What Time is It?

You'd think time would be a simple thing. All kids learn how to tell time either at home or at school at some point in their elementary years. But in a house full of third culture kids, time is not such a simple thing.

If the clock reads 3:30. Niki, our daughter who is homeschooled according to the American system, would tell you, "It's three-thirty."  However, Andi whose first language is American English would not give you the same answer. Andi has gone to Hungarian school since kindergarten. When they studied telling time in school, she never quite got it (which is understandable, considering how Hungarians tell time, I must admit). Recently she learned how to tell time in her English class at school, but that's British English. As a result, she would tell you the time is: "half past three."

Levi, our son, would give you yet a different answer to the simple question of time.  He has only been speaking English for a little over a year. As a result, even when he speaks English now he often falls back to mirror translations. Therefore, his answer to "What time is it?" would be something like: "It's half of four."

Things grow increasingly complicated when we are dealing with a time of day like 3:40.  Here, Niki would tell you, "It's three-forty."  Andi would say, "It's twenty minutes to four."  And Levi, giving the mirror translation of the Hungarian would say something like, "In five minutes it will be three-quarters of the fourth hour." (Now you see why Andi never quite got telling time in Hungarian. One needs a higher degree in mathematics to be able to do it properly.)

Three kids.Third Culture. Three times the complications. Three times the confusion. It all makes life three times more interesting and worth chronicling our third culture kid's lives.