I was driving along the ocean yesterday and realized that one of my wheels is dead. It’s Sunday, and usually everything is closed, but I’m lucky – there’s a garage with an auto mechanic near the highway.
While the master removes the tire and pulls out the nail, I chat with his ten-year-old son Danilo. Children are, of course, the best tutors for language. It never occurs to them that someone might not understand them, so they chatter at first space speed and of course with all the slang.
I divert the conversation from questions about how much my iPhone costs to school and geography: Danilo likes school, but he doesn’t know where the exotic country of Russia is.
“You’re going to Chile, do they have beaches and blue water there too?”
– Yes
However, after about 10 minutes, the boy guesses something:
“You don’t understand everything in Spanish. Is your mother tongue Quechua?”
Quechua in Peru is spoken by the indigenous population in the mountains, about 13 million speakers. I couldn’t explain what Russian or “another language” in general was😂
The older kids taught me how to say hello:
Nuha essence Max – my name is Max.
And what new things did you learn from the children?
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