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When adopting from another country there are bound to be communication issues. These may cause confusion and frustration at times, but at other times they are oh so funny! If you adopted a young child who was not talking yet, chances are you still have some funny stories to tell about mixing up words on your trip.
Over the last year we have not had as much difficulty with the language barrier as I had anticipated, but we have had our ups and downs. They have really done well with picking up English, but even when they don’t understand they seem to get along well by simply watching others and mimicking. Looking back I can see many examples of where the girls were “faking it” as far as understanding what was going on. I had to explain this to their teachers and instructors so that they would really make sure the kids knew what was going on. At their summer day care last year (they went two days a week) I had to speak with the teachers several times about this, because the girls got along so well they didn’t believe me when I told them that they didn’t know what was going on!
Now, a year after coming home, the girls are in age appropriate classes and reading very well with extra help daily. They have friends and tell stories and talk, talk, talk all in English. We still have times of misunderstanding, but they are getting far and few between. I’ve jotted down some “Language Laughs” we have experienced since bringing Mita and Enu home. I wish I had written more down as they happened, my memory is shot, it seems.
* Mita and Enu would call Meg “Merilly” and Elle was “Eela”.
* Soft meant toilet paper and the word CaCa became way to popular with my three year old.
* A tranlator at the International Adoption Doctor’s office translated for me what Enu is saying. When the therapist asked her what do dogs eat. Enu went off about how we make such a big deal about dogs here. She goes on to say that our dog doesn’t do anything, but we are always so worried about her. In Ethiopia dogs work, not in America!
* They loved to sing Faith Hill’s Mississippi Girl at the top of their lungs, it sounded more like, “Mesiscrapy Girl”.
* I asked Enu to clean up her shoes. When she cleaned up her sisters shoes and coats I bragged to her Dad that she had gone above and beyond. She stomped off muttering,” You didn’t ask me to do that”. I had to explain what aboce and beyond meant!
* I once told Enu to put her papers away then to come into the kitchen and we would discuss what to do next. She looked at me so upset and mad and said, “I am not discusting!”.
* Just tonight I overheard Enu telling Mita,”I want to watch Twila (Twilight)”. Mita replys with,”Nutuh, Mama not let you watch Twila, you know that!”.
The funniest story I have is now known as the “Chicken Blood” story. It goes like this:
“Mita, what did you do at school today?”
“Nothing. The Butt Teacher drink chicken blood.”
“What? The who?”
“The Butt Teacher, she came today.”
“Who is the Butt Teacher? And what did she do.”
Mita now starts talking very slowly, because she thinks I should be understanding this.
“The Butt Teacher came to school today. She tooold us that drink chicken blood.”
“Honey, I’m sorry I don’t understand. I think you are saying that a Butt Teacher drank chicken blood at your school today?!”
Mita is now laughing her head off. I am clearly crazy in her eyes.
I’m about to call in Hubby here to help me figure things out when Mita says,”The Butt’s fly at night and drink chicken blood when chicken sleeps.”
It clicks! Her teacher had a special speaker come into class to talk about bats (Butt Teacher). This teacher apperantly tells the class about bats eating at night time and of course bats drink blood!
I don’t know if I have laughed like that in my entire life. Mita still looked at me as if to say, “Duh, mom!”
What is your funny story?
