The frog curses

I had not planned on teaching my 21-month old daughter how to curse. What kind of role model would I be? I don't even curse! Blame the frog, it only wanted to be heard. REE-BIT.

Yesterday was like any other morning, I woke up early and made coffee while Beli and my husband slept. Caught up on some reading, blogs, etc. Then Beli woke up and wanted to draw, one of her favorite activities, so I sat next to her and drew a frog and said, "See, this is zaba (frog in Croatian) and it says , ree-bit-ree-bit. She looked at me and smiled. A few minutes later my husband woke up and walked into the living room just as Beli screamed, "JEBE, JEBE."

He looked at me and said, "You know she just cursed?" Surprised, I asked, "Why do you say that?" I mean, all I taught her was the sound a frog makes. Right? "Beli, tell daddy how a frog goes ree-bit-ree-bit, and she repeated, "Jebe, jebe." Here's the thing, she's only 21 months old and can't pronounce the R sound just yet.

My husband leaned in and whispered, "She said the words. f-*-*-k. f-*-*-k." I burst out laughing. "REALLY?! You mean I just taught my daughter how to curse in Croatian?" It was hilarious, I guess that's what happens when your child is learning 3 languages at once; Spanish, English and Croatian.

Thinking this through, I quickly made a minor adjustment to the frog and I'm confident frogs everywhere will forgive me, but I now told her frogs went, "Kreek-Kreek." And she repeated right after me, "Kee-kee," but then followed up with, "Jebe, jebe." Maybe we should all just forget about frogs and focus on another animal, how about a rooster?

Elisa lives in Croatia and is looking forward to sharing her struggles and victories of living overseas.

Comments

[Brit In Bosnia]

Oh the old jebe jebe. Glad it isn't just me running into problems with that one! x

[Bump2Basics]

Ahh, this post made me laugh at loud! I do watch what I say around my young daugter but herein lies proof that even when being extra careful, kids learning to talk = a tricky business.

[Duncan Leung]

Wow that was a hilarious story!

I was raised as a TCK in Singapore, from Hong Kong (but went to international schools) and I can attest to the confusion that I had when I was trying to communicate; I'd be mixing up my English and Cantonese all the time.

Came across this blog as I was searching for some Expat blogs as I recently arrived in Beijing to work. I guess I don't really fit the target audience; heh, but this post was pretty darned funny.

I'm looking forward to reading more on your blog!

Best,
-Duncan