American Rhythm

Because my pronunciation is outrageous and because it’s just plain fun to Americanize things French (you do know what the French think of us, don’t you?) I often Americanize the French family’s names. It’s my private entertainment in between dinner courses. My favorite family goes like this: Tibot & Florence, Edgar, Earnest, Theodore (and you just TRY to say them right) so I like to refer to them, in a Southern drawl as: Mr. T & Flo, Eddie, Ernie and Teddy. Isn’t that funny? Okay you’re just going to have to trust me, it’s REALLY funny. I have an absolute ball with it. While visiting with this particular family, I also had the joy of singing many American songs to eight-month-old Teddy. Oh Susanna and Home on the Range were among his favorites and the more Southern I got, the more he giggled.

Okay so where am I going with this? You’ll never guess. I am going to say that American language (and the accent that I, until now abhorred) has a “fun and playful” rhythm. I’d never thought of my own language being musical especially next to Spanish or French but behold the truthful recount and opinion of a 2 ½ year old French boy: (Bright red hair, cute as a button, and spunky as a, well, spunky as a redhead)!

Early one morning I was checking in with Anne, Greg’s cousin who speaks English. I was packing the children’s clothing for an outing that day and wondered if she had heard anything about the weather. After our conversation, little Colin asked his mom (Anne) what I was saying, so she translated the conversation for him. He then pondered a bit more, looked up at her and said, “But why was she singing?”

I couldn’t believe it when she told me. After all French is the “song” language. Of course I had to contemplate what I interpreted as a compliment from little Colin. I was quite chuffed as I find compliments from kids are the best kind, and that’s probably why I design children’s clothing, because when they like something they like it for themselves, not because it is trendy or because they saw it in a magazine. Anyway, my conclusion from Colin’s adorable question is that the American rhythm is fun and playful just like children’s songs (and our personalities). And what could be better than that? So on that playful note, I’ll just stick a feather in my cap and call it macaroni.

Cheers and Ciao for Now, Gina

p.s. Deva actually named her first ‘My Little Pony’ Macaroni, and it wasn’t until I started writing this that I figured out why! p.p.s. It’s purely coincidence that Kai found a feather and stuck it in his hat yesterday. What am I saying, coincidence? His blood is 50% Yank.