Watch Your Language

Yesterday afternoon, driving home from Hannah’s school, Hannah was playing on her Nintendo DSi and Lily had fallen asleep. (Guess she didn’t get her nap in at preschool!) I figured this would be a good time to listen to something I wanted to hear on the radio, so I turned on “The World in Words” podcast, one of my favorites.

I always forget how Hannah can be engaged in something (like her DSi) while also listening to something else (like a language podcast). The reporter on the podcast mentioned a Vietnamese band that sings about a couple of topics that are fairly taboo in Vietnamese music: the trauma of war and sexuality.

Hannah pipes up from the back, “He said a bad word!”

I responded, “Um, what bad word?”

Hannah: “I can’t say it! S, E, X–”

I cut her off here. “Hold on, what do you know about that word?”

Hannah, now a bit worried that she’s in trouble: “I know you’re not supposed to say it.”

Me: “Do you know what it means?”

Hannah, sticking to her story: “Yes, and I know you’re not supposed to say it.”

Me: “Yes, I get that. But do you know what it means?”

Hannah: “I don’t want to say what it means.”

Me: “Hannah, you’re not in trouble. I just need to know if you know what it means.”

At this point, I’m thinking that we might have the birds-and-the-bees talk right here in the car on the way home from school with Lily snoozing in her car seat.

Hannah says, “Well, I know it’s part of a song.” I don’t remember precisely what she said next, but I think she sang these lyrics: “She’s BEEP and she knows it.” She definitely said “BEEP.” The girl knows what to do with bad words.

After a half a second to parse the grammar in those lyrics, I ask, “Does this bad word end in a Y?”

Hannah answers in the affirmative.

I breathe a sigh of relief. No need for the birds-and-the-bees talk today. Hannah having a vague understanding of “sexy” is a lot less dangerous than her having a vague understanding of “sex.”

I’m reminded of another bad word, the one Hannah calls the “S word.” No, not that S word, adults-who-are-reading-this. “Stupid.” She knows she’s not allowed to call someone that.

With the crisis averted, we continue our drive home. However, as I write this now, I’m thinking I’ll need to ask her where she heard those song lyrics the next time I see her!

Image: “Interdiction de stationner,” Frederic Vissault, Flickr (CC)