Sometimes, I wonder what Xuanie thinks of his conversations with me. So many times, I totally misunderstood him, but carried on the conversations without realizing we were on two different tracks altogether. Two days ago, at a Korean eatery, we had one such dialogue. The cause: he has not yet grasped the ability to produced the dipthongs clearly yet. I didn’t realize the miscommunication until many hours later:
Subject of Conversation is a bowl of soup with bean-sprouts (“Dou Ya” in Mandarin)
X: Xuanie wants to eat “Du Ya” (sounds like “du yao” – ”poison” in Mandarin).
Me: No, “du yao” cannot be eaten. Just drink the soup.
I kept telling him poison is not for eating, and half the time, I was fishing out the bean-sprouts and encouraging him to eat them.
X: Xuanie likes “du ya.”
Me: No, silly boy, you cannot eat “du yao.”
