Adventures at Church Overseas
My son has just turned two and has been in a bilingual environment for the past 10 months. It appears that he understands English and Albanian at about the same level. He has been a bit slower (compared to my chatty daughter) at talking and seems to choose the word from the English or Albanian language that’s easiest to say.
His favorite word is “car.” This also happens to be quite a bad word in Albanian. The missionaries are not allowed to use the word “car” in English, using only the Albanian word “makine” even in English conversations. Each week my son inevitably yells “car” out during church with hopes that I will draw pictures of cars and trucks for him. I try relentlessly to get him to say “truck” or “bus” or “makine”, but he ends up just saying “BIG car” instead. I’ve had to ban his favorite books and toy cars from our Sunday bag and I try to keep him busy otherwise as to minimize the outbursts. Thankfully the members are understanding, and I’m told his little voice is not offensive. Still, I could only imagine being in sacrament meeting with a kid bleating obscenities every so often.
Sigh.
P.S. If any of you reading this have experience with raising bilingual toddlers, please share your wisdom.
May 28th, 2006 08:02
It’s not bilingual, but difficulty in pronunciation can work the same way. A young family that recently moved from our ward had an adorable 2 year-old girl that was trying to say “frog” but really wasn’t forming the “r” sound well, and the vowel sounded more like a short “u” and I think you can imagine what it sounded like to those of us right in front of this little angel.
I only knew it was “frog” because I asked her mom.
I hope the folks in your ward understand that “car” is a homophone in English for a totally innocuous term, and that your young toddler really isn’t trying to sound like a truck driver.
May 28th, 2006 10:11
Blain, That’s hilarious!
May 29th, 2006 00:41
I don’t remember the name of the branch I visited in Tirana in 2000, but I enjoyed my visit very much - especially as all the young people surreptiously checked for my nametag - I learned that the branch didn’t get many young American visitors!
May 29th, 2006 09:40
Sylvia,
Yeah, no kidding! What WERE you doing in Tirana?
May 29th, 2006 12:52
For this reason during my mission in Argentina we always had a trusted older sympathetic member with whom we’d try new words before using them in conversation. Some people on the street found enjoyment in loading our vocabulary with words they’d misdefine.
May 29th, 2006 13:11
5. Manaen, this is actually what came to mind for me…all those stories of companions who exploit their new comps’ lack of knowledge about the language (like the classic use of “embarasada” which sounds like it could mean “embarrassed” when it actually means “pregnant”). Fortunately, my comp was nice.
May 29th, 2006 13:11
Jen, this is a hysterical story. Thanks for giving me a laugh today.
Blain, my son had the exact same trouble with the word “frog”. My nephews thought it was absolutely hilarious. I was somewhat less than amused at their encouragement, though.
May 30th, 2006 01:05
Fun post, Jen! Cars do seem to be one of the first interests of little boys. We moved to South America when our first child was three months old, so he learned Spanish and English at the same time. When a toddler, he didn’t pronounce the “r” in “car” at first, so the meaning for Spanish speakers (especially when he repeated the word twice) came through as similar to the equivalent of English “poo.” Not a strong obscenity, but sufficiently crude that we were embarrassed when he called it out in church. We tried tactics similar to yours, and after a couple of weeks we succeeded in reducing the volume of the outbursts; eventually, of course, the problem went away. By the time we had a second boy (after two girls) we had perfected the arts of toy selection and immediate distraction during Sacrament Meeting.
Fortunately, as Blain mentioned, members are usually very understanding of the language development of all children, as well as the pronunciation and word use mistakes that adult foreigners make. A sense of humor helps a lot!
Incidents like the ones you, Blain and Keryn described are perfect illustrations of how our reaction to words is totally culturally based. I still remember when we moved to England, and a couple of our children were shocked when their Australian Primary teacher used the word “damn.” I had to explain that was the Australian equivalent of “darn” in American!
There is nothing inherently “bad” about any particular set of sounds. It is the meaning a word has in a particular culture that can render a particular set of sounds offensive. Or, when we hear those sounds coming from the mouth of a little child, humorous!
May 30th, 2006 06:17
It works both ways. Imagine hearing some poor Thai in the US innocently saying their word for pumkin [Phuk] . . .
N.O.
May 30th, 2006 08:18
It’s always fascinating to me that the innocence of children turns what is offensive and rude into something humorous and sometimes cute. Though I’m sure you’re horrified and embarrassed I doubt that anyone else is.
May 30th, 2006 18:51
Jen–
Queen Serene mentioned your blog to me over at Segullah. I was surprised to see you here! I thought…Jen, in Albania….has to be the Jen I know from Gaithersburg. Small World! Matt keeps telling me to email you and then quickly forgets to give me your address. I’ll keep tabs on you here though…
Sorry for the unrelated post. Didn’t want to lurk without revealing myself.
May 30th, 2006 23:29
Here’s my brief account of my visit - it was actually in 2001. I was in Tirana for a meeting and was able to go to church in Tirana and Milan (on the way there and back).
http://ticklethepear.livejournal.com/3499.html