Stumbling towards bilingual

"Mom, mom," Cameron called up the stairs. "I know how to say Happy New Year in French!"

"Awesome, Honey," I said, probably gathering up laundry or trying to find my shoes or something upstairs. "What is it?"

"GUNG HEY FAT CHOY!"

Now, he is in French Immersion - senior kindergarten - so obviously he's just a beginner. And it was January around Chinese New Year and obviously they were working on a Chinese New Year unit at school. So it's understandable that he would muddle the two new languages.

But something about the earnestness and his usual, inadvertently perfect comedic timing, made me laugh out loud. He was terribly offended.

"OOOHHHHHh! I should KNOW how to say it in French!" he wailed.

A few weeks later we were hitching a ride in a friend's van when the conversation in the back went to French words. His almost-four-year-old friend was informing him of some pretty basic stuff: bonjour, oui, non, merci, etc.

"I know, I know!" said Cameron.

"I've been in French aversion for a really long time now."

Comments

[christine]

GREAT story Brandie! My kids are in French "aversion" too and they really love it! Used to sit outside their bedroom door at night, back when they shared a room, and could hear them, "Percy.... what's dog in French?" To which he would reply, "chien" of course. The conversations were long and eventually became completely French between the two of them!
Well, Gung Hey Fat Choy to you!
Chris.

[Charlene Green]

This blog is so cute.. I really enjoyed reading it. I think it was the best out of all of them.