Lost in Translation

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I have decided that if I can't work out a job that I may become a toddler translator. I really am only qualified to translate my child but it's something to consider. I have been painfully waiting for the day that my daughter will be reciting Emerson or really just using words in a sentence that make complete sense. And I think we are almost there, but we seem to have some Lost in Translation moments.

I wrote earlier that it's difficult to know if your child's speech is on track and they are speaking the proper number of words or whether or not she has a speech problem and needs to go into therapy. I think we are okay but this is a difficult stage to be in as she pointedly tells me things and when I don't understand, repeats them loudly and in a frustrated tone.
Last night's conversation was a classic:
Naomi "mama, i take rainbow and cut it just like daddy"
Mom "you miss daddy?"
Naomi "no- ugh- mama, i cut it!"
Mom "you cut what?"
Naomi "mama! ugh! i cut it with rainbow. Like Daddy!!"
Mom "i don't understand Naomi"
Naomi "oh my gosh mommy, I cut it. I fix it"
Mom "you are going to cut the other part of the railing of your bed like daddy with a rainbow?"
Naomi "Yes!"

I mean really? Just to give you an understanding, Naomi is in one of those cribs-turns-toddler bed-turns bed things. It's now in toddler bed mode so there is a half railing on the side now. She thinks that daddy cut it like that and broke it. Apparently the best tool she knows to do that and is shaped well enough to cut is a rainbow. Voila.

But you know, even knowing this information, that story still barely makes sense. And we have several of these- where she gets exasperated that I don't understand the toddler mumbo jumbo that she is spewing. You can't get away with the "wow that's awful" or "oh good for you" phrase either, she is looking for a specific response. Luckily from time to time she will say "no, mommy you say Yes". So that helps.

But having these lost in translation battles is exhausting and while I want to validate and encourage the now budding speech, I'm frustrated that I can't understand any of it. I now realize and feel sympathy for anyone I have spoken to in Japanese, Finnish, or Spanish since I believe I must sound how she sounds in those languages: all present tense, missing some words, and replacing them with random words or the wrong ones.
I told her yesterday that "Next week is Summer School! Aren't you excited?"
She said "Yes! I love somersaults!"
Well, close huh?

However we do have some really wonderful moments and oddly they are the smaller ones not the long sentences that are the best. The more she acts like a little girl or person always gets me. We came in from outside and it being hot, it was relief. After taking off her shoes she said "whew!". I know it's small but it sounded funny coming out of her little mouth.
Her personality is also very practical so that makes the moments even more hilarious. We were playing and she came over and kissed me on the forehead and said "you know -  I love you mama". Please notice the punctuation here- it wasn't You know I love you- but you You know (pause) I love you. Funny way to say it if at all by a toddler.

So the zen of it all? Not to expect too much from her and just enjoy the now. As parents, and as a half Japanese parent, I want to aggressively push her to do more, speak more, be more. I need to really really try hard to just let her be, and move with this at her own pace. I think Zen is funny in a way that it's Japanese based but Japanese people are mostly push push push- move move move lol or maybe it's just my mom. ;-P

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 7, 2012 at 3:45 AM

    Gassho, precious moments. I sometimes dont understand my 8yr old boy, when he's leaving out the part of the story that he (!) assumes me to know already.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AngieJune 7, 2012 at 7:52 AM

      Ah, something to look forward to then :-)

      Delete

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