Last weekend, I got the dad-duty of picking up Andrew from his friend Astor’s birthday party. Andrew had been there for three hours playing with all the other boys, most of whom he knew from school. There was one boy there, however, who didn’t know him previously. As I was waiting with the other parents to collect our children, a fellow dad started talking to me in English. (He must have assumed I spoke English by the color of my hair, eyes, and skin or else by the way I speak Spanish.) The boy who hadn’t met Andrew prior to the birthday party heard us talking English, inserted himself in our conversation, pointed to Andrew and asked, “¿Él puede hablar en inglés también?” (“Can he speak English too?”)
I was amazed that this boy who had been playing with Andrew for the past 3 hours assumed that he was Argentine, based on Andrew’s spoken Spanish. I don’t know why it continues to shock me that the boys have surpassed us in their language acquisition. It’s been this way for awhile. But the fact that another boy didn’t even realize Andrew was from a different country left me speechless. The Argentines can usually tell which province a fellow citizen is from based on their accent and intonation; the Cordobes’ are very proud of the way they speak. Good job Andrew!
[It’s also interesting, now, to listen to them talking in English. They each have a little sing-songy type of lift to the end of their sentences which is how we talk in Spanish here. I’ll be interested to see if anyone else notices that when we are back in the States and asks where they’re from and where they learned to speak English!]
2 comments:
Is that an Argentinian facial expression too? Raro.
I had friends who lived in Zimbabwe for 3 yrs when they were Andrew & David's age. They eventually blended their intonations back to Californian, but there were beautiful cultural ways that they kept with them always. I'm looking forward to watching that happen! Thanks for posting, Chris!
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