Katy discovered Gaspard and Lisa when we were in Phuket and loves them. Uncle Rich and Auntie Yvonne recently brought back some French Gaspard et Lisa books Mama had ordered from Amazon France. So we're re-introducing more French language interest into everyday life.
Katy calls ants "mayi", which is the word in Mandarin. Maybe because they are a big feature of Ni Hao Kailan!
Anyways, Katy found an ant sharing her bread this morning and yelled out "mayi". Mama thought this might be a good time to introduce some French without an English translation, so I told her that in French, mayi is "fourmi". With the guttural r...anyways, to Katy's delight, she then kept saying "fourmi fourmi fourmi" with a very very very guttural r. Let me explain, try saying it with an r that is SO guttural that it is more like a German "ach".
I was horrified! I thought I would just leave well enough alone, but of course Katy kept screaming out "fourmi" at the top of her lungs - she thought the guttural r was very funny. I was horrified that she would keep doing this at school and her playdate and teach it to all her friends. I tried to explain the difference between the French rolled r and the hard German sounding "ach". Then I just desperately tried to teach her to say "fourmi" with a normal English r...but I'm sure that even know, she is yelling out "fourmi" with a hard "ach" at our friend Daphne's dining room table...
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