I attended a 9 year-old's birthday party yesterday. It was great fun. Many pink dresses were present, and much froufrou crafty activity and exclusion of little boys were done. Oh, the social structure of third grade... aie aie aie!
Anyway, we had a group of kids who were pretty into being active, once the craft activities were over. (a pleasant surprise) So we went for a bit if a nature walk. Little girl A saw some pretty flowers, so we approached to have a closer look.
Ahh, I say. I believe those are asters, and they are indeed quite pretty, don't you all think so? Little girl B says 'asters?' that's a funny name, why are they called that? Being an amateur linguist (and this girl is bilingual by the way, so I figure perhaps she'll find this interesting, even as a third grader...), I respond, well, it's because they look like stars, and that's where the word comes from, see: it's like the word blahblah in blahblah language....... And so we walk on, two beats of silence, and littlegirl B blurts:'it has the A-word in it!' Stunned silence and raised eyebrows of other adult chaperone, and I try not to trip as I reply, uhhh. yes. yes, it does. Well, it's not *really* that word, because it's spelled differently, but it sure sounds like it, huh? And the hike goes on.
It was a pretty entertaining day, all in all.
1 comment:
oh dear. Maybe the folks arguing we should raise everybody to be bilingual are on to something.
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