SECOND LANGUAGE

I was sitting in a chair in our living room across from my son Alex who was laying on the couch.

“Do you remember when we were in the woods yesterday and that chipmunk was talking to us?” I asked him.

Alex laughed. “You mean the one where you were saying, ‘Hey little buddy you seem a little upset’ to him?” He had tried to imitate my voice.

“Yeah. That’s the one!” I had to laugh at his imitation. “We were only a few feet apart and we even made eye contact!” I sighed. “I thought maybe he was upset that the acorns are so big this year and he was having trouble getting them into his little cheek pouches.”

Alex shook his head as he sighed. “Okay. What ever you say.”

“Well, I just found a video that you can hear their different calls.” I held my phone up and hit start.

We listened to the first call. I hit stop. “That one’s called a chip-trill.”

“Nope. It wasn’t that one.” Alex said as he adjusted the pillow under his head.

I nodded. “I agree.” I hit the play button again. We listened to the next one.

After the call was done I hit stop. “That one’s called chipping.”

Alex shook his head again. “Nope. Not that one either.”

I hit the play button again. This time we heard an agitated, quick and deep sound.

“That’s it!” I cried.

“Yup.” Alex was nodding his head. “So what does that one mean?”

I looked at my phone. “It’s called chucking. They make that call when they’re facing an aerial predator.” I couldn’t help but frown as I looked over at Alex. “We weren’t predators!”

“We were to him.” Alex had to laugh. “So, while you’re trying to have a long conversation with him what he was actually telling you was he wanted both of us to get lost!”

I sighed. “Well, live and learn.” I put the phone down on the arm of the chair. “Well at least I’ve learned a second language.”

My husband Steven had just come into the room. “You’re learning a second language too?” He sounded surprised. “I’ve been doing an online class, learning Spanish.”

I smiled as I held up the phone. “I’ve already mastered my second language, chipmunk!”

Steven rolled his eyes as he shook his head. “Oh, you were having one of those conversations.” He continued into the kitchen.

“Hey, I’ve had learning a second language on my ‘bucket list’ for some time now.” I called out to him. “And BOOM! I can take that one off my list!” I dropped the phone back on the arm rest of my chair.

I looked over at Alex who was slowly just shaking his head.

“Hey, what can I say.” I sighed as I leaned back in my chair. “At my age it’s just easier to learn animal and bird languages than it is to learn human.”