17. Changing Schools: What a Surprise!

Emma was out for the night, so it was to make dinner. I am not an expert in the kitchen, but I have mastered four dishes throughout my life. These are beans on toast, bangers and mash, and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. The fourth is my masterpiece: spaghetti carbonara.

However, my kids wanted a Czech dish called Svíčková and moaned all afternoon until I promised to make that for dinner instead. Svíčková is marvellous: sirloin in a creamy sauce, topped with cranberries and cream, and served (of course) with bread dumplings.

a box of instant Svíčková and other ingredients at the shop. But, unfortunately, instant Svíčková doesn’t exist, so I had to

She

left the ingredients on the kitchen counter along with a recipe from our neighbour, but they were in Czech. I was soon frustrated because reading instructions in Czech is a major chore. I constantly had to look up words in Czech. Sam got curious and asked me for the recipe. He read through and told me what to do. His instructions seemed When he didn’t understand something, he worked it out.

on point.

my son was speaking Czech!

It all made sense. Recently, my son had asked if he could switch from his international school to a Czech school. We had placed him in the international school to keep him among other foreign kids like himself. Also, we didn’t want him to deal with a language barrier that could potentially damage his confidence.

We thought he wanted to switch schools to be with his Czech chums. But maybe we were wrong, since it looks as though theremight not be such a big language barrier for him at all. I suppose he is at the right age for learning a new language, so perhaps we should move him to the Czech school to further

his I am envious, but at least I may one day have my own personal Czech to English translator.