Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/a-manner-of-speaking/5021704/
It was a chance encounter. A grandmother pushed a stroller into the elevator with a contented toddler on board and atwo year old in tow. Smitten by this smiling eager child as he reached for the buttons as children are wont to do, I smiled at his grandmother for permission and then initiated a typical elevator button conversation.
“Thank you for pushing the button.”
He smiled.
“We are both going up. Do you like to go up?”
“Up,” he said. Then with more gusto: “Up, up.”
“I like to go down, too. Do you like to go down?”
“Up.”
Okay, so it wasn’t the most stimulating conversation on my part, but it was fun.
Later, we met again in the elevator and. yet again. in the restaurant by the pool.
“It looks like you were playing in the water. You have your swimming suit on. Did you have a good time?”
He smiled.
“Did you swim?”
And suddenly he started to talk to me, lots of words coming quickly; and I struggled to understand, bluffing to keep the conversation going, hoping I would eventually ‘get it.’
“Oh, you can’t understand him, he’s just babbling,” said his grandmother.
Undaunted, he and I continued and eventually his meanings did ...