'Jibway

Jo: Do you want to play 'Jibway?

Fi:  You can't play Ojibway!  You speak it.

Jo:  Oh, what do you want to play?

Ojibway is a descriptive language, with words often being poly-syllabic to include enough detail.  I find them very challenging to spell, pronounce and remember.  I have only a handful of phrases, mostly slang that I know.  My Ojibway vocabulary is pretty much like my Dutch vocabulary.

However, the Sprouts are regularly exposed to it in their second language class.  Jo was spoken to in Ojibway at the daycare before he came to school.  And to them it is natural.  Plus they have the advantage of young elastic brains that acquire new language far faster the my old inflexible brain can anymore.

At the dinner table, the Sprouts share what they have learned in Ojibway class.  Jo tells me the names of the months and what they mean in English.  October is "the leaves falling" and November is "time when the water freezes".  Fiona corrects him in getting the phrasing just right.  She is able to share complete sentences.  The words roll off both their tongues like water.  I have no idea how their exposure to this language will be a blessing in the future.  But it is awesome to hear my kids learn something that is completely beyond my skills.