grandie v met a new girl at the pool
her daddy is a soccer coach at the university
who moved here from another country
though i have no idea where
the language that the family
spoke between them
was beautiful
yet
i couldn’t identify it
and
it was wonderful
to watch the girls play
and
communicate
without any difficulty
in two very different languages
neither one speaking the other’s language
but
they played and played
and soon
they were singing
to each other
and
laughing out loud
and
neither seemed to
even realize or care
that they began
with
two different languages
they were simply
two friends
speaking a new one together.
—
“the language of friendship is not words but meanings.”
henry david thoreau
So true, Beth. We could/should learn from children. In innocence, they still hold the art of pure communication.
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they absolutely do –
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I love your story Beth. When my wife’s son was about 4 I would take him to a local park where he would play with others kids for hours. About 1/2 were English and 1/2 French with a few other languages thrown in. They would stop and teach each other the words for each thing they came across. Fascinating process – every day they would come away from the playground knowing at least a dozen new words in another language. As they got older – in their teens – when they had so many words to say and so little time to say them in – they would switch from language to language within a conversation. When ever they came to a concept better expressed in another language,they would switch, sometimes even within a sentence. They knew the difference and could read and write and speak in one language formally but left with their friends the conversation became: “Let’s got to chez moi.”
Great post Beth.
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i love that paul, and thank you –
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Beautiful. 🙂
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thank you, sarah, it was beautiful to watch )
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🙂
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I love that. Another way we should emulate children: beautiful acceptance.
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yes, that’s it, mark. beautiful acceptance.
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Beautiful!!!!!!
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thank you )
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What a wonderful example!!
>
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they are )
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“Speaking a new language together” I love your wording and its message. It’s powerful and poetic.
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i thought that it described it well –
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I think if we let children be our communicators between countries, we’d be so much better off. Their curiosity and inquisitiveness and excitement would serve us well.
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i so agree –
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I love that Beth! Words are only a small part of communicating anyway. 😉 ❤
Diana xo
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Yes, that is so right-
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Lovely in so many ways. Thanks for sharing!
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my pleasure )
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Lovely how you described their singing and playing, Beth. Discovering a whole new language. Perfect depiction of how we need to realign and act more like children. ❤
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thank you, and we really do –
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Perfect. The language of friendship…so beautiful.
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that language is perfect )
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Once again Thoreau nails it. I love the shape and the meaning of the poem.
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he really understood life and thank you –
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Simply beautiful! (♡ ὅ ◡ ὅ )ʃ♡
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🐱
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Beautiful 🙂
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thank you )
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Beth, not sure why but yesterday I could not press Like? So today all the ones I left Sat. messages on, I am liking a Lot (again)! xo
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How I wish I could spend time as a child again, yet as kids all we want to do is grow up. I thought when I was an adult I could a new dress whenever I wanted, but of course I had no concept of having to work for that dress or put gas in the car to go buy it. I envy kids. No preconceived ideas. No need to be politically correct. No racism or putting down any culture or thinking they are better than others. It is adults who teach them that. To change the world we have to teach the children. By the time they are adults they are too programmed to change – sincerely change. You can’t teach an adult to not be racist if he is – it is what is in their heart. We can’t change the cops who want to hurt people. We can’t change the prison guards who want to kick the dog and live in the world of animality. Children pick up languages because they can sense what it means. That is why we need to teach them while they are young.
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absolutely
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If only such barriers were simplistic for adults
then we would not have so many problems in
the world. Keep that optimism flowing Beth. I
always believe that the glass is half full 🙂
Andro xx
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quite clearly, i do too )
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Hello ksbeth.
This was beautiful.
As a language teacher myself, I often encourage my students to revert to being children, to lose their sense of embarrassment, or whatever it is that overcomes us when learning a new language as an adult, and simply try to communicate.
If the two parties both want communication, as they did in your lovely story, then communication will happen, no matter which language they speak.
We have so much to learn from children!
Regards. Marie.
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thank you, marie. we really could learn from them –
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