It's so refreshing and delightful to look at the differences between UK & US through your eyes. ♥️
Even to this day after 7 years, I still look to the right first before I cross the street and I still have my weather app on Celsius and I still can't get used to the top loading washing machine and the vacuum cleaner. 😂
And the English language and the different accents? My daughter is learning phonics and though we try to learn how thoroughly farmer Dan cleans the trough through and through, we can't quite pin down the rules. 😂
Quite an adventure learning the English language with a young child in primarily the American, British, and Scottish accents. 😅
Thank you for your comment Genevieve. So glad you're enjoying the differences. Already many are becoming commonplace to me but it's fun to remember how strange some things were at the beginning. I still have my weather app on Celsius too. Though I had a great tip from my brother and another subscriber on how to do a rough conversation. From Fahrenheit to Celsius, Minus 30 and divide by 2.
I love the farmer Dan story. It's a wonder anyone ever learns English as a second language. It must be so frustrating! What a linguistic adventure you are all on. It must be fun! Lovely to hear from you. Thank you for dropping by.
Sounds like you're adjusting fast, or rather, on your own pace. 😊
Thank you for that easy conversion trick, from Fahrenheit to Celsius!
And yeah, if the arbitrariness and inconsistencies of the English language for a native English speaker are already dazzling, I can imagine what that must be like for someone who's learning it as a second language. (I still consider English my first language due to bilingualism — Tagalog & English as official languages —in the Philippines.)
Even native speakers tell a dog to 'lay down.' One of my pet peeves. 😂
If I were to follow some native speakers, like saying I would've went (instead of gone) somewhere, I would be going down the wrong path, I'm afraid. 😂
My daughter hears these things and I want her to learn proper grammar. 😅 Thank goodness, I've caught the difference between eating 'every day' and 'everyday' stuff before we go further.
But saying youtube and Tuesday and new? I still default to British. and my daughter questions it so I'm already getting her used to different accents. There's something about feeling at home in different cultural sounds one is familiar with.
Although most people are enamored by the British accent. Why wouldn't we be? 🙂
You’re on an amazing journey as a bi-lingual person (or do you speak more languages?) teaching your daughter and witnessing her developing her own voice. Brava.
My daughter has recently started reading in Dutch, too, (I've been talking to her in Dutch since she was in the womb :)) and one of the amazing things I'm learning from her is her understanding of the context in which the words are written and spoken so she picks up the pronunciation so fast. Dutch has sounds that don't exist in English.
And I've been wondering about this for a long time, how being familiar with different cultural sounds can make us feel at home and therefore, hard to hate and bring harm to others who speak differently than our native tongues.
I have not quite found the scientific study on that, though. But so many people who have lived in at least 2 different countries and learn to speak a non-English language have confirmed this observation (feeling at home in different cultural sounds and having a sense of belonging and kinship).
I find it fascinating how these things come up as I engage with you and your work / writings. What a blessed life. 🙏🏾♥️
I love your curiosity, it is always blooming! Funny that my post is bringing up these wonderings for you. I enjoyed living in a bilingual country (Wales) though I didn’t learn Welsh successfully. My children went to a Welsh medium primary school and so all gained fluency but they didn’t speak Welsh to each other at home which I always found interesting. How cool to be able to speak a language your parents don’t understand. I love your enquiry about kinship. That’s such a powerful word. What else do you see around that in the context of language and what of the non human world? My experience with my house plants in particular, is they respond to love - a language beyond words. I’m thinking you may enjoy @Catriona Knapman’s writing as she writes (among other things) about living in different cultures and engaging with place and community through learning the language.
How cool is that indeed that kids can speak a language that parents don't understand! How beautiful it is to be able to speak Welsh! Only 'Diolch' and 'Cymru' have stayed with me. 😂
And oh, yes, kinship with the nonhuman world! Something in me is stirred and that's a story for another day.
I love how you can communicate with your house plants and notice that they, too, respond to love. There's something poetic about this. 😊
Thank you, Juliet, for all these 'stirrings' where things emerge. I am deeply grateful for these connections. Diolch. 🙏🏾♥️
Also thank you for pointing me to Catriona Knapman! More connections to enjoy! ♥️
Such thoughtful and inspiring questions, Juliet. Thank you! Winding back to Lily at Bloom, love that she has a portrait of herself on the wall!! :-)
Thank you Linda. I know, right to Lily’s portrait on the wall.
