Metro

I have to take the metro to work every morning, which at first felt very official and "honest, hard-working contributor to society"-esque. I got over that pretty quickly. Something that I enjoy is subway watching; namely observing those around me instead of listening to my headphones or reading a book as most do. People watching is more interesting when you are trapped with a certain group of people around you as opposed to watching people walk by, trying to catch the interesting or humorous snapshots of their lives. I often wonder if, while watching me, people feel that they have caught a glimpse into my life. I wonder what unintentionally humorous comments I've made just before stepping off a subway.

Today, going home I had the pleasure of sitting just behind a family of young parents and their two little girls. One of the girls was all over the place. She didn't want to sit unless it was on her father's lap, and when she finally got comfortable, it was time to stand up until her mother asked her to sit down again. Eventually her father grabbed her, plopped her on the seat next to him, held her close to him and started speaking softly into her ear, over her hair, in Spanish. The girl switched easily from English to Spanish, just as her father had done.

"!Claro que si!" the little girl said, in response to her father. Her mother looked down, "Claro que NO."

It made me laugh in surprise to see how this family had raised their little girl to switch back and forth between languages, speaking both with a beautiful, natural accent. I gathered that the father was Hispanic, mother Caucasian.

Raising children to be bilingual is one of the best gifts a person could give, if he or she was lucky enough to offer it. Hopefully someday American schools will actually prioritize learning a second language, as opposed to just relying on English being the international accepted language.

Other than my small judgmental rant, the girl was darling, and I fell as in love with that family as a person could with a grand total of 8 minutes spent observing.