The Colorful World Around Us

I have two young boys, the ages of five and three. They enjoy playing different characters. Their most recent character roles have been "tiger" and "bug." My youngest makes sure to remind me every time I call him by his actual name that his name is "tiger."

I enjoy hearing their ways of coloring up the world around them. They also have been able to bring more than one world together such as the other day when I heard the following conversation between the two boys:

"I'm tim."
"And I'm cam."

I know my husband speaks Vietnamese to the boys and they understand the language, but this was one of the first times I heard them choosing to use Vietnamese words within their own conversation along with the signs. My oldest signed "purple" as he said "tim" (describing his "bug" color) and my youngest signed "orange" happily as he said "cam" (describing his "tiger" color).

I continued to them ask them what were some more colors in Vietnamese, and we enjoyed signing them together. All along I knew that sign language was a great tool in bridging the gaps between two worlds of languages. And as this gap is growing smaller for my boys the older they get, it will serve as a bridge, for me, their mom^_^, as I hope to some day learn the language too.

Written by Shawna Tran: www.mybabydetails.com and www.vietnammylife.com