The day Novie turned 3 she was registered to begin Ovoda (pre-school). She had her 3rd birthday Nov. 14th which was a Sat. and began school Monday morning the 16th. Crazy?! No kidding! We knew it would be the best to put her in school so she would quickly learn Hungarian. Since neither Andy or I speak Hungarian we knew this would benefit her and is the wisest decision for school at this point in time. Every other staff child has a Hungarian parent. Not even a year later and still 3 years old, Novie's teacher told us Novie is bilingual and has surprised us with how quickly she has learned. AAHH, so crazy and so amazing the mind of a child. We ONLY speak English at home and she has mastered another language. I know she has been speaking Hungarian for months now but to hear her teacher "brag" about Novie really made me realize that my child speaks 2 languages without my help and of course I'm proud :) Wow, it's hard not to get jealous that it only took her being in pre-school for a few hours a day for 7mo.
I've been humbled repeatedly through this process as my 3 and yes, even my 2 year old have corrected me, conjuga
ted correctly, or used words I do not know. It's tricky as a mommy knowing they know more than me... I feel like I
'm supposed to be the one leading, guiding, encouraging them, yet when it comes to this area of my life the roles have switched and I'm not sure how to respond, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.
Last week Novie came up to me and said,
"Mommy let's play Hungarian. I will be the shop lady and you have to buy things from me." So we began, yes I was corrected on how to play but also on the words. I realized to make an item an object I had to add, "t" I kept forgetting that. Yes, Novie
corrected me. I constantly mispronounced words and the list goes on. I struggled that day between crying and laughing. Novie knew I needed to practice and
she h
elped me and encouraged me and I would laugh thinking about how sweet she was, saying, "Mommy you need to practice more" or "mommy that's not the right Magyarul word, but you are getting
good." But I also cried, I'm tired of studying another l
anguage but I know studying is the only way I will learn. I'm tired of making mistakes being corrected and st
ill not grasping certain concepts even after months of language school, tutoring and hearing it explained. Maybe I'm not tired but frustrated it doesn't come "easy" to me. Maybe in 10 years I will look back at these feelings and laugh. I'm proud of my daughters and how fast they have learned a new language and adapted. I also know they call Hungary home. I pray I will also feel the same way, and I feel the biggest way to make that happen is to learn Hungarian so I will keep trying and keep studying.
2 comments:
tab's i love this post. thanks for being so real with all your readers. i will be praying for you as i know how humbling it can be for me when Novie corrects me, but your her mom. i love you dearly and i think your doing a great job. keep up the hard work.
For what it's worth, I think you're doing great in Hungarian. You're depth of understanding always surprises me. I can tell that, as a Mommy protecting her child, you've learned to listen well. You may not be able to respond as quickly and perfectly as you want, but you know what people are saying about and to your little girl. Don't be discouraged. Look back at your progress over the past year too. You're doing great!
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