Translating English into English

These Australians seem to have a different word for everything. They call gelato gelo. They call Jello jelly. And they call jelly jam. The differences are endless and yet the fundamental structure and vocabulary range so much the same that translation is effortless and fun. Jake has begun keeping an Australian dictionary; a lexicon of second-grade. Here are a few of his entries:

tag = tiggy
dodge ball = poison
ketchup = tomato sauce
lots = heaps
candy = lollies

My favorite recent moment of cognitive dissonance was when Jake came home and told us that his class' reading teacher was named Reader. I burst out laughing and told him that he had probably misheard. He insisted that he hadn't. And he was right. The reading teacher is Rita, and indeed, as improbable as it is given her job, it is pronounced Reader. It still cracks me up.

This past Saturday we drove out of the city, halfway around the long arching bay and down the Mornington Penninsula. We stopped at a little tiny cove from where you could look out across the bay and see the Melbourne skyline in the far distance. The water was so still and the late-afternoon sun hit the red cliffs and made everything glow. Most of the time we were the only ones there. Jake, who is not a natural athlete, nonetheless has his dad's gift for frisbee, and so Jake and Matt and I played frisbee while Lucy sat happily nearby eating huge handfuls of sand. Jake has very recently reached the stage of physical coordination that we can play frisbee and catch with him and he is just good enought that it is actually fun. I'm so excited to have arrived at this moment of parenting. Jake is blooming in a lot of ways, and seems suddenly more thoughtful and mature. Although he is still a major space cadet. Lucy is becoming ever more like herself. She is affectionate, funny, quick to laugh, quick to scream, knows exactly what she wants and is basically the boss of all of us. As Jake said recently, "When you're with Lucy its impossible not to have a laugh." She walks around the house unaided, but likes to hold onto a finger when we are outside. She doesn't much like help eating anymore and shovels food into her mouth and onto the floor at an equal rate. Her favorite activities are tackling Jake, looking for Jake under blankets and riding on Jake. Jake adores her.

Lucy herself occasions plenty of translation as well. Her new word is bruh-ber, which means, of course, brother. When Jake says to her, "say bruh-ber," she shakes her head no and laughs like crazy.


By the way, our high-tech DC number is finally up and running. You can call us at (202) 536-4132 and it will reach us here. Try it--its wild.