Oxford, my friend

We are excited to say we think we've found a Chinese nanny for little Dean. She was referred to us by someone we met who knew someone who knew her. Gotta love networking.

With the help of two coworkers, we interviewed her late Thursday afternoon. The only negative we could come up with during the interview is that she doesn't speak any English. Nada. None. Zippo. 

At the end of the interview we asked when she could start and she said Friday (as in the next day), so we decided to give it a shot. She is a very sweet woman, married with two kids ages 7 and 2. Her 7 year old lives in the city with her and her husband, but the 2 year old lives in her home province about an hour plane ride away. We're finding this happens often - it's very common for grandparents to raise the children while the mother goes to work in a big city.  

I took half a vacation day from work to stay home and begin teaching our new Ayi ("auntie" in Mandarin) how to take care of Dean. There were a lot of hand motions involved, and when I hit tough spots that really needed to be explained in detail, I grabbed our Oxford Mandarin/English Dictionary. 

Communicating became a game - how few words can I look up to convey what I'm trying to say to this woman? How many visuals can I give her? If I keep saying the same English words over and over, how long will it take her to learn what I'm saying?

In the end, I felt pretty good that she understood the bulk of what I wanted her to. Matt will be keeping a close eye on her for the next few weeks while she learns more, and during that time, our dictionary will be working overtime.