Monday, May 14, 2007

A new word in English... #4

My daughter is bilingual. Swedish is still her dominant language, but English is coming strong. She loves to do English speaking "sessions" with me, practicing sort of. "Let's speak English for a while, mom" she says (we always speak Swedish with her).

She loves to take her little brother's baby books with lots of pictures , point and say the word in English, very proud when she knows them. If she doesn't know or can't remember, she'll look at me, expectingly. And I've started to realize that her little brain will be a much better storage place for new, specific English words than mine....

Today she didn't know the English word for "trådrulle". It was there, in the book, in the color red. She looked at me and I was lost. I didn't know the word either. And to tell your daughter to "wait, mom just have to get the dictionary or go online" is too slow for a 3,5 year old. I suggested we should turn the page and check out some other words...

Now I know.

Trådrulle = cotton reel or reel of cotton, according to my dictionary.


10 comments:

Isle Dance said...

Sweet story of you two!

Americans often say any of these...

Thread
Sewing Thread
Roll of Thread
Thread Roll

In a few months, I might be brave enough to publicly share similarly!

Anonymous said...

I remember when we lived in England when I was 13 and my sister was 5. She started school of course over there and after a month had a better vocabulary than the rest of the family, which made her very proud!

Annika said...

Thanks, Jacal! I had no idea what trådrulle would translate to either...
That is a cute story!

JaCal said...

IsleDance - thank you! Now I really hope the Daughter would like to do an English session today and ask about "trådrulle" - oh, do I have answers for her! Now I just have to remember them all... ;-)

Petra H - they only have to hear something once! So now I just have to teach her cotton reel and I never have to remember that again! ;-)

Annika - good - now you know! ;-)

Desiree said...

Jag kunde inte heller ordet för trådrulle men nu har man lärt sig. Dina barn kommer nog att bli helt flytande på både engelska och svenska. Det är toppen.

Anonymous said...

jag kommer ihag nar jag larde mig engelska. Jag var 11 och det var en spannande tid! Nu kan jag nog engelska battre an svenska. Jag skulle nog kalla trådrulle for "spool of thread" men det kanske syftar pa nagot annat?
Liz

Danisha McMillian said...

That is a very cute story....It's funny the only language I know well is English and my son still catches me up on some words....he is a sponge of information and he will use words that I don't have the slightest clue what they mean and he's only in the 4th grade. Or he may ask a question and my first response is let's look it up. He definately keeps me up on my toes. Definately keep having your English speaking sessions with her, it's obviously good for you both. Have a resplendent day.(That's a new word I just learned)

Anonymous said...

Sweet story! The way I say it is: spool of thread.

Veranda

Isle Dance said...

Oh yes! Spool of thread!

JaCal said...

Desiree - ja, tänk vad man själv får lära sig av bara farten...

Liz - jag ser på min dotter hur roligt hon tycker det är. Fast hon har också stunder när hon blir trött. Men det kan bero på att hon allmänt är en pratkvarn... ;-)

Danisha - welcome to my blog! Isn't it amazing what you can learn from your kids! And the way they reason sometimes, completely logical and it just makes you laugh. Have a resplendent day too (got to look that one up!)!

Veranda - "spool of thread", will remember that!

IsleDance - imagine all the different ways to talk about spool of threads! Now I have to figure out a way to get it into one of my conversations, to show off all my different versions! ;-)