Student or Teacher?

By: Laura-Kate Denny, A NDFH Summer Intern

I help with Sophie's English language lessons. Sometimes, it's hard to tell who is the student and who is the teacher! While practicing our shopping vocabulary (important for any 4-year-old girl, right?), I asked Sophie to teach me the Chinese word for "store." Always the eager teacher, Sophie looked my in the eye and slowly said what sounded like,

"Sha - Doe - Ah"

And so I repeated, "Sha-Doe-Ah." Sophie shook her head, obviously unimpressed with my Chinese language skills, and said again, "Sha-Doe-Ah." I repeated. She said no, and repeated the phrase again. This back and forth went on for probably 30 repetitions. Clearly amused with my accent, Sophie even tried squishing my cheeks together to help me make the right noise. Still, my efforts fell short of her high teaching standards.

Finally, in exasperation, Sophie looked at me and said, "No, I want to go to the sha-doe-ah!"

Sha-doe-ah. Store. I had been repeating Sophie's pronunciation of the English word, while she was patiently correcting me as I dragged the word into at least 3 syllables. When I finally said "store," Sophie happily congratulated me for getting it right. Maybe there's a teaching degree in Sophie's future - she's certainly got the patience!