Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Code-Switching Kids

Walking down the street this evening in my neighborhood (yes, the same neighborhood I recently described as seemingly populated only by English speakers), I passed two boys of maybe 10 or 11 on bikes. As they went by, one called back to the other, "To the next Kreuzung, okay? To the next Strasse."

(Kreuzung=intersection, Strasse=street)

And I had to smile because those kids – probably the children of Americans, growing up here – already talk like my friends and I sometimes do, mixing the two languages with the knowledge that everyone will understand anyway.

No comments:

Post a Comment