Learning Russian

"Die Mommy"

Not an expression often heard on a quiet Sunday afternoon in an average suburban neighborhood. But it happened, about 9 years ago, in my back yard.

Teaching my daughter Russian was exciting - I started from the day she was born, everything I addressed to her was in my native tongue. As she grew from baby to toddler it was a joy to hear her respond in Russian, even with a simple "da" - I was encouraged and worked even harder to strengthen her vocabulary.

One day when she was around two, we were playing with a ball in the back yard. I used the opportunity to practice with her the verb "to give". I would roll the ball to her, she would fumble around till she got it and then I'd call to her "give it to Mom", of course in Russian.

After a few of the back and forths with the ball and the "give it to Mom"s something in my brain clicked and I heard what my Russian sounded like in English. You see, in Russian "give it to Mom" sounds like "Daiy Mamme" or ... "Die Mommy".

Our game with the ball of course quickly ended and we moved on to other verbs but that memory still give me quite a good chuckle.