Universal language

While on our holiday, the wee girl made a friend at the pool. They started to play a game together. He was a Chinese boy, visiting from China. She learns Mandarin at school, but only a year's worth so far. The game involved her counting to him in Chinese, he counted back in English and then hand signals did the rest of the game planning.

One of my favourite things when travelling, is watching the kids play with other kids who don't share the same language. It's amazing what games can be organised when the participants are prepared to make themselves understood through action rather than words. It's a shame we become less resourceful with age...

Little kids don't seem to be restricted by the idea that they don't speak a common language. Adults, on the other hand, even with a little of the language, are often self conscious about their ability to speak it,  and so we shut ourselves off from interacting with others, and maybe miss out on seeing the world from a different perspective.

What makes us suddenly cut ourselves off from people, purely because we decide it's too hard to communicate?

When I was 23, I was on a small plane with only Japanese passengers and a French pilot. After we'd landed, the pilot came in and told me that the transfer was late, but it was coming (we had landed at a very small provincial airport). I then had to charade to the Japanese that it was all okay, and we would be late. At the tiny resort, all the Japanese would smile hello, and on tours out to the sites, they'd sit with me, even though we couldn't talk (but we could point things out to each other). A few days later, one of the staff came and said to me "Why do they all think you work here? They want to give you a tip". It's a fond memory for me, and a reminder that we don't need to limit ourselves.

I wonder if we saw ourselves as more universal and less 'us & them' if we'd have a more peaceful planet?  It certainly couldn't hurt.

Linking with #MummyMondays

Schizer! (I apologise to any German speakers)

So I swear. I swear a lot. I listen to music that has so much swearing I don't even notice it anymore. To me, they're just words. You will get in a lot more trouble in my house, if you tell someone they're an idiot or to shut up! To me, it's how you use the words that matter, not the actual word itself.

Ironically, my eldest doesn't swear.* At all. He also corrects my language from time to time. As he should, but that's another story. So I was taken by surprise when my husband returned from picking our eldest and his friends up from the movies. He forlornly announced "Well, I just heard my son swear in front of me for the first time." I was confused. This couldn't be right?! "What do you mean?" I asked, perplexed. "He said 'Well that was friggin' awesome!' to his friends in the back.' Me, confused, stated "That's not a swear word. That's what you say when you aren't saying a swear word." We discussed this for a bit, threw it out to facebook for discussion and searched the web. Results from the world were 50/50. Even google seemed to be hedging it's bets, but it did say it could be considered a curse word.

Who knew? Certainly not the lady who wore this shirt to school! (I still think half-ass is not a swear word, but I don't wear the shirt to school anymore - because whole-ass is borderline.).

I spoke to my son and explained that SOME people, considered friggin' a swear word -and he was genuinely surprised. "I did not know that!" (yes, of course you didn't because your mum probably said it when she thought she needed to be polite). So that too is now edited out of his lexicon.

Which brings us to the latest family argument, one which I'll open to the public for debate, but I am not prepared to back down on without good cause.


Jack (Made up name but as good as any): Shizer!
Eldest, non-swearing child: Mum, Jack just swore!
Pottymouth Mama (Me, not famous blogger of same name): No, he didn't.
Husband: Yes, he did. It's German for shit.
Pottymouth Mama: We don't speak German. It doesn't mean anything to us. It's only a swear word if it's said in front of Germans.
Husband: It doesn't work that way.
Me: It does. It's the word you say to stop saying shit in public.

So, your verdict? Is Shizer a swear word in AUSTRALIA? I need to point out, in German, it's not even spelled that way - it's spelled Scheiße (but who knows what that thing is anyway?).

As with all our dinner party arguments, I'm putting it out to the web experts - give me your view!!


*Not showing off, number 2 & 3 don't seem to be taking after him in the non-swearing department - but on the plus side, they are multi-lingual.