Winner! Winner!

For the last few months my roommate and I have been helping a thirteen year old French girl with her English. My roommate and I were walking down the street one day, talking like normal and a woman stopped us in the street. Having heard us speaking English she wanted to know if we, or someone we knew, would be interested in giving her daughter English lessons. Her daughter takes English in school, but it is different having people to actually talk to. We agreed and called her up the next week to begin the lessons. We go twice a week for an hour each time and it is a fun way to help the girl learn English. We talked about shopping and jewelry and trips to other countries. We played Uno, which is an awesome game for learning numbers in another language. What is most interesting though is the phrases that stick. Somewhere in the early weeks we were learning opposites and came across right and wrong. At some point I used the phrase “I’m always right” and for the next two weeks our little pupil decided this was her phrase. While it can be quite annoying when someone who knows that phrase says it all the time, it was a bit more endearing coming from her. Sometimes I wondered if she knew what she was saying, but hey, it is a good phrase to repeat no matter what.
Then a few weeks ago we were playing a game and I won. (yes yes, I know, like normal) Well I was gloating a bit and said “winner winner chicken dinner!” She picked it up and loved the little sing-song voice that goes along with it. Problem was she couldn’t for the life of her remember the order of the words. The next week we came back and she did something correctly and said “winner winner dinner chicken!” My roommate and I busted out laughing and told her to try again. ““winner winner dinner chicken!” We repeated the phrase in its true form again. She got it and was singing it as we went out the door.
The next week we came back and the phrase came up.
Here’s how the conversation went :

Our French amie: “winner winner” ………uhhh… “dinner chicken!“

Stares from us

Our French amie: “no no, winner winner” pensive scrunched face…… “DINNER chicken!”

More blank stares

Finally she says, “ok, ok, winner. Winner”…wheels turning…… “DINNER CHICKEN!”

We had a laugh and once again reminded her it is “winner, winner, CHICKEN dinner”
As we were leaving she was repeating it to herself. We’ll see who’s the winner this week.