Somehow, I ended up bragging about my niece and nephews today. I really don't know how it happened. It's not like every single topic that comes up somehow relates to something about my family.
oh you want to work in politics? my brother...
ya I'm a social welfare major, I take after my sisters and sister-in-law...
oh you went to a Jewish school? Camp? I bet I know it! My parents...
your mom's work building just got a leed certification? My brother-in-law...
pre-med huh? My other brother-in-law...
Oh you're talking about kids? I have 3 nephews and a niece...
Today, a girl on my program and I were talking about how funny it is to skype with our respective nieces and nephews. The funniest part about it is how they don't think the fact that I'm sitting in a room thousands of miles away and chatting face to face is unusual. Now, I get that my generation isn't so fascinated by it either, but believe me, we appreciate that we have the world (wide web) at our fingertips when our parents (or for some of us, our siblings) couldn't even imagine it. But for the little ones, it will never even be a question.
In all of this thought about the small people in my life, I started thinking about how my oldest nephew, Yonah, is starting to read. And you know what, reading is really difficult. I mean, come on English, why do the vowels make a different sound in every word? Spanish makes much more sense. Each vowel only makes one sound, no matter what other letters surround it.
Grand question: Do Spanish children have an easier time reading than American children?
I have no answer.
In some ways, the two languages are so similar. Sometimes when I'm not sure of a word, I actually just take a guess by adding an "o" to the English version and it's correct (and sometimes it's super embarrassing). But when it comes to vowel sounds, I really just don't know what the creators of the English language were thinking.
This brings me to a funny (and slightly suggestive) story. Today in my Spanish Language class, we were discussing the subjunctive tense. We were translating some simple sentences into English to reinforce the point that we need to use the infinitive after a verb. The example was:
"I want you to help me tonight."
Our professor asked if the sentence would make sense if we took out the word "to." Of course the answer is no, but one student brought up the point that if you replace "to" with a comma, it would make some sort of sense. Our immature selves got the better of us and we giggled a little. Our professor, however, was confused. You see, to her, the word "comma" sounds like "cama" which means bed. Funny coincidence. This caused even more laughter. Clearly, college students are real adults...
The joy of language barriers.
Let's help out my nephew, and the rest of the world, and take a cue from Spanish, perhaps?
(Thanks for indulging me in this stream-of-consciousness, completely random post. More about the daily life of an American in Europe soon)
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