My daughter, Cathleen,\u00a0was born in\u00a0California.\u00a0 Her husband, Edan, arrived\u00a0from Israel a few years ago.\u00a0My granddaughter, Caedan Ray, goes to Temple Pre-School, where many songs are sung in Hebrew, where the cantor, when he teaches\u00a0the little ones a song, counts off “One, two, three, go!” in Hebrew.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Caedan knows the Sabbath\u00a0prayer.\u00a0She greets her family with “Shabbat Shalom” and that’s about all\u00a0I understand from their\u00a0Friday night ritual.\u00a0 Even if I did understand Hebrew, I’m not sure I’d grasp what the three year old is saying.\u00a0 She doesn’t have a hard “r” sound in her arsenal and she does some creative things with\u00a0l’s and y’s.\u00a0\u00a0It’s easy to\u00a0imagine why Mommy and Abba smile\u00a0when Caedan says\u00a0the prayer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I arrived for a visit recently,\u00a0I rang the doorbell and the little girl answered.\u00a0 Behind her, I could see\u00a0Abba\u00a0chatting on the phone.\u00a0The little one\u00a0(“Yiddie for short –\u00a0her “l\/y” situation results\u00a0in her saying “yiddie” for “little” and we’ve added that to her list of nicknames)\u00a0gave me a hug and\u00a0said, “shhhh,\u00a0Abba is talking to Einat (A-not) in Israel.”\u00a0\u00a0Then she said quite slowly, to be sure I understood,\u00a0“He is talking Hebrew.”<\/p>\n
My daughter and I ask Abba if\u00a0he speaks Hebrew to Yiddie when they’re home alone.\u00a0\u00a0He says he forgets, because he\u00a0enjoys\u00a0English so much.\u00a0 His\u00a0English is colorful;\u00a0a bit more\u00a0formal than the way it’s taught\u00a0in\u00a0America, with fewer contractions,\u00a0but\u00a0then he tosses in the\u00a0occasional\u00a0“dude”\u00a0 and “s’all good.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
So – Caedan has English.\u00a0 And pre-school speak.\u00a0\u00a0And bits of\u00a0Hebrew.\u00a0 And she has\u00a0Dora The Explorer on PBS.\u00a0She watches faithfully and shouts out the answers\u00a0in Spanish.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many neighbors near her\u00a0home are\u00a0Spanish-speaking.\u00a0\u00a0One boy,\u00a0Eric, goes to\u00a0school in his wheelchair.\u00a0He waits out front with his parents for the special van.\u00a0Caedan\u00a0stands eye to eye with him and\u00a0says “Hola, Eric.”\u00a0 His parents smile, pat her on the head, and say a whole bunch of sentences\u00a0I don’t understand.\u00a0 Yiddie smiles back and this goes on for a while.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I have no idea if she understands\u00a0what Eric’s parents are saying.\u00a0 In her world, everybody speaks different languages, so maybe it’s already second nature.\u00a0While she works\u00a0on her l’s and y’s and r’s, Eric’s parents are working on English and Abba will soon be\u00a0working\u00a0on the answers to his citizenship test.<\/p>\n