"I teached you!"

[madamesilverspurs]

We set up our table in the library, just inside the entrance. Voter registration.

As we were beginning to wonder if we'd get any takers, a thirty-something fellow approached the table with his two kids, a boy about 5 and a girl about 3. In broken English this young daddy asked if this is where he can register to vote. He broke out in a brilliant smile when we answered, "Yes".

"I am new," he said, "and I have been so excited to vote!"

While he was filling out the form, his son came and stood by me and pointed to himself. "Ali," he said. "Hello, Ali!" I answered. He laughed and jumped up and down, then pointed at me. "I teached you!" he boasted. "I teached you Arabic!"

"Well you certainly did, Ali!" His smile lit the whole room.

Daddy finished with the paperwork. "I am registered?"

"Yes."

"Thank you! Thank you!" as he and the kids took their books and movies to the check-out desk.

On their way out of the library they passed by our table, and once more Ali pointed and grinned, "I teached you!"


Oh, little Ali, you have no idea. And, yes, you certainly did.

Thank you.

[NYC_SKP]

1. K/R (nt)

[1monster]

2. Kick for happy little teachers.

[Mira]

3. Lovely, timely story. Thank you for it. n/t

[Towlie]

4. He "teached" you Arabic. You could have returned the favor and *taught* him English, but you didn't.

[knitter4democracy]

5. He seemed to understand her response, though.

It was more about confirming his sense of self-worth and power at that moment instead of getting him to learn English. He's doing just fine if he can understand some or all of her response.

[elleng]

7. Bad hair day, Towlie?

[lunasun]

13. OK then

[Hissyspit]

14. Oh, good god...

[Surya Gayatri]

15. This wasn't a grammar "teachable moment"...

it was a "common humanity" shareable moment.

He'll pick up the irregular Past Simple conjugation soon enough. (This was a typical mistake for a native speaker of his age).

But, what madamesilverspurs allowed him to "teach" her, will be part of his young American experience forever.

[SemperEadem]

17. oh my

[Foolacious]

18. Children can't construct irregular verbs until...

they're around 4 or 5. They're busy learning how to conjugate using rules and that's how their brains work. When they're around 2 to 3, they might have both "teach" and "taught" as unrelated words in their lexicon, but as the circuitry for building utterances based on rules starts working, they lose that and don't regain it until 5 or 6, when they become able to process using both rules and exception lists. You can prompt a 4-year-old boy with "I TAUGHT you," and he'll still respond with "No, I teached YOU!"

So the boy may have been in an age range where such a lesson could not have sunk in. But even if it could have... it wasn't the time for such a lesson.

[unkachuck]

6. K&R....n/t

[one_voice]

8. K&R

[joshcryer]

9. Ali!

علي

[NBachers]

10. I'm thrilled by a little encounter like this

People from all over the world come into the San Francisco hardware store where I work. I welcome them all.

[struggle4progress]

11. Voter registration is really fun!

[WillyT]

12. Huge K & R !!!

[Surya Gayatri]

16. God bless you, MadameSS, for resisting the

adult temptation to "teach" him by correcting his grammar.

Instead, you allowed young Ali to share a moment with you that he'll never forget.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002564560#post15

(This story literally brought tears to my eyes...)