PokerPirate
5d ago
My favorite part of OPOL is having a secret language to use out in public with the kids.
One time I was at Costco with my 3 year old boy. There was a dwarf walking around the store, and my son was asking reasonable questions about why an adult was small like a child... but it was in Spanish and so the dwarf didn't hear himself being talked about... but then after seeing the dwarf for the 4th or 5th time, my boy had a sudden flash of inspiration. He shouts with all the wild-eyed enthusiasm of a toddler: "Me pregunto si mi pene es mas grande que lo suyo?" (I wonder if my penis is bigger than his?) Let me tell you I've never been more happy that my child spoke spanish. The free sample lady we were talking too doubled over laughing, but no one else in the store registered the outburst.
But I'm not super strict about OPOL. I also speak a handful of other languages with the kids that I'm not fully proficient in like Korean. Unfortunately, Korean has a number of words that sound the same as English words but mean very different things. Once when we were out hiking, my then 2 year old (different kid) saw a pair of men walking a dog. He shouts at the top of his lungs "Gay!!! Daddy I see a gay!!!" You see, "Gay" means dog in Korean, and my 2yo was doing the natural 2yo thing of being excited about a dog. Of course the men were horrified, and my brief explanation that my son was talking Korean did nothing to mollify them. Fortunately for us, my son never addressed me in the 2nd person around any black people (you is pronounced "nigga" in Korean).
Anyways, the point of my stories is that language is a chance for you to bond and have fun with your kids. If OPOL doesn't sound fun to you, then don't do it. For me, speaking weird languages to my kids has been tons of fun for us and for mom. Mom doesn't speak any of the languages I do with the kids, except that she now knows lots of different words for poop. And it's fun for all of us to talk about oonga and caca and pedos and bangui.
They always call me obba (Korean for dad), which is why this never came up.
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