Playgroup on Thursdays was probably my most frustrating place for language for a long time - still is since they speak in a strong dialect when talking with each other and I cannot understand a thing. BUT things have improved. Jessica (new friend, expat family from Deere, lives 6 houses away from me, two girls same age as my kids) comes. And the ladies there have become friendlier too. We all went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant last Saturday, as well, and had a good time. We laugh at each others' language difficulties and learn a little as well.
So they asked me for an American song to sing with the little kids - my mind goes blank. They suggested I lead them in "Old McDonald Has a Farm." Okay, here goes! No problem on the cow sound... that's the same in both languages. They had funny looks on their faces when I said a Pig says 'oink.' Looked at each other saying 'oink? oooiiiiinnk?' In German books they say something like 'noof'. I chuckled. But things really got humorous when we got to the horse. 'Neigh?' They all looked at me in disbelief. In German, 'nay' is simply 'no' (also in English but we're flexible). Everyone stopped singing. 'Nayee?' 'Naaay?' They just didn't believe me.
I couldn't believe the words came out of my mouth but I actually said (in German): "When a horse speaks English it says 'neigh'." At which point we all cracked up laughing and gave up on the song. Apparently a horse says 'huii' when speaking German.
Just another cultural learning opportunity for me. If you'd like to learn as well, go to the Animal Sounds Lexicon here.
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2 comments:
Sandra, you have some very nice pictures here that I hadn't seen yet. The ones of the kids with grandma and Kevin, Janelle, and Nicole with Althea are really nice. I would like a copy of those sometime. Dad
This is hilarious!! Maybe next time you should try The Itsy Bitsy Spider...as spiders don't say anything! : )
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