Languages

Ian grew up in three different countries: England, France, and the U.S.  Then, he majored in French and Spanish, and studied abroad in Spain. 

I, on the other hand, grew up and stayed in the same state for all my schooling.  But I also studied abroad in Spain.

I often talk about how I want our kids to have a little piece of each of the cultures.  Ian is fluent in French, and we often talk about speaking to our kids in both French and Spanish (and obviously English).  When we start prepping to have kids, I'll be sure to buy plenty of French and Spanish books so that we can start practicing with them when they're just babies.

But how do we incorporate his English tradition?  They certainly won't have his accent, considering they'll grow up here, and especially because his accent is so faint.  I know we'll celebrate holidays in both the American and English ways.  And I want to be sure to visit England often, so they know where their family is from.

I figure that our kids will learn to be part English through Ian's language.  English language.  I'm somewhat used to his language now, but I remember the first year or two of dating, I'd burst out laughing when he'd come out with some funny word I'd never heard of.  And every once in awhile, he or his parents will surprise me with some word or phrase.  Here's a list of the words that demonstrate how different the English and American languages are:

• Garage is pronounced as "gairedge"
• And Bob's your uncle (is equivalent to, "and that's that")
• Rubbish
• Bloody _______ (insert whatever you want here, he often says he's bloody hungry)
• Gordon Bennett (holy crap)
• John Thomas (toilet)
• Wanker (he says this a lot while watching soccer games when one of the players makes a bad play. normally with "bloody" before it)
• Football (he refers to any games relating to the NFL as "American Football", and if he just says football he's referring to soccer)
• Oy (he says this when he's trying to get someone's attention, normally mine or Tessa's)
• Aluminum wrap is pronounced Al-u-mean-ium (like the end (ium) of immodium)
• Cellophane (saran wrap)
• Town shoes (men's dress shoes)
• Jumper (sweatshirt)
• Bollocks (this basically means bull shit - he says "that's a load of bollocks" a lot)

There are so many more that I'm forgetting.  I'll have to continue to add to this list as I hear more weird phrases.  Our kids are sure to have some really weird vocab.