His Name is Đạo

I was wondering how the teachers, staffs and students at JCCNV could say Dao’s name with correct Vietnamese tone. Almost everyone gets it right whenever they greet him. I finally found out the person who is responsible for it. Yesterday I dropped Dao’s off as usual and he was greeted by quite a few new faces in his class. His new classmates said, “Hi Dow.” Ms. Tam quickly corrected them, “It’s not Dow. It’s Đạo.”

Isn’t it nice to have a Vietnamese teacher around? I think Ms. Tam plays a big role in his Vietnamese speaking. Dao will be moving up to an upper class at the end of June and he won’t have Ms. Tam around anymore. That’s going to be a big disadvantage for us.

Dao is picking up a lot of words now and he uses them in unexpected moments. Last Friday, we stopped by Pho Hoa Binh in Maryland on our trip to Lancaster. As I was feeding him pho, he kept asking for more (“nua”). I gave him a spoonful, but he spat back out and said, “nhieu qua” (too much).

He used to be able to watch his favorite “Curious George” in the minivan without the sound on so I can listen to music while driving. Now if he doesn’t hear the sound, he would say, “hong (no) work” or “hong tieng” (no sound).

Now he no longer wants to ride the old car. As soon as he sees the minivan, he would say, “Dao di xe moi… Xe cu nghi” (Dao wants to ride the new car… Old car is resting.”

Out of the blue this morning, he said to me as I tried to buckle him into his car seat, “May, May, May o nha May” (May stays at her house). I responded to him in Vietnamese, “Of course, May stays at her house. Where else could May be? Do you miss May?” He nodded his head, “Dao nho May” (Dao misses May). Let’s hope that he won’t be too attached or too emotional when he grows up or else the girls going to break his heart into pieces.