A few quick stories from this week...
We were eating dinner yesterday when I wanted to say something to one of my children without the other child knowing about it. You know these sorts of conversations :) My mom and dad had them all the time in French. At some point we learned that "crème glacée" means ice cream, and that cramped their style a bit.
In our family, we've naturally used ASL. And it's been so wonderful, because I can talk in secret to anyone in the family, but it takes enough effort to pay attention to ASL that nobody else usually pays attention. When we were pregnant with Jane, Marriner and I sat and signed for 30 minutes about the new baby and nobody caught it. They were just trying to avoid eye contact so we wouldn't try to make them practice ASL with us :)
Well, things have changed. My kids have started using their eyes more. Not once but TWICE this week I've been trying to have a secret conversation about someone in the room and that person has looked up and caught the conversation. So much for our efforts at secret service :) (Yes, they WERE efforts at secret service, what other kind of secrets do you think we'd be talking about?!?) And even though it was really annoying to have our plans foiled, it tickles me pink to see the change in my kids. Both that they're looking up and trying to communicate, and that their receptive skills are good enough for them to eavesdrop. Ha.
On Sunday, we had some visitors at church. One couple was familiar to us, they had both done some translating and interpreting for the church. Marriner and I laughed after church about how gushy we get when we meet some of these people - we just want to run up to these people (who have no clue who we are) and exclaim, "I love the way you translated _______!" or, "That song you did in General Conference! Wow!" We try to keep the fan-boy and fan-girl reaction in check, but when we get home, we squeal like teenage girls and wish we'd gotten their autographs.
In other language news, I got a phone call that freaked me out yesterday. The caller ID said, "Emilia Deguzman" - a friend of ours from my previous life as a Tagalog speaker. I admit, as the phone rang, I almost didn't answer it - I haven't spoken any Tagalog in so long! But I did answer, and had a great time talking to an old friend. I'm still way better at Tagalog than ASL. I wonder if that will ever change. Well, Tagalog, don't be jealous - I spend more time studying ASL right now, but you will always be my first language love :)
You learning "Creme glacee" meant "ice cream" didn't really put a cramp in our style much at all, just meant we didn't eat ice cream as often.
ReplyDeleteWe had something else, something you hadn't learned the word for yet.