Three of M’s preschool teachers are Korean and English is their second language. This isn’t a problem for us, obviously, but it has led to a few funny incidents. First there was the valentine thing, there is also the cute way M corrects us every time we try to say “division” with de-veeee-sion. She also calls the Tin Board “ten bo” and will not believe me when I correct her.
The funniest thing yet happened today, though. When she was in the back seat and started singing “Deck the Halls,” which she has only heard at school. I almost peed my pants because M’s version sounded exactly like the singing in A Christmas story.
Very Un-PC, but true.
DH is Korean and he thought your story was funny
How funny. I “gave” my daughter an accent. She spoke English just fine but because we switched to Spanish when she was almost two for a while there she was pronouncing certain English words w/ a latin flavor and no matter how many time her daddy would correct her she would still say it my way!
Whenever my in-laws would visit us at our old house, they’d walk to a grocery store called Hiller’s every day with the elder child. One day after they left I told him that we were going to Hiller’s. “What’s that?” he asked. When we got there he exclaimed, “Oh, we’re at Heroes!”
The scene from a Christmas Story you reference has always made me laugh really hard! But last year when I watched it I wondered whether Asian people are offended by it. Any thoughts on this?
lol too funny, I tell my hubby if he doesn’t quit talking English to our kids they are going to end up talking like this!
my seventh grade french teacher was chinese. when my family moved in 8th grade and they did a language assessment on me, they couldn’t figure out what was going on. i had a chinese accent. in french. (english is my native language).