Please, Thank you, & Shut up

Actions speak louder than words. Whoever said that obviously hasn't lived in my house. Language is the crux of human sustenance and survival. Studies, from all over the world, agree that children who learn multiple (2 or more) languages before the age of 8 have a higher IQ, and are socially more adaptable. That said, my house is filled with Chameleons.

Every member of my household is proficient in at least 3 languages. A fourth or fifth languages have also been learned at a partial proficiency level, meaning they know enough to get in trouble. But the major problem arises when, a set of well learned languages are manipulated.... no, mutilated in such a way that a listener is left stunned and completely confused.

Example: Aaee, maza eye is dukhing. (note: there are two very different languages in this one sentence.)
Translation: Mom, my eye is hurting.

Bet most of you were left blinking in confusion. I had to ask for this sentence to be repeated 3 times before I got it, with a mix of non-verbal signals (pointing at the eye in question). But this is just the tip of the ice berg. My daily communication skills have transcended the mere mortal level to a new alien like language that only my children seem to speak. The crazy thing is I find myself not just understanding, but communicating with them with the same gusto.

Child psychologists and linguists have emphasized the parental role in language skills acquisition, which in plain English means monkey see, monkey do (or in this case, speak)! So, that begs the questions; how badly am I screwed up? Are my language skills so rudimentary (I'd like to think extremely advanced) that my children are fluent in gibberish? I was under the impression that I was rather good at languages, but, admittedly a number of linguists would cringe at the callousness with which I use certain words and phrases. I know my husband does, and he's no linguist!

To see exactly what kind of damage I'd inflicted on my young children, I have conducted an experiment to see  how many times these kids said a particular word. For the ease of the experiment, the word chosen was 'shut -up', since I've been known to use it often. The results were frightening. Although, the older two used that particular word a lot, the youngest used it the most. To counter this research, I also assessed how often the children used 'Thank you, please, and sorry". The following was a short conversation between my middle child and me, during an argument between them.

M to sister : I don't like you. Just Shut-up!
Me: M, please don't be rude to your sister.
M to Me: Ok, sorry.
M to Sister: Please Shut-up!

Now that's using your manner! Looks like I cut out my work for myself. I think this monkey has to clean up her act, for the little monkeys to do good.  Shame the warning bells didn't go off when I use the same bad words my mother used to use.  In the end, we all blame our mothers.