The past couple of days have been nothing more than our normal everyday wanderings around town. The beach, the marina, the Dairy Queen. Pretty tame. We were disappointed to find that the marina area continues its decline. A couple more restaurants have been shuttered, grass is growing three feet tall all over the place, and now the grocery store is gone too. Really, having that grocery store right there at the marina was the only thing making life on the boat at that end of town bearable. Hanging out on the boat in the marina area looks pretty unappealing these days. I can’t imagine what condo owners and developers are thinking. Ouch.
Ouest wrapped up her sixth week of school today. She continues to do amazingly well—better than Ali and I ever expected. And she is learning a ton though it is hard for us to always know just what she is learning. Remember, nobody at school speaks English, so conversations between her teacher and I are extremely simple—in fact we sometimes just exchange notes. For example, Ouest was having some trouble in computer class. She couldn’t really explain what was happening that was upsetting her, but it seemed that she felt that nobody was helping her. So I typed up a message in Google Translate and handed it over to the teacher the next day. She isn’t actually the one who teaches the computer class, so she passed it along. And Ouest came home happy about computer class after that. I can ask the teacher if everything is going okay or if there are any problems, but anything in depth requires Google.
So anyway, Ouest is having fun, the kids are all extremely nice, and she’s got her best friend Fatima to goof around with. Her teacher is great and Ouest loves her—she thinks she’s pretty, and nice. We can’t really get a lot of information out of Ouest. Kids seem to have a short-term memory problem.
“What did you guys do in school today?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing, you must have done something.”
“I don’t remember.”
“Did you paint? Color? Sing songs? Play a game?”
“I painted a picture. And we sang a song. And we played a game too.”
“How did the song go?”
“Laaa la… me not remember.”
“Was it a fun game? What was it?”
“We all held hands in a circle and then fall down.”
“That’s it? That was the whole game?”
“Me think so.”
That is our conversation pretty much every day. But then at some random point in the day Ouest will blurt out a new Spanish word and catch us off guard.
Ali: “Ouest, did you eat your lunch today?”
Ouest: “Desayuno.” Breakfast.
Ali: “What?”
Ouest: “Desayuno. That’s what me teacher calls it.”
Lunch is actually at 9:20, so I do suppose it should rightly be called desayuno. In this case I was most impressed by how well Ouest pronounced the word. It was perfect. And desayuno is not a word that simply rolls off the tongue. It’s the little things like that that make me happy she’s in school.
This is our friend, the one-winged pelican, who I am convinced has phantom limb syndrome. He is forever preening his missing wing.
11 Comments on “Desayuno”
When my daughter was 3 her nickname was “constant comment” because she chattered nonstop. Imagine my surprise at the first parent-teacher meeting several months into the school year when the teacher asked if my daughter was deaf or mute. Apparently she was so intent on working in class (it was a Montessori where kids did independent tasks) that she never spoke. During music and circle time she just observed with a smile, and turned away shyly when called on to participate. She was absorbing tons, though. Just before she was to enter kindergarten I got a “learning to read” book and settled in to read it with her, and she grabbed it from me and read the whole thing aloud, perfectly. At first I couldn’t believe it. The next day I got some books she’d never seen before, and sure enough, she was able to read those, too. I was looking forward to teaching her to read, and she had already taught herself. The preschool mind is just amazing! It will be fun for you to discover what Ouest has been absorbing at school.
Funny story Heather, thanks. You’re right, the preschool mind is amazing. We’re reminded almost daily that Ouest is soaking up everything around her, including everything that comes out of our mouths. 🙂 I think as her speech progresses more and more we’re going to discover just how much she has absorbed.
Sort of random, but it is so interesting to get a different perspective from an “immigrant” parent who does not speak the prevailing local language. Your posts like this strengthen my already immense respect for immigrants and economic refugees who move to a foreign countries in search of a better life for their family. Can you imagine the stress and anxiety that a struggling Spanish speaking man would encounter if his child was struggling in an all-English environment, but he was unable to help because of the language barrier? Amazing people… I hope that I would have the courage to put myself and my family through it if I were in similar circumstances. It’s also amazing that a free tool like Google translate is able to effectively work around communication deficiencies. The world is pretty cool.
Thanks for the comment Donald. It really is amazing how well we’re treated and the caring that people show us. I would imagine that at school we are more a pain in the butt to them than anything else, but we would certainly never know that by the actions of the teacher and all of the staff. We’re treated as equals despite our barriers. I imagine in the U.S. there are many thousands, if not millions, of non-English speakers sending their non-
English speaking kids off to school. I can only hope they are treated as well as we are.
And yeah, the world is pretty cool. We certainly enjoy living in it.
Hey guys, I’ve just finished reading through your catamaran posts and have been catching up on your latests posts. I’ve loved reading all of them. We found you through your boat naming advice and your mono vs. multi articles and we just bought our first sailboat, a trimaran (go figure). you guys have been very encouraging to my husband and I in the face of our families who think we are certifiable. love seeing your pictures, Ouest looks just like Pat and Lowe so much like Ali and they are so cute, but you already know that. 🙂 its great you have have such a positive experience with Ouests school, especially with the language barriers. I remember moving to a completely french community in Quebec when I started grade 9, didn’t know a word of French and even though all the classes were in English all the kids first language was French and didn’t want much to do with you if you couldn’t speak it; and this was my own country just a different province. unfortunately because of this, in my stubborn teenager way I refused to learn a word a of French, which with all my grown-up wisdom I now reget. anyway, glad things are working out so great for Ouest. just wanted to say thanks for sharing, congrats on 10 years adventuring. Oh and my boys (ages 5 and 3) are very observant of Lowes wardrobe, they love the turbo shirt.
Got a good chuckle from this one. Now in my third year of picking up my kids from school this is how it goes after the kids get in the car:
Dad: “So how was your day?”
Dad answers for them: “Good”
Dad: “What did you do?”
Dad answers for them: “Nothing”
Dad: “Nothing exciting happened?”
Dad answers for them: “Nope”
Holding hands and then everyone falling down is probably “Ring Around the Rosie.” My grandkids used to love playing that game (and signing the song).
Ahhh, that would be too easy. We guessed that one ourselves, but Ouest claims no. We need to strap a tape recorder to her chest. 🙂
One difference (@Donald) is that in the US the immigrant families usually have at least one member or friend that knows English well enough that he/she will go to school with the parent and translate. Found this to be true in most any community, Mexican, Asian, etc. Taught in California for many years and there were many immigrants from Asia at the time. Of course many teachers speak or understand Spanish in California. Few knew any Asian language. Children were usually put in total immersion English classes and learned English quickly. Ouest and Lowe will no doubt learn quickly in such an environment.
My son says that Ouest’s off-set fish lips rock! (He’s been making this face all afternoon; thanks guys!)
Always happy to be of service. Next time I’ll post a picture of her picking her nose. 🙂