Freitag, 18. April 2008

warnings

I chuckled inappropriately at a child yesterday. I didn't mean to.

It was after lunch, and the child was telling a story. He continued to use the word "gesein" for the past tense of sein (to be). Another child corrected him (quite politely, actually) each time. At some point, the incidental instructor tired of repeating "GEWESEN!" and said it quite sharply with a rather large sigh. That is when I chuckled.

At times, the progress that I hear in the school is something extraordinary. It's an external sound of the opposite of what is happening in my brain. As I begin to make sense of Swiss German from my small store of German, it is the inversion of what is going on with the little ones.

In the language vein: I am a large fan of 10 and 5 minute warnings for children. I don't like to stop a child at work or play without fair warning that the fun will, if not all together stop, need to change. Unlike when my mother said "guys, five more minutes, kay?", my warnings are always followed by the general chatter of one child explaining to another, what it is that I have said. "Die Jessy hat seid, dass mir nur 5 Minute mehr han. Schnell!"
Yesterday, one of the children who had always needed the translation was doing the translating and I was just so cheered.
Now if I only had better hearing. It's so damn frustrating when a kid tries their first turn at speaking English with me and I ask "what" and they repeat what they've said in German. Opportunity missed, dagnabit.

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