‘Ask Jenny’ is a series where you can ask me about our travels, logistics, parenting on the road, my life before travel, or whatever else you have a question about. I will post a call for your questions on Twitter and Facebook, or you can leave your question(s) here at the end of my post. In two weeks, I will write a post to answer one (or more) of them. The only rule I will have is that the questions be kind.
Since I was unable to write my ‘Ask Jenny’ post last week, I have decided to answer a couple of questions this week. So let’s get right into it!
Question #1:
From Bronwyn Joy at Journeys Of The Fabulist: If you were a mythical creature, which one would you be and why? What would Chad and Zoe be?
Chad would be a centaur, Zoē a fairy. Theirs came to me immediately… mine wasn’t so easy to think of, so I looked on the internet, because it always has answers for me. And the answers are ALWAYS true and correct. Lucky for me, I found this quiz from PlayBuzz that has opened my eyes to the mythical creature I am. Apparently I am a Siren. So there you go, that’s my family in mythical creatures. Thanks for the fun question Bronwyn!
![425px-Aratea_52v](http:/"<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aratea_52v.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Aratea_52v.jpg">Aratea 52v</a>" by Unknown - <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://disc.leidenuniv.nl:443/webclient/DeliveryManager?custom_att_2=simple_viewer&pid=960908">Leiden University Library Website</a>. Licensed under Public domain via <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/">Wikimedia Commons</a>.)
“The Siren by John William Waterhouse (1900)” by John William Waterhouse – John William Waterhouse, 1900. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
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Question #2:
From my Aunt Cyndie: How do you handle language differences? Do you have an app that translates if necessary? A friend of mine has one for Spanish, so I wonder if you guys have one or some for the languages you run into. Is Zoe learning other languages?
This is a really good question! I have handled the language differences differently in every place that we have visited. For example, I was very surprised when we were in Portugal and not many people spoke English in the tourist area’s. I had (in my own small mindedness) assumed that English was prevalent throughout Europe, even if it was not the countries mother tongue. In the other European countries we visited there were many English speakers and it was pretty easy to get around.
In Europe, all we needed was the Google Translate app. It was able to correctly translate what we wanted to say.
In Asia, it has been pretty easy. In Taiwan, I was able to speak a little Mandarin that I remembered from when we previously lived there. Also, English is spoken by many, and the locals often would stop what they were doing to help us translate if we looked lost at a counter or something. The same goes for here in Thailand.
We don’t use an app for translation here because we haven’t found one that works well with Thai. The Google translations are usually comical and just leave both parties confused.
And now to answer the last part of your question, Zoë has learned a few phrases from each of the places that we have visited. Hello, good-bye, thank you, and maybe a couple of more. Here in Thailand she is learning quickly. The locals love talking to her, and our babysitter is Thai and speaks Thai to her often.
Now is your chance to ask me anything, leave a comment! Also, if you know of a good translator app, please let me know!
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