"It's Good To Hear Your Sound."

The spring semester has ended and there is sense of freedom after all the long hours of preparing for exams. After George and I finished grading finals and turned in our grades, we had the same sense of "Wow....I don't have to do anything!"

Gahee is home visiting with her family in South Korea. She departed from St. Louis at 7:15 a.m. Sunday, May 17. We spent Saturday night with friends, Becky and Chuck Schuder, who were gracious enough to let us spend the night. She made friends with their white cat, Goblin, who adopted Gahee with loud purrs and lots of attention. Sunday was exciting because it was her first time traveling by air alone, but she made it home.

Gahee wrote recently about participating in the festivities held in honor of Buddha's birthday. I'm hoping she sends me some photos. Now she's home at a time when North and South Korea are having difficulties with their relationship. I kno how concerned everyone must be.

Meshari will travel back to Saudi Arabia later this summer to visit his family. With free time on his hands until summer session begins, he's been gathering gifts for family members. We recently took a weekend trip down to the Lake of the Ozarks and he enjoyed the outlet mall there. (More about that trip in a separate post.)

Several days ago I was talking on the phone with my son, Adam, who is stationed in Virginia. Meshari was sitting nearby and said, "Say hello to him for me," so I said to Adam, "Here. Someone wants to say hello." Meshari looked a little hesitant when I handed him the phone, but he took it and had a brief chat with Adam. At the end of their conversation, Meshari struggled a bit to find the right words before passing the phone back to me. He finally came up with, "It's good to hear your sound." There was a pause while Adam responded and then Meshari handed the phone back to me.

Of course, I knew what Meshari was trying to say and I thought his version was kind of sweet. He told me he didn't think he expressed himself correctly because when he said "It's good to hear your sound," he said Adam hesitated before responding with "It's good to hear your sound, too." Wasn't that sweet? Adam responded in a way he wanted Meshari to understand.

Of course, I was laughing and Meshari joined in. I find it fascinating how difficult our expressions are for international students to master, and they eagerly want to do so.

A teachable moment: "It's nice to hear your voice," I corrected. Then Meshari really laughed!

Like many English language learners, Gahee and Meshari struggle with correct use of articles and prepositions. And then with shifting verb tenses...plus all our idiomatic expressions we have, English can be extremely challenging...and amusing.