I had a chat with Boy2's teacher the other day. About my children's bilingualism. Which was fine. She's very, um, baba-cool, and couldn't understand some of the rules we have but whatever. It was fine. Except she had the worst post-coffee breath ever. And she kept moving closer to me, as some people who have different personal space criteria do, and I kept slowly moving away. It was a strange dance.
Anyway.
Later, Boy2 asked me why I kept backing up from his teacher. I told him, as nicely as I could, that she had probably had a cup of coffee recently and that sometimes leftover coffee smell on someone's breath isn't that pleasant (Which is why tic-tac's and altoids were invented) but she's a great teacher and I wasn't backing up because I didn't like her.
He smiled. "But that's not her fault, Mama. Her doctor told her she had to drink a lot of coffee. That's why she drinks coffee all day long. It's the rule."
I didn't bother telling him that keeping track of 30 4-year olds is more likely the real reason.
9 comments:
Perhaps you should start teaching 4 year olds - that way your doctor can prescribe the same coffee drinking prescription for you
I self-medicate with coffee.
baba-cool???
Sorry we got cut off today in talking about the birthday party tongue biting event. I knew a boy who got stitches in his tongue. ewwww.
Julie
When I taught French, the second-year textbook we used had several vocabulary lists in the "clothing" chapter that went beyond "chemise" and "jupe" and what you'd expect. One list was "fabrics," with the list beside it entitled "le look." In addition to some terms that I'd heard of before (like "BCBG"), "baba-cool" (which they translated as "hippy") was included. I was always slightly suspicious of "baba-cool," because in two years of living in France, I only ever saw foreigners dressed like hippies, and I can't remember ever seeing the expression in writing outside of the textbook. Now I know that it really exists and that it does indeed describe the style of certain real-life French people!
Change of subject: does it get tedious explaining to people that you're raising the boys bilingually? Or do you enjoy being able to share your experiences and beliefs and open people's (including teachers') minds? (I'm curious since I'll have to start that process here in Colorado next year!)
This would explain why everyone at work is constantly backing away from me when I talk...
different cultures have different ideas about personal space -it's interesting to watch :)
oh and we've raised our kids billingually. no probs :)
OMG, the side of him that believed that Madame was rx'd coffee is def. his French side. So cute.
Beth - not worth it.
Lorraine - I know you do!
Sarah - I'll post about that this week.
SCG - I'll 20 bucks you've got altoids or tic tacs in your purse...
Lorna - Even during the teenage years?
Mollyb - I told my husband the same thing.
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