We’ve been home three months today! It’s appropriate to spend a few minutes reflecting on the boys’ language acquisition which, in a word, is PHENOMENAL!!! It is hard to believe that, just a mere three months ago, we relied on charades for about 90% of our communication. Today, we talk to both Daniel and David almost as if they were native English speakers. They understand almost anything we throw at them.
Their ability to carry on a conversation is so far beyond any expectations we had that we really don’t know what to say about it. They continue to learn how to express themselves in English, but they are unafraid to try and we have very frequent opportunities to discuss some of the nuances of our language. For example, today David was asking about the difference between “almost” and “not quite.”  So, as you’re reading this, do you have a good explanation for that one? I didn’t think so. It is really fun to experience this growth with them and to help them explore our quirky language.
Some examples of things we’ve experienced over the weeks:

• Randy: “David, that’s too much!”.  David: “It’s not too much.  It’s ONE much!”  I just didn’t expect that from a 7-year old who’d been in America only a couple weeks at the time.
• “And this come, and this go.”  We have yet to figure out what they meant when they used this expression.  They would be telling a story when they’d insert “and this come, and this go.  Right, Dad?”  It reminds me of the “yada yada” Seinfeld episode (sorry, I won’t explain it for those who don’t recognize the reference).  We recently had a conversation with them about this expression and decided that we would assign a new meaning to it – it now is used to indicate how much we love them.  “And this come, and this go” now officially means the same as “from the East to the West” or other similar references.
• “Do you usterstand me? I’m glad!”  Even after three months, it’s so cute that we don’t insist on the proper pronunciation of understand.
• One night at the table, a bit of discipline was underway when Daniel did something that elicited a very sarcastic “that’s funny!” from Mom.  After he chuckled, Sary-Jo clarified by saying, “not ‘ha-ha’ funny.”  Daniel paused only a second and asked, “just ‘hee hee’ funny?”  We have to admit that we could not hold back our chuckles.  Sometimes it’s easier to stay mad than at other times.

We had always said that language was not high on our list of concerns in regard to raising these boys.  But we did expect more of a challenge in this area than we’ve actually encountered.  In another post we’ll talk about some of the areas that have been more challenging than we anticipated.