Back in March we were driving together long distance when we gave the kids their tasks when we had this exchange:
E: Mommy, Jadon's not studying...
D: Evangelina, are YOU studying?
E: Yes.
D: (Raised eyebrows)
E: I'm studying Jadon!
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Straight from the Yakety-Yak's Mouth
The other day during our long drive to Sedona, Arizona, we passed though some pastureland where there was livestock to be seen, and I asked Evangelina in Chinese, "Na4 shi4 she2.me dong4-wu4?" (What animal is that?)
Evangelina replied, "Na4 shi4 moo2."
I laughed aloud and asked her again, to which she obliviously replied again, "Na4 shi4 moo2."
I kept laughing until she realized her mistake... "Oh, I got confused between the name of the animal and what the animal says."
How interesting it was to me that she made that error substituting the (rather English) onomatopoeia "moo" (I think Chinese people tend to say that cows "uu") while preserving the correct tone of the Chinese word for cow (niu2).
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