Biographical »
About Peter
February 1st, 2009 | No Comments
Ni3 de ma1 shi4 yi4 ge3 da4 wu1 gui1! “Your mother is a big fat turtle!” I proudly shouted at my third grade class, strangely, at the teacher’s request. Weekly trips on Sundays to the local Chinese school were paying off.
I’ve always been fascinated by language. I remember wondering aloud why certain sounds, when put together, created words while others did not. For example, why do we call the writing utensil made of wood and graphite a “pencil” and not a “globsprink”?
About Elenita
January 31st, 2009 | 1 Comment
According to the family stories–I remember nothing–my immigrant parents dropped me off at preschool feeling optimistic but slightly nervous about my ability to cope with an English-only environment. They told me to soak up as many new words as possible, and follow the other kids’ lead.
Two weeks later, I came home singing a children’s song in Spanish. When my mom asked my teachers about it, they were as surprised as she. No, there was nothing on the curriculum involving Spanish, they said. So they poked around during they day and eventually realized that I’d picked it up playing with my best friend, Carmen, at recess.
About Me, About the Blog
January 27th, 2009 | 3 Comments
The first complete English sentence I could speak was, “I am big, you are small.” The perils of letting your child learn the language of your adopted country via Sesame Street.
In the nearly three decades that have passed since I first proudly uttered those words, English has become, by far, my dominant language. The switch took place when I was around seven years old, much to my parents’ chagrin.
I remember being a small child on the playground, struggling to find an English retort to some bullies. Now I can sling English wisecracks like any native speaker, but my repertoire of Mandarin insults is sadly limited: pig, turtle, and various types of bad eggs. 笨蛋!—ben4 dan4!—stupid egg.
American-born Taiwanese girl who married a Japanese guy. And who forgot about six years' of Spanish grammar and most of the vocab.
E-mail Yvonne
nerissa
celiviel
yvonnekao
Korean-American girl who blogs under a Spanish pseudonym because being culturally confusing is fun. Native speakers say that she has outstanding Spanish (which is a definite compliment) and outstanding German (which is most assuredly not).
Elenita
American-born, Taiwanese guy who took five semesters worth of German and ended up with a major in Linguistics.
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