Trying to Concentrate

For Olivia, the most nervous time during a Chinese class is when her teacher hands out a couple of 生字卡 (flash cards) to each child at the beginning of the class and asks them to go to the front of the classroom and read the words on the flash cards to the entire class.  She does not like to get them wrong in front of everyone.

This past Sunday, right after we sat down in the classroom, the teacher handed her three flash cards, they were 东西 (thing), 娃娃 (baby) and 看 (look). She got them all with a little help except for the word 东西 which she just kept on forgetting.

You could tell that she was trying very hard to remember all the words, especially 东西. But most of time when she picked up that card, she would get stuck and ask me: “Mommy, what is this again?”

“东西. Remember that I call you and Evan 小东西?”  I answered.

“Oh, yeah! 东西.” She repeated.

Very soon the class started and the teacher started to ask the children to go up to the front to read their flash cards starting from the front row. Olivia sat at the back. It would be a little while before her turn.

I noticed that at this time, she was very concentrated and totally oblivious of what was going on in the class. Everything was about those three cards in her hands. She muttered to herself: “东西, 娃娃, 看, 东西, 娃娃, 看, 东西, 娃娃, 看…”

I wanted her to pay attention to what the class was doing, so I said to her: “Olivia, take a look at Christopher’s flash cards (he was standing in the front), do you know the words on them?” 

Being interrupted and still not one hundred percent confident, Olivia was a little anxious: “Mommy, don’t talk to me! I am trying to concentrate here, 娃娃, 看...eh...eh, see, I forgot this word again!”