10.11.2007

English or Dutch?

My kiddo sure can make me laugh. Last night as I was reading his bedtime story, I realized just how in tune he is to the differences and similarities between Dutch and English. We were reading a Pooh book, and Pooh brought Piglet a honeypot to use as a stool. Stool, yes! Jari looked thoughtfully at the pictures and said "Dat is geen stoel, mama, maar een kruk. (That isn't a chair mama, but a stool)." Stoel (stool) in Dutch is a chair, while stool in English is kruk...does that make any sense?? haha He definitely didn't know the word for stool in English and yet, he knew the story was all wrong. I explained the definitions of stool, chair, stoel, and kruk to him and he then says to me, "English and Dutch are nearly the same. They even have the same words!" As I continued reading teh story, I don't think he heard a word because a little bit further he suddenly pipes up, "But that sure is hard when the same word means a different word, he mama?" Smart cookie I have there. I've got the same troubles as he does when it comes to this langauge stuff!!! I sure get a kick out of our bilingual-ism (is that a word??!).

1 comment:

Casdok said...

ahhh arnt kids cute!