Chapter 6: Development Of a New Language

Less than two years after that fateful first day of school, I had all but learnt how to fluently speak English. But despite my objections, I was still forced to go to ELD (English Language Development) several times each month. In the beginning I dreaded each session, but I began to grow accustomed to them, and to my astonishment, they helped me tremendously.

At one of the first sessions I remember being shown images and being told to say the English words for them. What sticks with me most, to this day, is the image of a strawberry. On the card, the strawberry was bright red and covered in little seeds, presumably orange. It seemed so juicy and sweet, and my mouth watered at the thought of eating it.

Of course I immediately recognized what it was, I mean, I love strawberries! In fact, back in Belgium, when strawberries were in season, we would visit a nearby strawberry farm to pick them ourselves. “Alleen de beste,” my mother would tell me. And I would listen, taking great care to pick the best to take home. Looking at the image held up in front of me, the Flemish word for a strawberry coursed through my head: aardbei, aardbei, aardbei. But I could not think of the English word for it, even though I recalled having heard it only recently. I began to grow anxious; my heart fluttered and my face flushed bright red, just like the image of that strawberry.

The teacher smiled encouragingly; “It’s all right,” she told me.

I replied, in my broken English, “Wait, I think I can remember it.” As I looked at the strawberry, I racked my brain for the word. Aardbei, aardbei, aardbei. I pushed at the walls of my memory, combing through the list of words that I knew and remembered. English and Flemish jumbled together and I could no longer think straight. Aardbei, aardbei, aardbei. After what seemed like minutes, I gave up. It seemed that my best efforts were not enough, and I sighed with obvious disappointment. “I’m sorry, I can’t remember.” I said.

“That’s all right,” she said. “It’s a strawberry.”

A strawberry! Hoe kon ik dat niet weten? I felt so ashamed of myself, as if I had let down everyone that had been working so hard to teach me English; the ELD teacher, my class teacher, and my parents. It seems so silly now, but I almost cried because of it. I remember just being able to keep the tears back, while my face was still red with embarrassment.

The teacher, hoping to make me feel better, quickly held up another card, and in turn I gave her the word. We repeated this for several minutes more until it was time to go back to class. “Good job today,” she told me as I got up to leave. I smiled, but did not feel pleased. The image of the strawberry remained in my head, and words flew through my head at the speed of light. Aardbei; aardbei; aardbei.