As the world grows smaller and smaller, we find boundaries within the international community continually blurring and overlapping. Over the internet we can correspond, shop and learn in another country with more ease than we could twenty years ago across our own city. Even our children are becoming more and more international, and are learning to blend within their day-to-day lives such diverse cultures as Jamaican and Canadian, German and Japanese. Even if we have read about other cultures, or been fascinated by them  in documentaries or on the news, nothing is more enlightening than a glimpse into their everyday, the small, unheralded details that we often take for granted as being common worldwide.

Take, for example something as mundane as how we address our grandparents. Even within our family we use a variety of different endearances for the variety of different grands. My mother's parents are Oma and Opa, as are mine. My inlaws are Abuela and Grandpa, my father's parents are Grandma and Grandaddy. Somehow it has worked out that if we had a reunion, everyone would have their own name. Still, this does not even begin to scratch the surface of the myriad of languages and colloquialisms that define even something so personal as terms of endearment.

Some of my favorites are as follows (please excuse any absence of accent marks - my keyboard is a little squirely today):

• German: Grossmutti / Grossvatti
• Dutch: Oma / Opa
• Spanish: Abuelita / Abuelito
• India: Beeji,Dadaji, Nanaji / Ajja, Dadiji, Naniji
• Serbia: Baka, Baba, Mica / Deka, Deda, Djedo
• Polish: Babcia / Dziadzia
• French: Mamere / Papere
• Yiddish: Bube / Zeidy
• Swedish: Phar-mor (p), Mor-mor (m) / Phar-phar (p), Mor-phar (m)
• Chinese: Nai Nai / Ye Ye
• Cherokee: E-li-si / E-du-di
• Norwegian: Gammlemor / Gammlefar
• Italian: Nonna / Nonno
• Greek: Yaya / Pappous
• Romanian: Mamaia / Tataia
• Russian: Babushka / Dedushka
• Hindi, Urdu: Daa daa (p), Naa naa (m) / Dadai (p), Naani (m)
• Turkish: Annanne (m), Babanne (p) / Dede
• Basque: Amoma, Amona, Amama / Aitite, Aitita, Aitona
• Japanese: Obaasan, Obachan / Ojiisan, Ojiichan

And of course to make things even more fun, kids have a way of chucking all this to the wind and coming up with their own, don't they?
Some of our close friends made the transition to grandparenthood as Wawa and Susu. . .