Week #2 - Continuing to figure this out...

I'd say that this week went even better than last. This time, when I arrived, they greeted me happily and invited me in, but everyone kept doing what they were doing when I arrived instead of gathering around and staring at me. The third son, ThaSah*, ran and got his homework, and I pulled out the picture dictionaries, and we settled down into a relaxed couple hours of distinguishing "do" from "does" and learning the names of vegetables. Basically, I would alternate helping ThahSah with school and helping the dad (ThaPwi) pronounce words from the pictures. ThahPwi would painstakingly write down the words in English, their Karen equivalent, and then would have me say each of them so he could write it down phonetically (which was pretty darn cool to watch him do in the Karen script, which is beautiful). He would say it back a few times, then he and his wife (PaLi) and other sons would all say it and laugh at one another's pronunciations and "correct" one another and all look back at me and have me say it again. Very entertaining (for all of us, I think).

Of course, it took ThaSah only about twenty minutes to finish his homework (he's a smart kid), and I'm there for two hours, so the pronunciation lessons formed a large part of the time together. The second son, NaHu (formerly known as ThuWah, in my last post), started taking a lot more language risks as the afternoon went on, and showed me that he knows a lot more English than he thinks he does.

I'm so impressed with all of them. Seriously, they're amazing. And I'm starting to plot: When I was learning the Karen language by immersion, I had a big box of stuff--household items and food and nature and whatever else seemed relevant--and we would manipulate the items and names them and name what we did with them and talk and mime and ask questions, and it was ridiculously helpful (not to mention, fun). So, I'm thinking of preparing such a box (on a small enough scale to bring it on the bus), so we can add a tactile dimension to the language learning. And I think, come summer, I might be bringing some food. Because experiential learning sounds a lot easier than continuing to try to explain what a raspberry is.

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*Like I mentioned in my first post, I can't use their real names, so I've given them all pseudonyms which are vaguely Karen-ish. I decided to change the second son's name, because I like the new one better. And, you know, just to be confusing. But I hope to keep them all consistent from here on out.