look at the silly American try to say "firefly" ...

Several weeks ago, I met the sweetest little Chinese girl. I was staying with friends in Missouri (who speak Chinese), and they are caring for A., who is pre-school age, and speaks no English.

She is an adorable girl -- very obedient, and quite happy to socialize with adults, even though she doesn't understand a word of what they're saying.

I got to see her experience her first field-full of fireflies. She was enthralled.

Her care-giver taught her the Chinese word for firefly (which I won't even ATTEMPT to type out phonetically).

THEN, D. who was traveling with me repeated the word.

Little A. gave the most bubbly giggle you've ever heard! Our hostess said that D.'s pronunciation sounded a great deal like she was trying to talk with a tennis ball in her mouth.

So little A. ... while enthralled with the fireflies, was even MORE absorbed by this strange woman who couldn't say the simplest word properly!

For the rest of the trip, A. would point at D., and say "firefly", and then burst into these contagious giggles. She even seemed to be making a vain attempt at teaching the proper pronunciation ... without success. She would pull D. over to others, and get her to say "firefly", so they could share in the hilarity. (Though, since most of them were ALSO non-Chinese-speaking, they didn't really catch the true spirit of the thing.)

It was adorable!