Fuera de las bocas de los babes

So I guess I can say I speak Spanish, at this point. I understand a LOT, almost all of what I hear in daily life. And I can ask for what I need, get my point across, have a conversation, tell a story, talk about the weather and the news and what we're going to do next week. I speak like a two-year-old, but I'm getting better, and people understand me. It's really cool to learn a new language this way--total immersion. In fact, based on my previous attempts at learning a language, this is probably the only way I can learn. Unless I NEED something, I don't retain it. Living in Mexico, transacting all of my daily life in Spanish, I retain a lot.

But even if I do sometimes say silly things, you still can't beat an authentic two-year-old's way with words. Playing in the yard with the dog the other day, my friend's daughter shouted "¡Corre con tu vida!" Translated directly, it means "Run with your life!"

And then there's my goddaughter, who's 14, and tried to teach me F language. No, it's not a language that uses the F-word every other sentence. It's similar to Ineg lanuage, where you insert "Ineg" into every syllable. InegI cInegan dInego iInegit iInegin EInginglInegish prInigettInegey wInegell. But it's another thing entirely to try to do it in another language. That you don't speak very well. With F. CreFeoFo queFe eFes aFalgFoo coFomoFo eFestoFo. But that took me 10 minutes with Google Translate and cut and paste to work out.

I think I'll stick to speaking "regular" Spanish, and hope I can catch up to the two-year-old's vocabulary soon.