Both of the kids are taking Spanish, Caleb is in his third year of high school Spanish; and last year Abigail completed beginning Spanish and is continuing with the Rosetta Stone program this year. None of their classes have taught them as much or been as entertaining as working at the pantry.
Many of the clients are Hispanic and speak very little English so the kids have had to speak conversational Spanish. Several weeks ago Abigail learned the word poquito, meaning small. It was easy to remember it's pronunciation because it sounds like mosquito. Last week with Ms. Lizzie, Abigail used the word mosquito instead of poquito. The rest of the day the other volunteers poked fun and teased her about it. Today, the client she was working with when she said 'mosquito' brought her a hand written paper of how to say many of the words Abigail uses at the pantry.
Ms. Lizzie had Abigail tell her the sentence she has trouble with, for example, "May I help you out to your car?" That sentence doesn't translate well to Spanish and ends up sounding like Abigail is offering to help them with their car, possibly change the oil? Ms. Lizzie translated sentences for her and then Abigail wrote it out phonetically so she could remember how to pronounce the words.
Buen trabajo mi poquito mosquito. (Good job my small mosquito!)
Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.
Genesis 11:7
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