Quotable Conversations {Are You from Spanish?}

One afternoon, the first week of classes at her new school, MGJ returned to her school gymnasium to watch her peers play basketball. While in the bleachers cheering the Lady Lions on, she was approached by a pair of early elementary boys.

"Are you Bei Bei's sister?" a first-grade(ish) boy queried.

MGJ acknowledged that she was.

(Now, new students are a rarity in this tiny consolidated community school ... and so when three new families arrived at the start of 2011, it made somewhat of an impact on the community!)

"Are your from Spanish?" he asked.

MGJ shook her head to the contrary.

She later related two things:

1} How popular her Kindergarten aged sister had become overnight ....

2} How "Spanish", might be the only foreign language someone this age, from this community, might have exposure to, and by extension he gave the same name to a culture/country ...

I reminded her too, how six-year-olds are six-year-olds. I thought about how last semester
Bei Bei came home and announced her teacher was moving to New Zealand, when it was actually Singapore; and how I, at a slightly older age, came home on the first day of second grade and announced to my parents that my teacher was from Hollywood. When my parents queried at their first parent/teacher conference with her, how she was adjusting to life in the Mid-West, she looked at them quizzically and informed them she was from Holly, Minnesota.

The determined little guy continued his interview:

"How many airplanes did you take to get here?" he asked.

"Two!"volunteered another youngster, anxious to share his global knowledge.

"Oh," said the first boy, then added, "I don't like airplanes."

And then scampered off, leaving the new middle schooler from "Spanish" to watch the game.