Sunday, June 14, 2009

Howdy! 'Round here we speak Southern...

One of my goals in 2009 was to find Stinkerbella more English-speaking friends her age, and thanks to Message we've been able to meet this goal. Many of the other families are from somewhere in the U.K., and every now and again there are little vocabulary issues that arise. I remember going through that when I first moved to Japan, but the topics were pretty different as we were all a bunch of single people in our early 20s.

Since our babies are all in the early 2s, I make a good faith effort not to confuse other people's children when I'm talking directly to them but find it a lot harder to switch around my English vocabulary than to switch to French with my French friends' children. It's funny how that works. Before moving here, I already knew what a nappy was, but lately we've been talking about welly boots, pushchairs, buggies, jumpers, and I don't know what all else.

Stinkerbella seems unfazed by the most part by all the different vocabulary, although when we sang the ABC song she said, "No, no, no! Not zed, it's ZEE!" when my friend said the last letter of the alphabet. I tried to explain that our friends used a different word than we do, just like daddy uses different words than I...so we'll see how she reacts the next time we sing.

I have a hunch, though, that out of us all, my vocabulary is the most special since I do find myself speaking "country" to my daughter. It's what comes out the most naturally, and to be perfectly honest I quite like the way my family and friends speak since it's mixed in with our cultural identity as hillbillies. Last week I said something along the lines of "Come here and let me pull up your britches" and my friend said, "Oh, so you say breeches for trousers?!" I'm sure there must be other things that she hasn't (yet) commented on.

In addition to the what must be bizarre vocab, there are the grammatically incorrect expressions that I've kept because it's just the way they are said. I try to speak correctly in front of other people's children but sometimes I get tangled up if my daughter is part of that group. When we sang the famous Sleeping Bunnies I confused myself and everyone else in the room by saying, "Now, lay down, little bunnies -- I mean, LIE down -- no, I mean, LAY down -- um..." and then just gave up and started the song. I do not have this problem when teaching since I'm in teacher mode, but it's odd how the mom mode and teacher mode can come into conflict in playgroups, especially since mom mode seems to override teacher mode more easily than vice versa. The brain is a funny thing.

In a little over a week we'll be leaving for Virginia to spend a month with my family, and I cannot wait to see the effects on her language. I'm now opening up bets to see how long it will take for her to start saying yeller when I ask her what color Big Bird is.