Nishka the English Scholar Part II - Nov Dec 2009
While Nishka began her 1st pre-school experience in the US, by attending Goddard at Spotswood on Sep 8 2009, we withdrew her from school a couple of months later due to fear of her contracting viral infections during the extreme winter season. But the young linguist's dabbling with English continues regardless, as she indiscriminately fires away sentences and phrases at her parents and even her infant sister. Below are more of the English rookie's ramblings.
| Event | What Nishka meant to say | What she actually said |
| On Nov 21 2009, When I was doing back exercise on the yoga mat and Nishka was sharing the mat with me, I accidentally took a little bit of her space. So she snapped | "Donot take my space" | "Stop grabbing to me!", then she corrected herself "Dont believe me!". Still unhappy with what she said, she re-phrased her objection as "Dont bother me. You are taking my jaaga!". Jaaga in Tulu means 'area' |
| I had built a Lego pyramid with a man affixed on the vertex whom I referred to as Bob the Builder. Then I placed the pyramid on top of the curtain panel. A few days later, on Nov 22, I removed it from that spot and when Nishka noticed the pyramid missing, she queried | Where did he disappear ? | Where did he gone ? |
| On Nov 26 when I was cutting loose excess hair entangled in the vacuum cleaner shaft, Nishka who was watching exclaimed | That is a lot of hair | "There is still coming grudge!" Since the Devil in the movie Grudge has hair all over her face, Nishka associates hair with Grudge. |
| On Nov 26 2009 when 6-month young Rishma was sitting on my lap and spit up, Nishka who was standing in front of me, pointing to Rishma, reacted | She is spitting up | She is spit-upping. |
| On Nov 26 I played "Little Mermaid" on the laptop for Nishka since she was getting bored. | She should have quietly watched it. | As soon as the movie started playing, Nishka squalled "Its over". When I asked why she thought so, she said "ABC is coming". She was referring to the opening credits like "Music score" , "Producer" etc. that was being listed and thought they were closing credits which are listed when a movie is over and so thought the movie was over. |
| When Nishka was having her lunch no Nov 28 2009, in order to make her feel good, so that she finished her lunch fast, I eulogized Nishka saying that Nishka was the best and Rishma was a poopy girl since she soiled the floor when she wore no diaper. So Nishka, now overly effervescent, looked at 6 month young Rishma who appeared to be giggling at something, and bawled at the little one | "Stop laughing at me. You are the poopy girl not me" | "Stop looking at me and laugh me. Go outside and laugh with insects! " |
| On Dec 27 2009, I asked Nishka "Who lives inside a temple" and also asked her if Snow White, Cinderella or Aurora would be present in the temple | "There are no princesses in a temple. Only God lives in the temple. | "Princess are only in story books and DVDs'. In temple we find Ganpati Pappa doing standstill" |
| On the snowy night of December 5 2009, with Nishka and Rishma in the back in their car-seats , I was driving to pick up Nim from her friend Radhika's house. Since 6 month young Rishma was in a rear facing infant seat and I could not see her, I asked Nishka what Rishma was doing. Nishka replied. | She is looking at me. | She is lookatting me. |
| On Dec 6 2009 I was playing hide-n-seek with Nishka inside the house. While I concealed myself in the pantry Nishka was searching around the house for a while. When she was scouring the bedroom, I sneaked out of the pantry and sat in the computer table. When she eventually spotted me on the table, I joked with her why she never noticed me as I was sitting there all the while. So Nishka replied | Daddy I was looking for you but was not able to find you. | Daddy I was watching for you. You were not looking me. |
| On Dec 8 2009 when Nishka was reading a nursery rhyme collection by Shirley Hughes, she noticed a picture of a little girl showing a leaf to her pet cat. Then Nishka acknowledged | Baby is giving the leaf to the cat | Baby is giving cat to leaf. |
| On Dec 17 2009 when the Lego Horse cart that Nishka was assembling on the living room carpet, fell apart, Nishka quipped | My horse-cart has broken. | My horse-cart is broking. |
| On Dec 19 2009 I was humming the Joker background score from Dark Knight but didnot gradually raise the scale like the original soundtrack. Instead I kept humming the tune at a constant pitch. Nishka suddenly said | Why is it not sounding like the Joker theme music. | "Why its not going up? Its like Antara music!" She referred to the Zee TV show Antara in which an autistic girl keeps droning at a constant pitch. |
| On Dec 23 2009 after I returned home from Princeton Orthopaedics to begin my work from home at 9:45 AM, I asked Nishka what time she woke up | I woke up at 8 AM | Since Nishka is yet to get a sense of time, she replied "I woke up 40 minutes" |
| On Dec 24 Nishka was very excited because she knew that the next day Santa would be coming down the chimney with Christmas gifts. When I asked where Santa would be coming from, she affirmed | North Pole | "North Cole" . She probably misheard what we had told her a few days ago. |
| On Jan 1 2010 Nishka was practicing Alphabets and phonics that her mom had taught her. She was practicing phonetics for the letter K and B and said | Which letter makes the sound "Baa Baa Baa" .... "B". Which letter makes the sound "kaa kaa kaa"... "K" | Which make the letter sound "Baa Baa Baa" .... "B". Which make the letter sound "kaa kaa kaa"... "K" |
3 Yr 9 month young Nishka's English speaking skills
