Double-Take
On my drive from church to the high school, I often pass a store named BAHCALL. Yesterday was the first time in years that I've mentally pronounced this word correctly (in English, that is).The first five letters are homoglyphs with Ukrainian, so my first reaction is to pronounce this word "VANSALL." Then I get to the English "L"s and remember suddenly that this word is not Ukrainian.
The only Ukrainian word I hear from the children is "pianino" from Kola, which is his term for piano or organ. On rare occasion, we hear some unusual word order or turn of phrase, which I assume is Ukrainian. Two examples, though not recent, are "seatcar" (for carseat) and "haircomb" (for comb).
The speed of language acquisition by children continues to impress me. In my opinion, the U.S. education system should offer foreign languages in younger grades, when it's so much easier to learn them.
posted by Stahlkes @ 3:23 PM
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