I've been waiting for M to make the leap into Portuguese. She has held on fiercely to English. She uses random Portuguese words at will in her English sentences with us, but whenever Brazilians talk to her, she barks in return. I'm not kidding. In fact, D has heard my canned excuse so many times that he can even say it in Portuguese: Ela não gosta de falar em português, então ela fala só na língua do cachorro.....(that is: She doesn't like to speak in Portuguese, so she only speaks in dog language.)
I've asked her teacher if she understands Portuguese. "Bastante." A mysterious word to me, with no perfect translation, but basically can be used to get the feeling of "enough."
Then, just this week....this week, she turned a corner. She does not speak to Brazilians in English nor língua do cachorro. Honestly, what she is speaking is not exactly Portuguese either. She has this little way of her own....using vocabulary she knows and inserting all sorts of other "words" in the sentence where she has blanks. Amazingly, the words sound something like Portuguese, although they are not. It is incredible. I have never witnessed a natural acquisition of a second language in a child. And with H beginning her own efforts at communication I can easily note the similarities. H is babbling in what sounds to her like our words. M is doing the same with Brazilians. H is making primitive two-word phrases: "Mommy shoe" "see bird." M is making primitive two-word phrases: "Eu leche" (literally: me milk) "Pare por favor" (stop please).
Have I mentioned lately that I think she is a pretty amazing kid?
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