  She used to get extremely frustrated really quickly when I had trouble understanding her.  I knew I had about 3 chances to say "I'm sorry, sweetie, what did you say?  Can you say it again?" before she would either shut down or throw a fit.  Not pretty.  So over time I leared new strategies of helping her express herself like "Can you show me?" "Can you tell me what it looks like?" "Can you tell me in Chinese?" "WHere did we see/do/hear it?" and a host of other questions that help her find a way to make it clear to me what she is talking about.  She is a smart cookie and we almost never have fits anymore.  Praise the Lord.

Well, here is our latest twist on communication barriers, now that she is learning all her letters, wanting to know how to spell things, and attemtpting to write names and words.  When I have trouble understanding her, she will simply pause what she was trying to say, and "spell it."  Except she can't spell.  Tonight, for example, while she was in the bathtub, it went like this:

Lilly:  "Mom, please you bring lotta' Paw Paw Kits" to the bath?
Me: "What did you say?  Paw Paw Kits?"
Lilly: "No!  You know, Paaaw PAAAAW Kits!  WAY lot.  THIS MUCH" (stretching her arms way wide)
Me: (knowing I'm on strike two now...) "Hmmm....what are paw paw kits?  Can you tell me more..."
Lilly, interrupting: "Mom.  Listen.  T - U - V.  You know, paw paw kits."

Me: (laughing at her attempt at spelling what she was requesting, and relieved that my mind had finally interpreted her request (not in any way due to the spelling) "OH!  Polly Pockets!  Sure.  I'll bring you lots."

Lilly: "why you laughing?  No laugh at me.  WAY LOTS mom, ok?"

That girl simply cracks me up. 

Language Lessons

Up until recently, as I've posted before, Lilly has been speaking a happy blend of Chinese and English--"Chinglish"--as we like to call it. Even now, although her English is increasingly fluent and prominent, Chinglish is her primary language. I speak Chinglish fairly fluently, but it sometimes makes for confusing conversations with others!

A difference I am beginning to see, however, is that it appears that Lilly is beginning to notice that there are two languages. For instance, when we read stories at night or before naptime, frequently I will translate whatever the book of the day might be into Chinese for our story time. Recently, as I began to read a page in Chinese, she turned in my lap and looked at me with a quizzical look and said "what you doing?" Knowing she was referring to the language, I responded in both English and Chinese "speaking Chinese!" "Oh!" was her reply. Ever since that day, anytime I start to read in Chinese, she'll turn and exclaim "that's Chinese!" Sometimes she'll request that I read a book in Chinese (which, unfortunately, I am sometimes unable to do--either I simply don't have the vocabulary or the book really needs to be read in English to be effective, such as "Goodnight Moon." The rhymes would just go away!).  And thanks to Aunt Wen, we now have several children's books written in Chinese, which have been fun to try to read together.

Anyway, yesterday, as we were driving Anna to swim team practice (it was a gorgeous day to be at the pool, might I add), Lilly asked me "Mom, what does yellow mean?" Now frequently she will pop a question out of the blue and I am left scrambling for contextual clues to know what prompted the question and what she is really asking. In this case, I assumed she meant the yellow traffic light since we frequently seem to have conversations about red, yellow, and green lights and what they mean when you're driving (e.g. "Mom, go! Why you stopping?" "I have a red light". "Oh." Yes, she's a backseat driver).

So in this instance I answered "yellow means 'slow down, get ready to stop.'"

She tried again, "No, what does yellow mean?" (we also frequently have conversations where, unsatisfied with my response, Lilly will simply repeat her question as if my answer will magically change).

I again replied "it means 'slow down, get ready to stop.'"

More frustrated, she said "No! What does yellow mean? Is it "lu se?" (which is the word for "green" in Chinese).

"Oh!  No...it's huang se."  Now I understood what she was asking.  She proceeded to recite each color that she could think of in English and then in Chinese, asking for help now and then with the ones she didn't know.  I was pretty impressed with her and realized that, even though her primary language is Chinglish, she is starting to get it!

She keeps me on my toes...now I need to go look up how to say "pink!"  Never learned that one...