December of James 3.9 Year, Sydney 6 Years
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December 7, 2007
Sydney turned 6 yesterday. There's always a confusion about when she was born. She was due the 7th which is Pearl Harbour Day, so it was a running joke with my dad and stepmom that we should name her Pearl...Pearl Harbour Jernigan. Then there's the deal with our living on the other side of the world when she was born-- so she was born on the 5th in the US but it was the 6th in Australia so that's the date on her birth certificate...thus her official birthday. It cracks me up b/c my dad always thinks it's the 7th so he calls a day late and my father in law thinks it's the 5th so he calls (EARLY!!...meaning not just a day early but the crack-of-dawn early) to wish her a happy birthday.
She got some barbies for her birthday. I used to say that no way would I let her have barbies, but then I let up on that. I wasn't allowed to have them. Not sure it mattered or not. I'll probalby mention her impossible body measurements at some point. And they've gotten rid of that horrible Barbie who said, "I hate Math!" What were they thinking? Anyway, I noticed that when she and James were playing barbies and Sydney had the mother one, she would speak in Portuguese to the child. James, playing the barbie child, would still answer in English, though. I thought it interesting that Sydney kept up the mom-speaks-portuguese role.
December 8, 2007
I've been getting discouraged with speaking Portuguese to Sydney since she started kindergarten. Basically I have to recognize that she spends more time with her teacher than she does with me. She often strings together sentences where only the connector words and verbs are in Portuguese but nearly all the nouns are in English. I have been handling it like this: Sydney: Hoje nos vimos um aligator. Mamae: Hoje nos vimos um jacare? (me repeating using the word for "aligator" in Portuguese) Sydney: Sim, foi legal (yes, it was cool) Mamae: Diga "jacare" ("Sat 'Jacare')
December 23, 2007
I have to admit though it sounds sort of vain or stupid, that I enjoy being in public and speaking another language to Sydney. She rarely mixes the languages in public, as if it's really OUR language and nobody else's business. Maybe I'm just a ham, but it's fun to get the inquisitive looks, to talk to people to ask, "Excuse me, but what language is that?" and to giggle inside about those asking me if I'm speaking Chinese or Russian.
For now, Sydney enjoys the attention too, as far as I can tell. Even when I speak to her in Portuguese at her school surrounded by her classmates, she responds in Portuguese and never looks embarrased. The other kids are usually asking what language it is, "Is that Spanish? and the native Spanish speaking kids look at us like we have speech impediments. I just like the attention and hope Sydney will be ok with it as she gets older.
December 27, 2007
Christmas was the best ever. With all the relatives in town, it was a challenge, as expected, to have Sydney use only Portuguese. James uses only Portuguese, however, it's interesting. But he says so much less. Sydney would use again all the little words and verbs in Portuguese, but the actual vocabulary in English.
I get so frustrated when I don't know the word for something. For instance, she got a potholder maker for Christmas and I have no idea how to say that. So at the moment, I just said that we'd need to ask Stella how to say that in Portuguese.
I looked it up in a dictionary and it was called "pegador de panela" (picker upper of pot). And loom wasn't in my huge Portuguese/English/English/Portuguese dictionary but I found it online to mean "tear". So do I say "tear pra fazer pegador de panela"? No, I wait and talk to Stella. Oftentimes with words like this, she has no idea how they say it in Brazil or she says she's forgotten.
December 31, 2007
The last week or so I've been exhausted by trying to keep Sydney speaking Portuguese. I guess it has to do with having relatives around perhaps, I dunno. I get just exhausted providing her the words she doesn't know or remember. I insist that she repeat what I've said and sometimes she looks annoyed. Today we were going to play Pet Store game. I said, "If you don't speak in Portuguese, I'm not going to play." Really mature, huh? But she was more vigilent and thought before she spoke. Maybe I'm the mother dearest of the 2000's. I did say it all very nicely.
Then she said something later in the game that really helped ease my frustration. She said (in Portuguese), "You really know alot of Portuguese. You know every word." (which I don't, of course, but I circumnavigate when I don't know the exact word so I can always come up with something). I said, "You will too. She looked a little proud a pinch skeptical.
Stella found out that Sydney's learning French at school so she's working with her on that. It's odd though b/c she doesn't really speak it. They made a big sign that said "Merry Christmas" in several languages. It didn't have french though. Stella asked me how to say "Merry Christmas" and I couldnt remember "Joyeux Noel" to save my life. (Asked a French person later that day), so I can't criticize. At least she's encouraging another language.
