Only Bilingual not Trilingual Day 7 SOL

Awww these kiddos! I only speak Spanish and English, so sometimes I get students who want to teach me their native language too. “You speak Spanish? Why don’t you speak Romanian?” “Long story honey, but sorry I don’t, I wish I did.” “I can teach you!” So one day these two 5th graders are teaching me how to say “good job” in Romanian. I repeat them over and over. They want to teach me how to say a whole sentence. “You are doing a good job.” I repeat, several times, they keep correcting me. They start laughing! Laughing at me! “Wait what’s going on? Why are you laughing at me? What did I say or do?” They’re bowled over laughing, I am very uncomfortable. I say “I’m trying! What’s so funny?” Finally “Mrs. Y, you are so funny! You speak Romanian with a Spanish accent.” Even I laugh at that! It is funny because guess what? I don’t even speak Romanian! I’m thinking that’s weird because no one has ever said I speak English with a Spanish accent, why would I have an accent when learning a new language. That is funny and weird. But these kiddos taught me something new – try, even if they laugh at you, because they’re not laughing at me only at how I sound and now that, I can work on!