Magyar

I’ve been learning this language for a while now, but it’s so unlike the one I’ve been learning since I was two, that I’m not so much learning but treading water in foreign baby-talk. I can say yes and no, say tasty, ask for more, thank. And every other word I don’t need every day gets mimed. “I’m going to take a shower” I think as my fingers pretend they’re little drops of water, falling on my head. I look pointedly at my watch to say “I’m running late”, and to say “I’m taking the train to Prague” I say my destination and make preschool train noises while pumping my hands. I learn simple, useful words like oatmeal, shower, jacket, bed, and forget them as soon as I’ve used them once. The next time I need them I dash to the dictionary to look up the word I already know but can’t remember. Or I just go into the pantry and find the bag of oatmeal and point to it. And she speaks in baby-speak to me, pronouncing things slowly, explaining herself in short words, repeating herself, miming things, using her limited English to help me by saying the English word immediately after the foreign every time she can.