Today, when telling me about her day, Elena announced "I'm not Guatemalan, not 'Merican, not Chilena - I'm a Chinese girl!" I asked her what makes her Chinese. She replied "I love eating with chopsticks." I thought, "Oh my, what have we done? Should we be thrilled that she's embracing the Chinese culture and feels like she's a part of it? Should we be worried that we're setting her up to have a major identity crisis? etc., etc."!!
Later, Carlos was looking at his English book practicing today's lesson. His teacher is a young Chinese woman and English is her second language. Carlos was saying "Where is she goING?" She is going to her grandMOTHer's house." - putting emphasis on the wrong syllable in a sentence which many Chinese English speakers do.
So there you have it. We have one child who thinks she's culturally Chinese and one that may end up sounding Chinese!
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2 comments:
Thank you for sharing your wonderful life experiences. I finally am able to read and enjoy your adventures again.
Cousin,
Sandy
I laughed so hard when I read this because Nicolas is having trouble with the boy/girl concept (everyone is a boy) and so now Alex is insisting that he is "NOT a boy I a girl"! They certainly keep us amused!
Jeni
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