Wednesday, January 19, 2011

So Her Spanish Needs A Little Work

Little Miss is in a Spanish immersion kindergarten. Supposedly, the only English she hears during the school day is at lunch and library. We had seen the results of this from friends who've done this program and from the test scores in our district, so we weren't too worried about her academically. And anyone who knows her personality knows that she's absolutely A-OK in an unfamiliar and unusual setting.

That said, we were very interested to see how she did with the Spanish in terms of being able to understand what the teacher was saying and how things were working. One friend talked about how her child came home from school after Thanksgiving, picked up the phone to call a Spanish speaker from her class and yammered on in Spanish.

I think we might need a little more work for Little Miss. Tonight at dinner, she looked at me all proud as can be. Mama, I know how to say "McDonalds" in Spanish, she informed me.

Ummmm, really, Sweetie? I looked at my husband with one eyebrow raised in question.

Yep, it's "McCafe" in Spanish! Little Miss announced with the surety that only a five year old can produce.

Well, hey, I mean... she is reading the cup of coffee that my husband is apparently drinking in front of her. And "cafe" is a word in Spanish. So two and two equalled eighteen in this case. Is it bad that we laughed?


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12 comments:

Anonymous January 19, 2011 at 11:07 AM  

That's really cute!

septembermom January 19, 2011 at 12:58 PM  

She looks so pretty in that picture. I think that it's wonderful how she is surrounded by Spanish in her school day. Learning a language is wonderful at such a young age. Love your story.

And I'll tweet for you!

Tara R. January 19, 2011 at 2:39 PM  

Well.... she did make the connection. At least she wasn't quoting Pulp Fiction and talking about Le Big Mac.

WeaselMomma January 20, 2011 at 3:26 AM  

That's so cute!

I'm off to tweet for you.

Pat January 20, 2011 at 9:44 AM  

Lol--she's so cute, and, as Art Linkletter used to say, "Kids say the darndest things."

I think the writers and publishers of elemetary school history curriculum generally want to portray leaders of the past in a positive light, pointing out the great things they did, knowing that when kids grow up they'll find out about the scandals and bad things those leaders were involved in.

I like that in the Bible, great men of God are often shown to be weak and fallible, yet God used them for His purposes. He even called David "a man after my own heart," even though David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed. Moses whined about having to go speak to Pharaoh and say, "Let my people go." Peter denied Christ three times "before the cock crowed," and yet God established His church through Peter. In fact, all the disciples were undisciplined (most were just teenagers), lacking in faith at times, and yet they became mighty men of God in spreading the Christian faith after Christ's death and ressurection. Many of them were martyred for their faith.

So, warts and all, we learn that God uses cracked pots to let His light shine in the world.

tracey.becker1@gmail.com January 20, 2011 at 10:02 AM  

Brilliant child. :) I agree, McCafe is Spanish.

Hyacynth January 20, 2011 at 10:03 PM  

So actually, I think she did a good job with that one. Having eight years of Spanish under my belt, I can see how someone who is learning the language could totally take that and think it makes sense.
Such a cute story!

Susie January 21, 2011 at 5:30 AM  

That is so funny! Sometimes, the "little sponges" soak up the wrong information but it is so darned cute!

Michelle January 21, 2011 at 12:33 PM  

Patty - Glad you can see the humor in it :)

Kelly - Awww, thank you. That was from my Christmas card photo shoot. Still learning my new camera!

Tara - True. Be grateful for small favors, right?

WeaselMomma - Thanks! On both counts. You're awesome :)

Pat - They do, don't they? There was another great one last night. If only I could remember them all.

Tracey - Creative, yes. Awesome, yes. Fantastic in so many ways, absolutely. Brilliant? Mmmmm maybe not.

Hyacynth - Oh, I get how she got to it. But that doesn't make it any less funny to me!

Susie - Absolutely. It's one of those times when I wish I could peek into her head so I could remove some of the erroneous info I know is in there but hasn't popped out quite yet.

Mrs4444 January 29, 2011 at 9:53 PM  

What a cutie :) I just got a LiveScribe Echo pen for school, and it has the coolest demo on it--You write a word in English and then tap on it, and it says the word in Spanish, Mandarin, or some other language I forget right now.

Exposing the brain to a foreign language early on makes that part of the brain much more open to learning other languages later--What a great opportunity for your daughter!

Emily January 30, 2011 at 4:18 PM  

Funny story. I have never heard of a Spanish immersion kindergarten!

DS learns some Spanish and sign language in pre-K but I don't think much will stick with him.

Michelle January 31, 2011 at 3:32 PM  

Mrs4444 - That sounds really cool. I think I might have to get that for Little Miss for her birthday. Love love love it!

Emily - They're starting to become more popular now, but they definitely aren't widespread. We're lucky to have them in our district, and I was lucky to have one of the wee ones get in!

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