Sunday, August 26, 2012

Who Speaks English?

We just got home from a four day camping trip and there are 12 dirty children, 3 filthy dogs, 2 tired parents, and a trailer and van full of the things that make our small camping world go round.  
I was upstairs bathing some very dirty boys and needed something from the basement.  I stood at the top of the stairs and called down to the main level of the house hoping (praying) that I could get the attention of any of the children that I could hear “down there”.   No one answered and my frustration grew.   After calling turned to yelling, I finally, and with a touch of sarcasm, said “Is there ANYONE who speaks English that can hear me?”
Want to guess who came running?
My little Chinese daughter, who still does not know much English, came running to the bottom of the stairs asking in broken English, “What, what you need Momma?”
I wanted the lotion that was in the basement under a certain cabinet.  As I looked at her little helpful face, I considered how to communicate, in the English that she can understand, my dilemma, and really knew that I couldn’t.  So I asked her to tell Caresse that Momma needed her.  
As I went back to helping the boys, I laughed to myself.  Go figure, the one child who really can’t speak much English is the one who answered.  
I just thought this was cute!!

5 comments:

  1. Love it! We get that here too!

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  2. Aaww..that was good of her to notice you were calling. I so "get" when things are chaotic, it's often hard to get anyone's attention! :)

    At our house, 1/3 of them can't talk; 1/2 of them don't understand/can't process a lot of words at once; I can't understand what 2/3 of them are trying to say. 5 of 6 are excessively loud at whatever noises come out of their mouth. No wonder I'm so tired :) Bet you have some interesting ratios there also!!!

    Blessings, Jennifer

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  3. This just cracked me up! Sounds like she is learning to hear and obey your voice, and her English will come along, too.

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  4. "Like"

    She heard you, and she so wants to please her Mama. Sweet!

    Hope your camping trip was fun. We just got back from a 5 day camping trip.


    :) :) :)

    ReplyDelete

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