Mind Your Language

When it came to learning the English Language, my sons took fairly different routes. Justin had a Chinese-speaking baby sitter for almost 4 years of his life and I recalled his earlier words were 'wo xia lai' (I come down).. he had been climbing on a chair or 'ant ant buck (bite) you'.. which had us worried briefly cos our immediate thoughts were.. 'OMG! Did he just use THE bad word?!'. Subsequently, he took to 'Singlish' like fish to water.. which included all the classic examples of.. 'wah lao eh'.. 'like that also can one meh?'.. 'this is my one'.. 'I do finish already'.. 'I boh lui liow' (I no money already).. much to my chagrin!!!

Jared, on the other hand, grew up with a Filipino helper and learnt the typical accent of.. counting 'one two three pour(4) pive (5)'.. 'pinish' (finish).. this particular word has the potentially go terribly wrong if you missed out the 'h' at the end.. 'Let's go barck' (back).. 'I cannot forget' (I forgot). I also distinctly recall her teaching him parts of the body and the time when I thought she was trying to flaunt my instructions:

FH: Jarrick (she couldn't pronounce his name then).. what's this?
Jared: Eyes
FH: Yes! What's this?
Jared: Nose
FH: Good boy! What's this?
Jared: Nick
FH: Very Good!
Mum & Dad: (Both turned around and yelled simultaneously).. 'IT'S NECK!!!!!'

Me: Please cook dinner tonight
FH: No, I cannot
Me: What do you mean you cannot?
FH: Yah, cannot
Me: I am asking you to cook dinner (almost blowing my top)
FH: I cannot..
Me: (Then it dawned on me.. what she meant to say was.. 'I HAVE NOT')

However, the turning point came when Jared was 4 years old. We had just moved to a new home and one evening, the elevator's emergency bell rang very loudly. We were most impressed with Jared's almost immediate and spontaneous reaction of 'call management.. call management!!!'.. which somewhat eclipsed his otherwise obvious panic-stricken and distressed state.. poor chap!

The conclusion of the matter is.. English can be a confusing language with weird rules. For example: 'Yeah right' can be both positive AND negative, depending on how you say it.. you can wind down the window to feel the wind on your face.. shouldn't get too wound up over the wound on your knee.. and if necessary, stand down from a fight.. So after 9 years, my helper's English has somewhat improved.. or maybe mine has somewhat deteriorated???