A Vietnamese Kiss

We try our best to keep Thianna and Nathanh connected to their Vietnamese heritage.  In the past we have done Vietnamese singing classes with a group of families that have adopted from Vietnam but this year we decided to rejoin a Vietnamese language and cultural class with other adopted families.  We had been to it in the past and really liked it but it is a bit far away and it always conflicted with Nathanh's nap time.  Anyways, we wanted to make a renewed effort to go, especially for Thianna since she might actually understand the language component.

It was evident after the first class that she definitely is more comfortable in English than Vietnamese.  But there have definitely been words that she knows and understands in Vietnamese.  I can tell when it is familiar because she smiles and says the word and then laughs.  

Anyways, last weekend we had a guest teacher and we learned a few things about Vietnamese culture and Thianna. The first thing is that a Vietnamese kiss and a Canadian kiss are different.  In Canada, we pucker up and give a kiss with our lips which has a "mua" sound.  In Vietnam, they kiss by putting their nose to the person and smelling.  In other words, they give a big sniff against the head.  This is what Thianna used to do when we first got her.  I thought, at the time, how sad she has never been taught  how to kiss.  I even remember wondering if this was a rejection of us because when she put her face to mine for a kiss she just never gave me a kiss, she just kind of breathed against my face.  Looking back on it now, with this new piece of information, she was giving us kisses, we just didn't speak the language!  Once I had this piece of information, I started to think back to her nounous saying goodbye to her and these were the kisses that they gave her!

The other piece of language that we learned was "da" in Vietnamese (sorry I can't put the accent under the d on my computer) pronounced "yeah" with a downward intonation.  This is a form of acknowledgement that a child would use with an adult.  Basically, a politeness a child would use when an adult is talking to them.  It is not a yes or a no to answer a question, just a way to say "I hear you".  Anyways, this too is something Thianna always said when we first got her.  We used to laugh because we could ask her any question and she would say "yeah" which to us meant yes.  We would ask her if she wanted more of something or if she liked something and she would answer "yeah".  We thought, what an agreeable child!  But it didn't always work out so well if we gave her what we thought she asked for and she didn't really want it.  We actually made a point to stop the "yeah" and taught her to replace it with yes or no. Although, this is much more practical for our understanding now and for Thianna in general in Canada, it makes me realize (and a little bit sad) that we took away a little bit of her culture.  Hopefully, we will pick up more little pieces of information that will help us to better understand our precious little girl.

I ventured out early this year to get our photo with Santa done.  Last year, I was so busy working full-time that by the time I got around to thinking about taking Nathanh, the line ups were two hours long and I couldn't put either of us through that.  Thianna was thrilled about getting to see Santa.  This was very clearly a word that she already knew. I have a few pictures of her from last year at the orphanage and in one, all of the kids are wearing Santa hats.  Anyways, here is Nathanh and Thianna's first Santa photo together.

Since they were looking so cute that day, I made a point of getting a few more shots in and outside of the mall.

She was pretty excited to see all of the animals in Santa's forest!

Yup, my two little cutie pies!  It is going to be a very fun Christmas!