As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, my son has developed a language all his own – which I’m sure most preschoolers do – but his is the most special, I promise I remember when I was pregnant and people kept telling me that he would learn to speak so quickly because he had an older sibling. Then, after I freaked out thinking he had developmental delays, a friend of mine showed me a study where they found younger siblings took longer to speak because often the older child did all the talking for them. I don’t know if this is the case for everyone, but my son was not an early talker. What I notice now, though, is that at 3 years-old he uses expressions that his 8 year-old sister says. At first I was quite impressed by his language development, then I realized he probably doesn’t completely understand every word in the phrase – he just knows when to use them.

For instance, when he sees that I’m struggling to do something, he says “It doesn’t matter, Mommy, it doesn’t matter” and shakes his hand so I know it’s okay to give up.

When you give him something that he doesn’t want to eat, he says “I can’t want it.”

If you confirm something he just said – usually by repeating it correctly – he says “Exactly!”.

Of course he says a lot of the typical words that a 3 year-old should say (his speech is a lot simpler in French and Spanish), but these few always make me chuckle – especially after worrying that his speech wasn’t developing as it should. Needless to say, I’m one proud mama

Daughter: Can you spread the cheese on the cracker for me, please?

Me: Why can’t you do it?

Daughter: Because I don’t do it very well.

That is simply music to my ears! Don’t know if my writing conveys this, but I’m a stickler for good grammar. I subscribe to the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar and I correct people when they misplace prepositions. Yes, I’m that annoying person.

I try to cut the kids some slack because they’re constantly switching between at least three languages to communicate. I speak uniquely English to them and when they get stuck, I let them explain something that happened whatever language is the easiest. This works well, but promoting good grammar is tough. Not necessarily with the two year-old who is just now beginning to form sentences with more than 3 words, but I have different expectations for my daughter.

Every time someone asks her how she’s doing, she says “good” and I cringe. She asks me what is written in small print because she can’t see very good and I involuntarily twitch. After my physical reactions, I repeat her sentence correctly and ask her to do the same. This happens over and over again…it’s just become part of daily interaction. So, imagine my delight the other day when she says it correctly on the first try! I mean, my heart skipped a beat I was so happy.

It goes to show that consistency really does pay off. She may be annoyed with me correcting her now, but one day when she’s one of the few people who speak what will probably be called “old school English”, she’ll be in high demand and thank me.

For those of you who have been abroad or are an immigrant, you may know who I’m talking about.

Language warriors are those people who will pick up on you speaking another language and regardless of what you’re doing or the tone of your conversation, interrupt to find out what language you’re speaking and which country speaks it.

This happens most frequently when I’m with the kids and the warriors hear me speaking English to them. I can be in the middle of reprimanding my daughter or trying to understand my son in his two year-old speak, and someone says, “Are you from Trinidad?”. I try not to roll my eyes and in showing the kids good manners, I reply with “No.” Of course the next question is “You are from the United States?” and for reasons I’ll explain in a different post, I say “We’ve lived there, yes.”

Other times, people will hear me speaking Haitian Creole to my husband and once they’ve stared long enough to get our attention ask “De donde son ustedes?” I force a smile and say “Haiti” and quickly try to resume my conversation.

One evening, while we were walking back to our apartment, I noticed this man kind of lurking around us (which was pretty creepy), when all of a sudden he blurts out “Kouman nou ye?” (How are you in Haitian Creole). I have to say that startled me more than his lurking. Turns out, he’s an Algerian who has worked in Haiti and fell in love with the country. He was spending a few days in Caracas and when he thought he overheard us speaking Creole, he had to say “hi”. So, while usually a nuisance, sometimes it turns out okay.

I’m sure these people have good intentions, but it’s almost as though they are patrolling for the opportunity to interrupt someone and ask about his/her heritage. And while I love to talk about my culture, while I’m explaining to my daughter why it is not polite to point at people is really not a good time.

Do you have any stories about run-ins with the language warriors?

Photo credit: The US Army

That’s how I feel about learning Spanish.

The reason that I was MIA last week is because I started my Spanish course. I didn’t want to take an intensive course knowing that my brain shuts down after an hour of learning, but I ended up joining a group already in session that meets three times a week (pretty intense if you ask me). The good thing is the teacher calibrated my level pretty well after a brief conversation, so I think I will be learning a lot. And that’s also part of the problem. Learning a lot for 2 hours, 3 times a week wreaked havoc on my energy level.

I don’t know if it’s because it was the first week, or the gloomy weather we’ve been experiencing, but it’s been a tough week. I went in very excited about increasing my ability to speak Spanish, but apparently I am now at the plateau stage of language development. So, after what I feel was a grueling first week, I now have a harder time expressing myself than before . I guess there lies the advantage of learning a languages of a child – ignorance is bliss.

I think what makes officially learning Spanish difficult is because during the course of the day, I spend at least an hour speaking French and Haitian Creole in addition to English (hence, my crazy two year-old. So, even though I have great opportunities to practice Spanish, sometimes my brain just hurts too much.

My goal for taking this course is to (within 3 months) be able to speak without translating from English in my head first, while also being grammatically correct. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Language Legend: EN = English FR = French ES = Spanish

Him: Ola mommy! (SP)

Me: Hi, what are you doing?

Him: Suddenly distracted and pointing – Oh look, bug! (EN)

Me: Really, I don’t see a bug. – I move closer to catch a glimpse.

Him: Attention, mommy! Attention! (FR)

Me: Okay, I’ll get rid of it – I pretend to squash the bug with my foot.

Him: Gracias. (ES)

Me: You’re welcome, baby.

Him: He decides to go play with Sissy – Hasta luego, adios! (ES)

Me: See you later.

Outside of my confusion, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry – or should I say rire (FR) or llorar (ES)