Our oldest daughter started play school a few months after our arrival in Saskatoon. Parents were required to volunteer in the classroom several times a month. There were 3 ways in which one could sign up for: (1) Show and Tell circle, (2) bringing snacks, and (3) clean-up. Parents were on a rotation.
I did not mind helping with snacks or cleaning up, however I dreaded the times I was on the “Show and Tell” rotation. Sitting around the circle meant that I had to speak English in front of everyone and I would be the one on the spot.
Inevitably, my day to sit around the circle and share my story arrived. Even though I rehearsed my lines at home in front of the mirror, when I started speaking it I mispronounced a very common word. I was not even finished saying the word when my own daughter interrupted me, looked at the teacher for approval and said: mom, please read my lips – it’s in this way that you say it – repeating the word very slowly. The teacher and the other parents burst into a laughter and I wanted to call “Scotty – to beam me up” of that situation.
The other day, after more than 25 years since that dreadful experience, I casually encountered that same teacher at a doctor’s office. For my surprise, she not only recognized me, but also remembered my daughters’ name and the Infamous line – “mom, please read my lips”.
by S.B. de Freitas
BRASA - “OUR CULTURE HAS NO BOUNDARIES” 