Monday, January 24, 2011

The many languages of our class

The kids at the think-tank come from all over the world. It can be like teaching in a mini-UN sometimes listening to five year olds compare their different cultures. As an adult I'm frequently jealous of their travels, the different languages they speak, and their undstanding of the world so it is only reasonable that the few children in our school whose grandparents and parents were born in the US would be jealous too.

This morning the one white girl in our kindergarten class floated into the room.

"Guess what Mrs Lipstick," she announced with a sense of excitement only a five year old can muster on a Monday morning, "My mom speaks a little bit of New York!"

I am sure whatever conversation she had with her mom this morning led her to believe she could finally compete with her classmates stories of "my mom doesn't speak English but she does speak Arabic/Spanish/Hindi/Vietnamese, etc."

I didn't bother to correct her, but it may be time to learn some map skills and understand state vs country...

2 comments:

Jenna said...

ah... but even if she did get to country vs. state, would you want her to say that her mother speaks a little bit of 'American'?

Teri K said...

To those of us in the rest of the US, her comment makes perfect sense. :)