We have some friends here in Paris whose children attend the same school as ours. Like many of the families here, the couple is mixed. The dad is British, and the Mom is french. A few years ago, our oldest, Abby, went to play at their house. After she came home, the dad said to me, "Her accent is very Californian". I wasn't quite sure what he meant.
We talk about accents alot here, of course. Mine is good, yours is not so great, did you even understand that talk in french today at church cuz all I heard was the spanish "y"s stuck in there where there were supposed to be "et"s, etc. When we first got here people would say to John, "I see that you are white, but you talk with a black accent."Now that is cool, we thought.... A big white guy with a Haitian accent (served his mission there partly). We occasionally have to ask the children if they will get marked off on their english spelling tests if they spell things with a "z" like all yankees should, or if they are obliged to put an "s"like "proper oxford"pupils should (for example, organize, for organise). OK, so you get the idea, we're always talking about accents here, and whether we say "bath"or I can't even begin to write how our english friends would say it....or banana (buh-nuuuh-na??)
But Parker has an accent--"Un petit accent americain"according to his french speech therapist. Of course that is not the goal AT ALL to keep your accents when you speak a second or subsequent foreign language, but I must admit I loved it when my (then) 5 year old daughter once told me: "I want you to read this (french) book to me in english mom, not french."When I responded to her that I will read english books to her in english, and french books to her in french, she responded, "But, you don't really talk like la maitresse (teacher) mom, you speak a little bit espagnole!"(see-- I don't even know how to spell anymore)... I was convinced my accent would never win any awards. Every now and then (many years later) someone mistakes me as a Swedish or Dutch woman, and I am actually pleased that they didn't guess British or American. (It means my accent was not grossly obviously anglo).
So the fact that Parker has an accent that is anything but "deaf" I think is of course totally awesome!
He's repeating the last word of every sentence these days. Life seems good, maybe even awesome. Of course some of his articulations are not right, but we're making progress. I counted 120 english words, and 45 french words the other day that he says.
awe·some
[aw-suh
m]–adjective1.
2.
showing or characterized by awe.
3.
Slang . very impressive: That new white convertible is totally
awesome.
Or I might say: That little deaf boy sure is awesome!
And that is what my friend meant when he said that our accent was Californian. That our kids say things like "awesome" or "totally" mixed in with "garbage" instead of "rubbish"or "elevator" instead of "lift".
Hmm, I wonder where they learned to say that?
Now I've got to teach Parker that word.
This video is not the best sampling of him saying " I love you", but it's still evolving. He actually said it best when he first started. I don't mind. We've got room to grow. I know what he's trying to say.
