I was reading Scott's blog last night and particularly enjoyed reading a post where he had copied an email he received which was apparently very poorly translated. I love language. And I especially love it when myself or others mix it up in a way that turns out really funny. It has to be one of the greatest side effects of having kids that you get to listen to them try to learn language. Like when Joseph came running in to me yesterday to tell me that Noah was dumping all the "salt cleaner" on the floor. It was laundry detergent. Looks like salt, I suppose.
I am blessed to have a wonderful friend, Mako, who is from Japan, and who shares my love of language. I have an incredible amount of respect for Mako. Japanese is an extremely complicated language. Mako speaks and writes English so well that it is easy to forget she's not a native speaker sometimes. And the thing about learning English when you are Japanese is that you have to learn a whole new alphabet. All that said, as much as I respect Mako, I still get the giggles in choir every time she sings "Tlee of Rife" instead of "Tree of Life." If you fall into that category, you may enjoy a website Mako shared with me: www.engrish.com