out of the mouth of babes

A number of people have kindly commented to me that a group with which I should practice my Faroese is children. I believe the idea is that our language level is very similar, and that they will dismiss my language mistakes with innocent laughter. This simply is not true. Every Tuesday night I go to our church and work with several other women in charge of the "magic dough" station. "Magic dough" is a salty concoction that can be molded in bears, elves, clowns and figures of Charlie Chaplin, baked, painted and glazed to sit for years at the back of a kitchen cupboard. Children from the ages of 5 to 12 come and participate in their craft of choice for an hour before Bible story time. This is my main interaction with Faroese children, and after several months I have learned that our language level is not similar, they are much better than I am, and they do not brush off my mistakes with laughter. They look at me confusedly, repeat their question, and when I still do not understand what they want, they go to one of the other volunteers with tears welling up in their eyes. Children can be a wonderful first-group within a culture to connect with, but that happens much more easily when neither party is trying to communicate a significant point. My guess is that the beautiful Somalian children Angelina Jolie holds in her arms for the UNICEF photo shoots look so happy because they are not trying to ask her to glaze their "magic dough" clowns. Tonight Ben made a good point on this issue. He said that talking to children is easier because their expectations are lower for things like correct grammar, scope of vocabulary, etc. My counter to that statement is that you may not have to know a lot of a language to talk with children, but what you know has to be clear. They are less likely to know what I am trying to say, and cannot consult with me in English to clarify the point. Children also have less of a buy in on me. Adults in the community often know my father-in-law and are curious and gracious toward the American spending time in their midst. To children I am simply the lone adult in the group who cannot talk properly. (In my defense, what I am speaking is actually a version of pygmy-Faroese.) The point is thus: People have to be quite good at their own language before they can begin to understand others speaking it very badly. -a