Japanese Lesson

As the kids were playing on the swing set in the backyard this afternoon I overhead an interesting conversation. There was a mini Japanese lesson going on right before my eyes.

Emily was swinging and asking her 3 year-old brother, "Do you know what konnichiwa means?"

Of course he replied, "Uh...what? No, I don't know."

Then she tried to prompt him, hoping that he'd remember. "It starts with h..." She made the h sound for him.

"It means hello," she told him in her big, 6 year-old, I-know-everything voice.

"Oh, okay. Konnichiwa."

"Yeah, you say it when you see someone you know. You walk up and say hello or konnichiwa," she added making it an etiquette lesson as well.

I was cracking up. Conversations like this between my kids remind me of how quickly they are growing up, so I also felt a little wistful. Then I realized that the only reason she knows what konnichiwa means is because she loves Kai-Lan. I let out a sigh of relief. And smiled.