As a mother of a pre-school age summer camper, I was struck this week as I always am by the way teachers refer to meeting "new friends", as in "We have some old friends and some new friends at camp this week." And my preschooler told me that he "met some new friends" on the first day at camp.
I know this is just a colloquialism, but it always strikes me as odd to talk about "meeting new friends". Isn't the definition of a "friend" someone you actually know well enough to have decided whether or not you like them (and to give them a chance to decide whether or not they like you)? I can understand "meeting new people" or "meeting new kids", but "meeting new friends" always seems a little jarring.
OK - I know that this is just a nice way of referring to new people, the assumption being that they should all be friends and they should all be nice to each other. The phrasing has always just struck me as odd. Any other preschool idioms that people find cute, but logically inconsistent?
I tend to think of strangers as friends we haven't met yet, so this doesn't bother me. I do think it's funny that sitting cross-legged isn't "Indian-style" anymore. It's "criss-cross applesauce." Cute!
Posted by: Christine Hurt | June 23, 2010 at 12:23 PM
"It was an accident" being uttered when whatever happened clearly was intentional on the part of the pre-schooler. Christine, I also discovered that "Indian Red" is no longer in the crayola box. Instead it is called "chestnut".
Posted by: D. Daniel Sokol | June 23, 2010 at 02:08 PM
If strangers are friends we haven't met yet, what's an acquaintance?
Also, I don't know if this is temporal or cultural, but when I was a kid in Australia we used to call the game where you sit in a circle and send a whispered message around from person to person "Chinese whispers". I know my kids call it "telephone". But that could be a cross-country difference.
Posted by: Jacqueline Lipton | June 23, 2010 at 06:57 PM
When I was 11, my family moved to Israel for six months. On my first day at my new Israeli school, I was introduced to the person who was assigned to be my friend. His qualification? He spoke English.
Posted by: Dan Filler | June 24, 2010 at 09:32 AM
I suppose that's as good a qualification as any, under the circumstances...
Posted by: Jacqueline Lipton | June 24, 2010 at 10:39 AM