Sophie started Bulgarian school earlier this week. After her first day she made an interesting observation. She told me "When you speak Bulgarian to a Bulgarian they hear English. When you speak English to a Bulgarian they hear nothing." She also said, "I need to learn Bulgarian so that when someone speaks Bulgarian I hear English."
At first I did not understand, but as she explained further I figured it out. What she was trying to say was that Bulgarians understand Bulgarian like she understands English, and many of them don't understand English at all. She wants to learn Bulgarian to the point where it is just as clear to her as English is.
She is making progress in learning Bulgarian. Sometimes we ask her questions in Bulgarian, and she responds accurately in English. I was encouraged by her childish explanation of languages because it shows me that she understands language differences and what it means in a practical sense.
Браво, Софи!
ReplyDeleteThat's quite an insight there. I'm guessing that, in her internal lexicon, "English" = "what comes naturally" or maybe "the way my own thoughts sound inside my head."
Gotta love it!