Moshi, moshi daddy!

My little girl’s language skills are developing rapidly while she’s in Japan. She’s staying another month, but already she’s learning a lot more Japanese than before. She’s now learning to say words like etto… which means “uh…”, or daddy ga daisuki! for “I like daddy”. She also likes to ask me over Skype how old I am. If I ask her nan sai (何才),* or “how old are you?” she proudly answers ni sai! or 2 years old. When she asks me, I tell her I am 31, and she just gives me a blank look. She can’t count that high.

She also loves yelling in her tiny little voice moshi, moshi daddy!. Or she’ll just yell moshi moshi moshi moshi moshi!!!!! over and over. When you answer the phone in Japanese, the standard greeting is of course moshi moshi and you can follow up by mentioning your surname like Yamada desu kedo. My daughter just likes saying it for fun, however, which is fine with me.

It’s wonderful watching kids grow up. It’s always something new.

Namuamidabu

P.S. She hasn’t forgotten English as she still says “opee” for open, or “dissa” for this is. However, I can tell she isn’t use to listening to it anymore as she doesn’t understand my questions, or doesn’t know how to respond to them. That’s fine though, she’ll catch up later. No rush. I’m glad she’s getting bilingual exposure.

* – There are actually two kanji for sai, or “age”: 才 for people under 10, and 歳 for over 10. Otherwise, they’re identical in usage.