Almost English

When you learn a new language—any language—it’s natural to start by learning words and substituting them into the sentence structures you already know. We do this frequently, and our friends laugh at us when we say something in a way they would never say it.

What we have found, however, is that when they try to speak English, they do it, too. So the multitudes of people here who have learned just a little English come up with some pretty creative ways of communicating. Often, when they learn a common English phrase, they don’t understand what each individual word means, or even how the sounds are broken down into words. They just know that when they make those sounds, they get a certain response.

For example, I often get the question “What is your name?” Of course when they ask, I tell them my name. After that, they will frequently point to Lee Anna or Sawyer and ask me “What is your name?” again (translation: What is his/her name?). Sometimes they don’t even ask my name, but just point to Sawyer and ask me “What is your name?” Sometimes I have to repeat the question in Arabic to figure out whose name they’re really asking for.

When calling a friend on the telephone here, it is customary to ask about the well-being of each family member before getting around to the real purpose of the call. So when my friend calls me, he likes to use the little bit of English he knows to ask, “How are you Jason?” Then he asks me, “How are you Lee Anna?” and “How are you Sawyer?” and “How are you Elizabeth?”

The converse sentence also works. A little girl introduced herself to us, in English, saying, “I am Rana,” then put her hands on her friend’s shoulder and introduced her: “I am Hind.”

All of these were amusing, but we heard the very best one yet from a taxi driver Sunday night. He was trying to get Lee Anna to tell him his name, so he asked her, “What’s your name?” When she didn’t answer, he told her “I am what’s your name Fayouz.” That’s close to “My name is Fayouz”, right?

To be fair, I am sure that every night for the past 11 months, at least one taxi driver has gone home and told his family the funny way I expressed something in Arabic. I use feminine verbs with masculine pronouns and plural adjectives all the time!

Rub-a-dub-dub, two kids in the tub

This week, we decided that Sawyer was finally tough enough to be in the same bathtub with Lee Anna. She was very excited to have a little human toy to play with along with her baby dolls and rubber duckies. We only had to tell her a few times to stop pouring cups of water on his head.

Sawyer spent the time doing pretty much the same thing he does all the rest of his waking hours: climbing on whatever obstacle he encounters (even if she's twice your size and pours water on your head) . . .

and putting whatever he can reach in his mouth!Of course no bathtime would be complete without a hooded towel . . .
and fuzzy pajamas!
Night-night everybody.

What do you see here?

Answer Time:













First, let me say that we didn't intend to create an international game of suspense. I had originally planned to simply write a cute little story about what Lee Anna saw here. Right after I uploaded the picture, however, Sawyer needed his Daddy. So I left the blog the way you saw it yesterday. Before I could get back to it, we started getting emails and comments about it, so we decided to leave folks guessing for a day or two.

The answer is... well, it all depends on your perspective.

Your American eyes probably saw a house with a yard and a family. Most of you from Texas guessed correctly that this is our house in Cleburne. Beth's mom got our friend Rick to paint it for us last Christmas. In Lee Anna's world, however, a house has five or six floors (or 10 or 20) and lots of steps leading to lots of apartments--and no pointy rooftops. (Who needs a slanted roof when it never rains?) She looked at this picture last week and exclaimed: "Pyramids!" We're a lot more likely to come across pyramids here than single-family dwellings with grass in the yard.

Thanks for playing, and tune in next time for "What Do You Smell?"