make do-do
I have spent a while trying to find a good person in Austin to cut my hair. I started at my wife's salon and found a person I liked. Then she left. So I found a new person at the same salon, but due to some salon politics, she became a freelancer and bounced around from salon to salon. All she ever talked about after that was how crappy that salon was. After that I gave up and went back to SportClips and now I pay for the shampoo scalp massage thingy and so far its been good. Which leads me to today.
Since I don't have a stylist at SportClips, I just get the first available person who happens to be a lady named Elham. We get to talking and she mentions she's from Iran. "Good people, bad government," she says, which really is like the best quote ever. We talk some more about travel and Europe and Austin and wills and godparents and then get to the topic of speaking more than one language. I mention to her that a guy I work with, who is Vietnamese, isn't teaching his kids to speak the language. She says that's horrible. I agree. She says her kids speak three languages: English, Farsi, and Spanish. I tell her about how my grandparents were punished in school for speaking Cajun French and so didn't teach it to their children and now, in our family, the language will die with them. She says that's horrible as well.
I want my children to speak another language. I'd really love for them to speak Cajun French due to the family ties, but I'm thinking Spanish might be more practical. Maybe I can shoot the moon and go for both. Who's with me?
7 Comments:
My lofty goals are to teach my children French. Perhaps Spanish is more practical, but I don't know it at all and neither does Stephen (which is a shame). When I was little, my great-grandmother spoke fluent French--not Cajun--because her parents came straight from France. But she did live in the heart of Cajun country.
I plan on buying baby French DVDs and teaching them double words for everyday objects (milk, lait). I have a minor in French, we publish French magazines that I edit at work, so it would be a shame to let that go to waste.
If you listen to a Dr. John song or Benny Grunch lyrics you can talk YAT, too.
Yat is short for "where ya at" which means hello and is a familar greeting in N.O.
Both grew up in Mid-City and attended and later performed at dances at Sacred Heart (da hart) on Canal, Germania Hall on Bienville and The Labor Union Hall on Tchoupitoulas or Franklin Ave.
In Yat, going to visit your parents is "Gone by ma mama and dem" just sfter "grocery shopping" at Schwegmann's.
I was told a story by Wade O. Martin Jr. who served as Sec. of State honorably and without scandal for more than 20 years in La. He even took on Huey and Earl Long and still survived politically.
His family,from France,operated a farm in St. Martinville, but all of the workers were of Acadian or Cajun descent.
Since he and his family knew Parisian French and all the workers spoke in the Cajun dialect, his father had them all learn Cajun French...because the two were so different.
Quite the great speaker, Wade would often open his talks with a demonstration of how different the two were.
Later,Edwin Edwards, our first Cajun governor and a sensational speaker, delivered many speeches in English and Cajun French.
Alot of the baby toys now come in multiple languages, English, French and Spanish. I spent alot of time playing with the Cow says Mooo toy in BabiesRUs Saturday and flipping it between Spanish and French
Heather is right. Taylor and I bought a stuffed animal for a gift two years ago and loved to have her sing her little song in Spanish. Hola! Soy Lili, <singing> ... Uno! Dos! Tres!
Assuming we stay here, Fiona will almost certainly be learning Spanish in kindergarten if not earlier. I enjoyed taking French in high school, but living in Tucson I often regret not being able to speak Spanish. One of these days maybe I'll get some Berlitz disks or something.
Maybe you could learn French and Melissa could learn Spanish (probably pretty useful in her line of work) and you can each teach future children what you know.
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