Language Issues

One of the big fears that people (including ourselves) have about attempting to speak a different language is that a mispronunciation of a word will be funny or perhaps even offensive to the listener.  This is especially true in languages like Chinese, where a difference in tones can change the meaning of a word entirely.

I never stopped to think it could also be true in the other direction, until now.

Abigail has been picking up English words rapidly, and has begun putting two or three words together occasionally.  She knows the words for her favorite treats.  Chocolate was easy.  The Chinese pronunciation is actually quite similar, sounding more like "chocaLEET" (at least according to Abigail, who asks for chocaleet often).

Abigail has also discovered chocolate ice cream.  She was asking for this yesterday and we were so focused on the language that we missed the pronunciation.  It took one of our teenagers to point it out to us.  Josh asked us, "You know what she's saying, don't you?  She's asking for chocaleet ass cream."

We will be working to correct the pronunciation.