Thursday, March 1, 2007

Language blunders January 11, 2007

The other day we were at the youth center and Oleg, one of the boys who comes very often, stole Sarah’s hat and put it on his head, only to discover that it was too large for him. Sarah is pretty small, and despite her statements that the hat is too large for her, Oleg started to chant in English, “Sarah have a big head!” over and over. Those of us who know English all laughed. It was pretty funny, but even funnier was when Sasha turned to me and said, “That is not correct. It is correct to say, ‘Sarah has a big head.’” I didn’t think I would be able to stop laughing.
I am making lots of language blunders myself. I was trying to learn my days of the week so I was practicing them at the youth center and every time I said Friday the little girls would laugh at my pronunciation. Finally, Oksana heard me and explained that it sounded like I was calling someone “a drunken man.” The bad part is that it is really hard for me to hear the difference.
While we were driving the other day we needed to turn, and we were discussing the correct way to give the direction—on the left, left, to the left—only to realize we actually wanted to turn right. So, sometimes it isn’t so much the language I struggle with as just knowing my directions.
Larissa, one of the lady’s in the church who used to help with the orphanage ministry, had a beautiful baby girl. Her name is Veronica (well sort of). When I tried to pronounce it Oksana laughed so hard. She wouldn’t tell me what I had said, but she insisted that I not say it again and suggested some fun and acceptable nicknames for me to call the baby.
Needless to say, I am still learning and I still need prayer!

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