Speaking Chinglish

I came to the realization the other day that I am at a point in my life I will probably never be at again. I speak 3 languages daily, at least during the week (English and Chinese at home, English and Spanish at work). Wow. Who ever would have guessed that.

Kai Wei is quickly learning some English words and phrases, though of course, most of what he hears still sounds like gibberish to him, as evidenced by his "prayers". We always pray aloud at dinner, but say grace on our own for other meals. They must have said grace at Jonah House, because even on his first full day home, Kai Wei asked "dao gao?" (pray?) before eating lunch and I explained he could pray by himself. Anyway, now when he says "grace" before lunch, he closes his eyes and says "gahbluhjhus Kai Wei heijehjhfsnfklh" or something to that effect. (I decided he must always add his name since for the first few days our prayers went something like this, "Dear God, thank you for this nice meal, and thank you that Kai Wei is finally home . . . ")

Kai Wei's favorite English phrase is "brush your teeth!" He picked up the ice scraper for the car the other day and pretended to brush his teeth with it, saying "brush your teeth" with a big grin. His first complicated English sentence though was, "I want some green tea please". Yup, definitely from Taiwan. I've lived with my other brothers for 17, 12, and 8 years respectively and I don't think I've EVER heard them say that phrase in English (or any other language for that matter) but Kai is home for 2 weeks, and he's already learned how to ask for green tea in English.

I find the way he combines English and Chinese fascinating. He learned the word "dog" his first day home, and switched very quickly from using the Chinese "gou" to the umm, in his mind English, term "daw-guh", which is what he continues to refer to the dog as. He also adds particles to English words. For instance, in Chinese wo means "I" wo de means "mine". Now that he knows the word "me" he just tacks the "de" on the end and tells us that something is "me-de" The modifier "hen" means very in Chinese, and today I heard him using it to modify an adjective in English. I wish I remember what exactly he said. Probably "hen good"

He speaks less Chinese to us now then he did at first, though he will still sometimes tell us LONG sagas of things that have just happened, and if it weren't for context, pantomime and a word here or there we would have no idea what he was talking about. As it is, usually we can make a pretty good guess. It's worse when he starts his "zai Taiwan" stories. I love when he tells us about when he was in Taiwan, but unless it's pretty straight forward (like last night when we watched Spiderman 3 and he told us, "Zai Taiwan wo kan spiderman 1, 2 3!" (In Taiwan I watched Spiderman 1 2 and 3). When he starts telling stories about French people and playing basketball however, I must admit I am completely lost.

Sometimes though, he remembers that we don't really speak Chinese, and he'll slow down for us. I was driving him to basketball practice the other night and he had a travel mug of green tea in the back seat. He decided to tell me something very important. "Annie!" "Yes?" "Jintian" (pause as I say, yes, today) wo (another long pause, I say ok, you) he (once again pause while I acknowledge and translate "drank") and then he ended in English "3 cup tea!" No wonder the kid is non-stop energy. Apparently he's been chugging caffeinated green tea.

Note to self- check to see if anyone else has already made him a cup of tea before putting the water on to boil.