Language Investigation 1

There are phrases and words that are unique to my family for several different reasons. One reason? My mother was born and raised in France. Not the south of France but the north, meaning we have unique french vocabulary, and traditions, that get carried over into our lives at home in the US.

For example, my family has participated in what we call Aperitif ever since I can remember. Aperitif is a before dinner drink, kind of like appetizers. For us, aperitif was always when we drink Porto (a type of red wine) and "Hollande" which is a type of cheese from Holland. It is actually called Guiyere, but we call it "Hollande" because Holland is where we smuggle it out of to bring over here. It is very hard to find in the US, and also very expensive, so we always stuff our suitcases with cheese and chocolates and other things that are culturally mandatory for us. We drink our "Porto" as we call it, and eat Hollande and we enjoy our company before eating dinner. We also eat hese mini yogurt things called "Petites Suisses" which I find interesting only because it's in a portion size for a Barbie doll, and you have to sweeten it yourself. And, there is paper on the inside of the packaging, so you can't eat it out of the little cup it came in. You have to take it out, unwrap it, and add sugar. But, it is heaven in your mouth. I'm drooling just thinking about it. I've written out the words again to make it easier to understand:

Aperitif- appetizer kind of idea with wine and cheese
Porto- Port wine, which is strong red wine
Holland- also called Guiyere, a hard strong cheese from Holland.
Petites Suisses- yogurts that come individually wrapped and must be sweetened.

Strange, I know. But it's normal in my family. We use "Franglis" which is our French and English mixed together, similar to Spanglish. And these are very important words for us.