It has been quite a journey as we have tried to help Minsy figure out our strange English language. She has been here for a year, and although I can understand a lot of what she says, there is still so far to go. It has to be frustrating for her to know what she wants to say but to be so unable to get her meaning across with words. Her time in preschool has helped her a lot since they really work with her to pronounce her words clearly. It still is kind of funny to see them work with her though. The other day I went to pick her up, and Laney was with me. Minsy was super excited to see Laney, since Laney is normally at school when I pick Minsy up. She got excited and ran up to her teacher's assitant, Mrs. Snobl, and told her all about Laney being there. Mrs. Snobl listened to her and then tried to get Minsy to say the words correctly. I think she wanted her to say "sister" or something like that, so she told Minsy to say "sister", but Minsy only nodded her head. Of course she knew that Laney was her sister, so she was confused as to why Mrs. Snobl would have to repeat it fifty times. She couldn't figure out that Mrs. Snobl was trying to get her to repeat the word. And such it is every single day in preschool. Baby steps. Baby steps.
One of the things that makes language difficult for Minsy is that the Chinese language doesn't have all of the same sounds as English, so her little mouth just doesn't want to make those sounds. Sounds that are secondhand to English speakers are amazingly complicated for native Mandarin speakers. Think about how we make the 'z' sound or the 'th' sound. Hard to explain if you were trying to teach it to someone, but for us it just comes out.
Well, one of the sounds that Minsy really struggles with is the 'L' sound. She just doesn't do it. That's why Laney is always called "Mamie" and Look is always pronounced "ook." I've just gotten used to hearing her speak this way, and it is still kind of cute. Of course, it won't be so cute when she is twenty and looking for a job somewhere, so we are going to have to get her into speech therapy soon. That meeting is coming next week, so hopefully she'll make tons of progress in the near future. But one exciting thing has started happening lately. I have heard Minsy singing to herself at times, and she will say "la, la, la, la, la." Hurray! Her little mouth was learning how to make the right sounds. Now all we had to do was get her to use those sounds with everyday language.
And that's the real challenge.
I remembered a great Sesame Street segment from when I was little when Bert and Ernie sing a song with the "L" sound, so I pulled up youtube and found the archived video. Remember this one?
La La La La ... lumps in my oatmeal. I love Bert and Ernie!
Well, we tried and tried and tried to use this song to get Minsy to say Laney instead of Mamie. I would sing "La, La, La, La ... Laney," and Minsy would repeat "La, La, La, La ... Mamie." Over and over and over. Sigh.
Oh well. The year is still young, and there will be tons of time to figure this out. I will just be grateful for the little triumphs of the day. A month ago Minsy couldn't make the "L" sound. Now she can. And there is great rejoicing. yay.....
If only I could get that La La song out of my head now.
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