Languages

Since I grew up in the States, I took Spanish as my foreign language when I was in high school.  PChad, growing up in Canada took French.  The languages, though both deriving from Latin, don’t have a whole lot in common.  Asher will sometimes ask me to read the French on a cereal box & I butcher it badly, pronouncing all the letters (even the ones that are supposed to be silent), with a poor Spanish accent.

 

We have come to a language truce, if there is a book in Spanish, it is my job to read it to the kids; if there is something written in French, it is up to PChad to translate it.  Every now & then I decide to take the plunge & try out some French written on various food packages, often with some rather funny mispronunciations.

 

Today at lunch, we had a package of berries & I was attempting to read “mûres” (blackberries), & “framboises” (raspberries) to the kids, & PChad was trying to understand what I was saying, with little to no luck.  Finally I handed him the packages so he could attempt a proper pronunciation.

 

Asher suddenly asked, “Mummy, can you teach me how to speak Navajo?”

 

This, of course set me into a fit of laughter, which then led him to ask, “What’s so funny, Mummy?”

 

How do you explain to a 4 year-old what the Navajo language is & why we can’t help him out in that department?