Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Nerd Stuff

Nerd{iness} alert:
If you don't like linguistics/nerdy stuff--just stop here. :)

This afternoon when I got home the babysitter was still here.
Usually when I get home she has already gone home--to get her oldest child off the bus.
Someone comes to my house to relieve her at 2:30 each day.

Well today Camelia and I got to visit for a bit. This is nice. We are friends. We love to talk to eachother and practice English/Spanish etc.
While we were chatting the phone rang, and on the phone was, Yolanda. Yolanda is the mother of a student at school. Yolanda is a {special} mother. She has my home
phone number b/c she is {special} and I knew from the first time we met that she would be needing some special help all along. There is another mother at school who also helps
Yolanda.
Yolanda was calling to ask me when would be the last day of school. What time does my son come home from school tom.? After tomorrow he will not go to school anymore?
I answer her questions V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y. Then after answering I have learned to ask it all back to her and get her to answer me back b/c she just says "uh-huh" a lot and when you are with her face to face she smiles and says, "uh-huh".
So endearing. :)
Well, there was Camelia, listening. When I got of the phone she had the "what in the world" look on her face. (I was talking super-slowly so Yolanda {might} get it).
So I explained to Camelia, that Yolanda is a special person who I help and I have not figured out yet if she is really cognitively special or if it is just that Spanish is her SECOND LANGUAGE--her first language is an INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE FROM MEXICO THAT SHE DOES NOT EVEN HAVE A NAME FOR.
WAY COOL!! {TO ME}, VAMOS.
So, when I am speaking Gringette spanish to her--she might just not be able to understand it.

So then--it gets better...Camelia starts to tell me all of the indigenous language that pertain to her life.
Camelia's mother spoke one of these languages as a child--there is no name for the one her mother spoke.
Jacinto's father speaks one called, "automati" --that is the gringette spelling of what Camelia pronounced to me.
Then there is another one she said, ____--the word she said I do not even have the sense to write it..I could not put the sounds down..
I said, "oh! there is also Tarasco"-which lots of "mexicans" in Alamance county speak. :)

So, now you see that when people call the Mexicans "Spanish" at my school...
I SHUDDER!
Nope! These are Native American people.
Ojala que tengan muchos bebes y que sigan viniendose pa ca--porque es suya la tierra esta anyhow. :)

Good night!
Tomorrow is my last day of school--but Yolanda knows that she can call me at home
en CUALQUIER MOMENTO :)

1 comment:

Bethany said...

whoa. this is really interesting... I did not consider that spanish might also be a 2nd lang. to some {we-think-spanish} speakers!

Spot on!

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