"My mother soon decided that the easiest way for her to communicate with Americans was to use me as an interpreter."
This is like at the beginning of Children of the River. The children understood the language quicker than the adults, so Sundara was often a translator for Soka or Grandmother, like Firoozeh is for her mother. It would be hard to be a translator for someone. You would always have to be by their side and be listening. It must have been hard for a little girl to do.
"What I wanted to say was that I wished I could be home watching The Brady Bunch instead of translating the qualities of different facial moisturizers."
This was usually the case with Sundara. She would rather be doing things that normal teenagers would do (like go to football games), but she couldn't because she had to do things for her family, like cook, clean, or work.
"'Y'all are gonna hafta use some elbow grease,' he said. I thanked him and paid him and walked with my mother to the hardware store. After searching fruitlessly for elbow grease, I asked the salesclerk for help. 'It removes stains,' I added. The manager was called."
This is a perfect example of how American sayings can confuse people. Idioms don't make any sense unless you understand what they are representing, and if you are new to the language they can be very confusing.
You don't like hot dogs.....unless they're soy! Nice one!
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