Smiles and Smiles
Language is absolutely necessary for humans to communicate with each other. And yet once in a while we find ourselves in a situation where language fails us. In my case, I do not speak Chinese. My daughter-in-law’s father does not speak English. And so we smile a lot over the head of our mutual grandchild.
He does wish me “Good morning”. I have remembered learning (my attempt at phonetics) piao liang, the Chinese word for beautiful. He has graced my day and I have told him his granddaughter is beautiful. I have also let it be known she looks like him although his daughter partook some in that exchange. I also asked permission to take his picture and asked him to take mine with the baby. We also say good night - but mostly in pantomime. So we do communicate, just not at quite the level and depth we do in our own language. Lettie will grow up bi-lingual in two amazingly different languages.
Language is absolutely necessary for humans to communicate with each other. And yet once in a while we find ourselves in a situation where language fails us. In my case, I do not speak Chinese. My daughter-in-law’s father does not speak English. And so we smile a lot over the head of our mutual grandchild. 
He does wish me “Good morning”. I have remembered learning (my attempt at phonetics) piao liang, the Chinese word for beautiful. He has graced my day and I have told him his granddaughter is beautiful. I have also let it be known she looks like him although his daughter partook some in that exchange. I also asked permission to take his picture and asked him to take mine with the baby. We also say good night - but mostly in pantomime. So we do communicate, just not at quite the level and depth we do in our own language. Lettie will grow up bi-lingual in two amazingly different languages. 
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