A Day on the Soccer Field with Your Bilingual Family
by Elena dal Fruili
If you are bilingual, this story might probably strike
a familiar chord.
My children are fluent in Italian, thanks to my parents who spent a great deal of time teaching them the language.
When
they hear Italian, their mind immediately processes it the correct way, no translation takes place.
As with most years since 1993,
my parents came to visit from Italy in the Spring of 2002. That Spring, my son, then seven years old, was part of a local YMCA soccer team.
As most of you know, soccer is to Italy as football is to the U.S.A.
The day was beautiful. It was sunny, but not too hot. A nice
breeze was keeping the spectators cool as they eagerly watched the game playing in the field.
It is hard to recall if the viewers or
the kids were the most excited about the match. It is highly possible that both were feeding off each other's behavior. The more the
crowd cheered the harder and with more enthusiasm the children played. The more intense the game was the louder the cheering became.
Each
child was trying to get to the ball in order to score a goal.
My son was no different.
There were only a few minutes left to the end
of the game. He focused on the ball, and followed it around until his opportunity to seize it came.
Veer to the left...now to the right...there
it goes...an opening...the chance to steal the ball, kick it across the field, and score a goal...
"Go, go, go!" My parents were cheering,
I was cheering, his sister was cheering...in Italian.
"Go, go, go!" Other spectators were cheering (in English), some to my son, and
some to their own sons to encourage them to steal the ball.
All of the sudden, as if in slow motion, my son kept running and kicking
the ball towards the goal; the other children slowed down and curiously looked at us, their focus on the ball now totally gone and
directed towards us.
It was not until the goal was scored and the game was over that I realized what had happened...
My son had heard
the cheering and it had registered to him to keep on going and score that goal. What the other children had heard was something totally
puzzling to them..