It's so refreshing and delightful to look at the differences between UK & US through your eyes. ♥️
Even to this day after 7 years, I still look to the right first before I cross the street and I still have my weather app on Celsius and I still can't get used to the top loading washing machine and the vacuum cleaner. 😂
And the English language and the different accents? My daughter is learning phonics and though we try to learn how thoroughly farmer Dan cleans the trough through and through, we can't quite pin down the rules. 😂
Quite an adventure learning the English language with a young child in primarily the American, British, and Scottish accents. 😅
Thank you for your comment Genevieve. So glad you're enjoying the differences. Already many are becoming commonplace to me but it's fun to remember how strange some things were at the beginning. I still have my weather app on Celsius too. Though I had a great tip from my brother and another subscriber on how to do a rough conversation. From Fahrenheit to Celsius, Minus 30 and divide by 2.
I love the farmer Dan story. It's a wonder anyone ever learns English as a second language. It must be so frustrating! What a linguistic adventure you are all on. It must be fun! Lovely to hear from you. Thank you for dropping by.
Sounds like you're adjusting fast, or rather, on your own pace. 😊
Thank you for that easy conversion trick, from Fahrenheit to Celsius!
And yeah, if the arbitrariness and inconsistencies of the English language for a native English speaker are already dazzling, I can imagine what that must be like for someone who's learning it as a second language. (I still consider English my first language due to bilingualism — Tagalog & English as official languages —in the Philippines.)
Even native speakers tell a dog to 'lay down.' One of my pet peeves. 😂
If I were to follow some native speakers, like saying I would've went (instead of gone) somewhere, I would be going down the wrong path, I'm afraid. 😂
My daughter hears these things and I want her to learn proper grammar. 😅 Thank goodness, I've caught the difference between eating 'every day' and 'everyday' stuff before we go further.
But saying youtube and Tuesday and new? I still default to British. and my daughter questions it so I'm already getting her used to different accents. There's something about feeling at home in different cultural sounds one is familiar with.
Although most people are enamored by the British accent. Why wouldn't we be? 🙂
You’re on an amazing journey as a bi-lingual person (or do you speak more languages?) teaching your daughter and witnessing her developing her own voice. Brava.
I speak more languages. 😊
My daughter has recently started reading in Dutch, too, (I've been talking to her in Dutch since she was in the womb :)) and one of the amazing things I'm learning from her is her understanding of the context in which the words are written and spoken so she picks up the pronunciation so fast. Dutch has sounds that don't exist in English.
And I've been wondering about this for a long time, how being familiar with different cultural sounds can make us feel at home and therefore, hard to hate and bring harm to others who speak differently than our native tongues.
I have not quite found the scientific study on that, though. But so many people who have lived in at least 2 different countries and learn to speak a non-English language have confirmed this observation (feeling at home in different cultural sounds and having a sense of belonging and kinship).
I find it fascinating how these things come up as I engage with you and your work / writings. What a blessed life. 🙏🏾♥️
I love your curiosity, it is always blooming! Funny that my post is bringing up these wonderings for you. I enjoyed living in a bilingual country (Wales) though I didn’t learn Welsh successfully. My children went to a Welsh medium primary school and so all gained fluency but they didn’t speak Welsh to each other at home which I always found interesting. How cool to be able to speak a language your parents don’t understand. I love your enquiry about kinship. That’s such a powerful word. What else do you see around that in the context of language and what of the non human world? My experience with my house plants in particular, is they respond to love - a language beyond words. I’m thinking you may enjoy @Catriona Knapman’s writing as she writes (among other things) about living in different cultures and engaging with place and community through learning the language.
Thank you Juliet and lovely to meet you Genevieve! I funnily just wrote about languages in my last post and now I see the topic popping up everywhere…
How cool is that indeed that kids can speak a language that parents don't understand! How beautiful it is to be able to speak Welsh! Only 'Diolch' and 'Cymru' have stayed with me. 😂
And oh, yes, kinship with the nonhuman world! Something in me is stirred and that's a story for another day.
I love how you can communicate with your house plants and notice that they, too, respond to love. There's something poetic about this. 😊
Thank you, Juliet, for all these 'stirrings' where things emerge. I am deeply grateful for these connections. Diolch. 🙏🏾♥️
Also thank you for pointing me to Catriona Knapman! More connections to enjoy! ♥️
Thank you to @Antonia Malchik for your words that inspired this post.