My Life in Tokyo

After two and a half weeks, it seems that the novelty of the new school has worn off and the stress is beginning to set in. Isabella confided in me this afternoon that she had had a bad day because her friends were making fun of her on the bus. What did they say, I asked? Well, she said, they were teasing her about the way she was talking to her magical cat. It seems she has a magical spell-cat, whose real name is too long to say or type, but whom she calls Adeedah in spell-language. Adeedah speaks all languages; Isabella speaks to her in spell-language. I asked her more about her day and about the other kids in her class. Apparently, most children are more comfortable in Japanese than English and they speak Japanese to each other all the time in school. Sometimes she hears her own name but can’t understand what they’re saying about her. It seems that it’s really hard to be the only one who can’t speak Japanese. Luckily, she now has a friend to whom she can speak in a language only she can understand.

Isabella went on to sing for me some of the songs her cat had taught her today, such as “The Star Spangled Banner” (okay, she called it “Oh Say Can You See”). Interestingly enough, spell-language has pronunciation and intonation that sound very Japanese.