Saturday, June 21, 2008

A sampaguita by any other name is still a flower

Last April, my husband Aldrich and I were driving along Ortigas Ave., on the way to his brother Iven's house in Cubao. Raine and Aidan were with us in the car, along with their yayas. Just as we stopped at the red light in front of Greenhills Shopping Center, a boy of about 8-10 yrs old tapped on our window and peddled his garlands of sampaguita. Feeling sorry for the kid, we bought around 3 strands, and hung it on the rearview mirror. I then taught Raine how to say sampaguita.

Me: "Raine, this is called sampaguita."
Raine: "sampetita"
Me: "no, it's sampaguita."
Raine: "sampatita"
Me: "sampaguita"
Raine: "sampeti ..... flower"

Dumbfounded, Aldrich and I could only look at each other and manage a wry smile at being outsmarted by a 2 yr. old kid.

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posted by Austin @ 6:42 PM 0 comments

Of Eyes, Ears and Nose(trils?)

It's so amazing how smart kids are nowadays.

A couple of months ago, I was teaching Raine the parts of her face, and how many they are. I'd ask her in Chinese, and she'd answer me, like ...How many eyes do you have? She'd say "Two" ...How many ears do you have? She'd say "Two"
But when I asked her how many nose do you have, she'd still answer "two", so I'd correct her and say "only one nose, Raine".

This happened quite a number of times, until finally, she managed to get the better of me. I was asking her again.

How many eyes do you have? "Two"
How many ears do you have? "Two"
How many nose do you have? "Two" but when i corrected her and said "one", she inserted both her fingers into her nostrils, and said, "two".

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posted by Austin @ 6:27 PM 0 comments