Monday, October 22, 2012

Ari's New Friend Who Doesn't Speak English

Ari has a new friend at school. His Pre-K teacher told me about him. Apparently they play in Magnatiles together all the time. When he comes home from school, Ari talks about his friend. I asked Ari's teacher if I could contact Ari's new friend's mom.

"Oh that would be great, but just a heads up, she doesn't speak very much English."

I knew Ari's friend's name, but I didn't know what nationality he was. Mint and I looked online and we determined that his name was Chinese.

I looked on the class contact sheet. The email address from Ari's new friend's mom was at a Chinese website. I emailed her.

I didn't hear back...

So I called her.

"Hi Ellen (fake name) my son Ari is in your son Billy's (fake name) class. Ms W. says they play  together in Magnatiles. I was wondering if you wanted to have a play date."
"Oh...yes. Sorry, I don't speak so much English." Said Ellen with a nervous giggle.
"That's okay, what language do you speak?"
"Cantonese." She said.
"Oh, well then I'll have to learn Cantonese then."
We laughed.
"Do you want to meet after school and go to the playground?"
"Is this with other classmates?" Asked Ellen.
"No, no, it's just me, you, Billy, and Ari. What do you think?
"Oh, okay, okay." She said laughing nervously again.

I'm excited for Ari and Billy to play together, but I'm so curious as to how they communicate. I suppose when you're four play is more physical than verbal anyhow.

Any suggestions for our play date? Should I buy a Cantonese dictionary?

No comments:

Post a Comment

What do you think? Feel free to agree or disagree, but hateful comments will be deleted.