What We Speak

A lot of my friends asked me if we speak dutch to our son. and the answer to that is, een beetje. een beetje means a little bit.

I read some dutch books to him (he'd probably pick up faster than me). i have some alphabets flashcards in dutch. i know my animals, numbers, colours in dutch. but to compose a whole sentence in dutch, nope. not yet.

Simplest words like:
Goeden Morgen - Good morning - Selamat pagi
How are you - Hoe Gaat Het - Apa khabar
Nee - No - Jangan
Kijk! - Look! - Tengok!
Schatje - My little darling - Sayang kenit ku
Lekker slaapen - Good sleep - Sedap tido/tido sedap
Welterusten - Good night - Selamat malam
Lekker! - Delicious! - Sedap!

That, yes! i use those words everyday to him, as well as a few others. and i make sure i teach him to spell his name in dutch too (alphabets sounds different than ours).

But apart from that, we speak english and of course malay to him. and thanks to his leapfrog pal TAD, we learn een beetje of french.

This is what you might hear from me:

"Aidan lapo?"
"Aidan dah bangon tido?"
"Look! the sun's out, meh kita keluo dok kat luor"
"Aidan sejuk mama gebo kan aidan eh... so that you wont catch a cold..."
"Meh aidan dok atas kosi aidan meh.."
"Apasal kaki aidan tak boleh tegak?"

And this is what you might hear from his papa:

"Awat kaki hang tak boleih luruih?"
"Banyaq nya aiaq lioq!"
"Mai kita pi naik bouncer hang"
"Aidan nak keluaq?"
"Hang dah ngantoq? mai kita tidoq"

Guess who's from the south and who's from the north?!

Hope our son will pick up dutch soon, hope WE can speak dutch soon!

Z