I get the joy of living with a four year old and a seven year old this year. Honey and Hanna bring a smile to my face every day and I am just so glad that I get to learn from them and live with them this year. My relationship with each of them is very different even though we often all play together. Hanna is wild and crazy and knows very little English. It is guaranteed that any time you play with Hanna whatever you are playing will be strewn all over the floor and there will be lots of yelling and jumping around. Yet she has her sweet moments too. Before meals she will almost always come and take my hand. “Nahm buy” she says and leads me to the dinner table. After meals she will often come and sit on my lap and practice the letters on my t-shirt—She’s going to know how to spell Augustana by the end of this year!
Honey is much calmer than Hanna and she wants to learn everything she can. I love visits from Honey when we play Old Maid, Go Fish, Garbage, Memory, Spot It, Cats Cradle, Barbie, or whatever else we come up with for the day! Honey is one of my best Khmer teachers and she is so patient as I work out what words to use.
One activity that all three of us have found we really enjoy is reading stories. The first time Honey pulled the books out of my suitcase I read them to her mostly in English translating as I was able. Hanna wasn’t interested. For the next couple weeks Honey would often bring me books to read and I would tell them half in Khmer, half in English. Hanna didn’t understand and didn’t have the patience to just sit and look at pictures. One day, though, a couple weeks ago, Hanna brought me a book. I took her on my lap and did my best to tell the story only in Khmer, but leaving out many parts that I didn’t know how to translate. She sat through most of it. Honey overheard this and brought me more books. I started to read them like we usually do but she stopped me and said “No, Khmer.” So we started again, this time reading only in Khmer. This time I couldn’t skip parts I didn’t know because Honey knew the story. It didn’t matter. If I didn’t know a word, Honey told me. If I messed up the word order, Honey corrected me. As my mind was working really hard and seemingly really slow to read the English, determine the meaning, think of Khmer words, and pronounce the Khmer words in the right order, Honey patiently waited. It if wasn’t right, she would make me do it again. “Look, look.” She would say and point at her mouth while she said a word to help me pronounce it correctly.
We did it. Honey and I read at least five books, 100% in Khmer. I was exhausted and I imagine she was too! Since that time we have read many of these stories again and again and I am slowly getting better at reading them. I can speak more smoothly without needing to think about every word I say. Hanna loves to sit and listen because she understands what is going on. Honey loves to tell the story along with me and we often split up the conversations in the stories so she reads one character and I read the other.
I love reading books in English. I have always enjoying reading stories with kids, but this just might be my favorite experience of reading stories. Honey and I have such a special connection through these books because it really takes both of us to read them. I have a story that she wants to hear, but she has the language to understand that story. We have to work together. Kow pee preng neh way laya…Bokey roh nou sabuy. THE END
Called to Cambodia 