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I've written about Min Yi's verbal skills before. Language development is obviously a constant source of amazement to parents. At certain times, Min Yi's skills improve so gradually, almost sneakily. Then suddenly, you realize she's mastered something else. And in our case, we can't help but wonder: is it Chinese or is it Dutch, or is it something in between? Is that the Dutch "g" or is she just clearing her throat? Is that a Chinese tone or is she just excited? Usually, you won't know the answer until much much later.

Children understand so much more than many people give them credit for. Most parents talk to their kids from the moment they were born (the kids, that is... heh), in our culture anyways. But you don't discuss topics like Dutch citizenship and how easy it is to lose that or the pros and cons of free public transport. On the contrary, you talk about things you can see, touch and hear right there and then. Things that have a direct impact on your child's environment right that moment. "That's a huge shit you produced there, Min Yi" or "See that dog there?". No wonder they pick up words and their meanings even though they can't reproduce them.

And then there comes a moment that they start to actually reproduce the words. Although.... it's not really like that. I mean... was that a word just now, did she really utter those sounds and mean something specifically? Was that "papa" because that's really easy to say, or "papa" because she means "papa" (daddy). There's only one way to find out: wait and see.

Which is exactly what we've done. Now that the initial excitement is over, throw away your first dictionary of Min Yi's language. Here comes the definitive guide to Min Yi speak at 475 days of age (roughly in order of appearance:)

  1. papa (daddy) - Min Yi's first word. And her only word for a very long time. It kind of evolved from the earlier baba, which is even easier to pronounce. But besides the pronunciation, also the meaning of this word has evolved. It first meant papa (daddy) as well as mama (mummy). Now, it has lost its second meaning and only means papa.
  2. mama (mummy) - Min Yi's second word. Well, second only in order of appearance. First in order of usage, as it has quickly taken over papa as the favorite word, once Min Yi figured out how to distinguish them :-)
  3. 猫 (cat) - the first animal! With an ironic nod to her mother who doesn't like cats. Very exciting! Our neighbors have a cat and it sometimes ventures onto our "terrace". It moves automatically, just like mom and dad, so it deserves a name.
  4. bal (ball) - a very interesting object. You can play with it and throw it at your mom or dad. And they will throw it back at you as well :-)
  5. 不要 (no) - now here is the real thing. A word (or two words really, as this is litterally "don't want", but I don't think Min Yi knows that) to express what you want. Very handy, up to now Min Yi has used the "feed the hand coz the face ain't eating it" sign but now she can emphasize this by saying 不要!
  6. 拿 (take) - interesting how this word has shifted its meaning slightly. Li uses this when she gives Min Yi her water bottle (as in here, drink this) and Min Yi now uses it when she wants to drink. So 拿 really means "I want to drink" when Min Yi says it.
  7. oef (oof) - not really a word yet, but used occasionally, this is from the Dutch onomatopoeic reference to a dog - woef. Chinese dogs, by the way say 汪 (pronounced wang).
  8. ah-pey (apple/strawberry) - another beginning of a word, this one is undecided yet and sounds like appel (apple) as well as aardbei (strawberry). It is also used for both so I suppose it fits for the moment.

That's it right now. One interesting thing is that Min Yi already seems to use Chinese with Li and Dutch with me. She doesn't say 不要 nearly as often to me as she does to Li. I don't really think that's because she knows though, I think it's simply what she hears us say.