Watermelon!

I have a couple of Japanese picture books around the house that I read to the kids from time to time, but I have not thus far made a particularly conscious effort to teach them Japanese since I think it is a bit of a hopeless cause. I have been trying to explain to Kara that it is a different language, although I don't think she really understands what that means yet.

Anyway, about a week ago, I was cutting up a watermelon and the kids were standing by me. I started asking Kara questions about the melon: what color is it on the inside? what part is good to eat?, etc. Then I thought for fun, I would ask how to say "watermelon" in Japanese. Without hesitation, she looked at me and said "suika"! Needless to say I was quite surprised. A child's mind is quite amazing.

It turns out that this was a bit of a fluke. I asked her to tell me other words in Japanese that I thought she might know, but she didn't know them. One thing that has come out of it though is that I have become more inspired to teach them Japanese, which I have been doing more of recently. So there you go.