Stahlke Adoption

Postscript: Learning More English

I just remembered my original idea for yesterday's post. It got lost in the shuffle of other thoughts . . .

When a child is five and learning English, a necessary breakthrough is realizing that every word in Ukrainian has a corresponding term in English. Actually, this occurred even with our older children. I distinctly remember an evening meal about two months after they arrived in the States. They suddenly started pointing to all the items on the table and asking the English name for each of them. We must have taught them twenty words that hour.

Even in the orphanage, Kola would ask us the meaning of our English conversations. But the realization of corresponding words has been much more recent. About two weeks ago, Kola started saying goodbye with two words instead of one: "Pakah, bye!"

There are pitfalls, however. For weeks, he has been addressing our pet as "Sobaka" (the Ukrainian word for dog), but now he uses the English word "Dakota" for every dog he meets!

posted by Stahlkes @ 9:39 AM