Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Learning lingo

It's kinda cute when TLM says "Vamanos" if she wants us to go somewhere right now. She learned it, and other Spanish words, from watching Dora the Explorer on TV (see, television doesn't necessarily rot your brain).

I wish there was a Cantonese version of the Dora show, because I don't make much effort to teach her Cantonese, myself. So now I'm trying to imagine how Cantonese Dora would look and sound. She'd be darker-haired, and possibly shorter too, than original Dora. She'd have a name that's easily pronounced by native Cantonese speakers, like "Lucy" perhaps, which has no "r" sounds or "v" sounds (that's right, my mother can't even say my own name properly).

And to be an authentic character, Cantonese Dora/Lucy would have to spend most of her screen time making money in her own business, or else playing mah jong. And hanging around with her parents a lot, because she respects authority. She wouldn't be hanging with Boots the monkey, because he'd have been sold as food long ago. There'll always be a packet of rice in her backpack, as well as school books (because it's her duty to get straight "A"s.

Hmmm...

7 comments:

Lumpyheadsmom said...

I'm totally tuning in for Cantonese Dora. Or Lucy. Or whatever her name is.

Unknown said...
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Watson Woodworth said...

Ah Espaniol! I think Spanish is really taking off in the U.S. like the Quebecois wish French would for them.
See we don't have an abrassive seccessionist Bloc party and Canadians don't have to know any French to communicate with service workers.

I like your idea. It must be so odd to hear Spanish coming from the mouths of New Zealanders.

Geekery said...

Funny..

Violet said...

lumpyheadsmom: yeah, there's definitely a gap in the market, eh?

nigel: Well, there's a kid at TLM's daycare whose mum is Spanish; I just hope that she doesn't think I'm trying to be funny if she hears us speaking it badly.

onscreen: it might be. Or it might be scary :-)

Daddy L said...

I have a Cantonese Elmo DVD that I play The Boy. He enjoys it, and it's subtitled so P can follow along.

Although the translation isn't perfect...

Subtitle: Elmo wants to know where Apples come from

Cantonese: Excellent math skills are the key to eternal happiness.

Still, we all giggle at Mr. Noodle and his crazy antics.

The bottom line is, there are Cantonese DVDs out there if you look.

Violet said...

daddy l : I'm glad you told me this. Now I will do a search on Amazon and see what I can find.