Hello! Long time no blog!
The little guy is now 3 years old, and I feel inspired again to start blogging, to catch the silly things he says. Older son is so much older that he’s almost rational, most of the time.
So, here is a post, in the weird English tradition of my prior blogging. Sam (little guy) is at the stage of speaking and understanding extremely well. Except that once in a while you realize that his version of English is sort of a version from a parallel universe, just slightly different.
One example is that in Sam’s English there is a word, “wrap-around thing.” The first wrap-around thing was the white belt Gus (older brother) earned in a short tae kwan do course that he took. In fact, that belt was pretty much what I thought a “wrap-around thing” was, for a few weeks. I tried to explain that it was a belt, and to refer to it as a belt, but when you’re interested in it mostly for its ability to wrap around stuffed animals and whatnot (say, if you were pretending to truss a crocodile) it’s much more logical to call it the wrap-around thing.
Then, a few weeks ago, I realized that he was using the same phrase, wrap-around thing, to refer to other rope-type things. For instance, I am trying to turn some old fabric into a rag rug, one step of which requires cutting the fabric into strips. Those long strips are also “wrap-around things.”
So, then, a couple of days ago, when I was unpackaging something, I actually don’t remember what, it was some kind of grocery item, there was a piece of string. I almost threw it into the recycling, when suddenly I had the thought, “hey, this is a great wrap-around thing.”
So, not only do preschoolers have their own languages, their languages affect those around them. If you pay attention to them.
Happy Fourth of July weekend! I am going to try again for the “new post on Friday” promise, at least for a few weeks. So I hope you’ll stay tuned.
Tags: animals, Gus, holidays, Sam, weird English
