Hola!

[Patricia in WA]

Saludos a todos! Con el comienzo de este nuevo foro prometo hablar espanol mas segido a mis hijos. A fines de febrero vomos a pasar mes y medio en Ecuador (mi pais de origen)y quiero que hablen mejor y entiendan mas. Asi que voy hacer un intento total por ellos y por mi abuela. No mas excusas!

 

A ese fin, voy a comenzar un club en espanol. Pienso crear juegos typicos pero en espanol. Por ejemplo, Pictionary. No se si hay estoy en espanol pero yo lo llamo Dibujonario.:D Pienso invitar unos amigos interesados seriamente en aprender espanol que vengan a mi casa a jugar con nosotros. Tambien pienso cocinar con ellos platos tipicos pero la receta y las instrucciones que les doy totalmente en espanol. Veremos como nos va!

 

 

Translation:

 

Greetings everyone! With the beginning of this new site, I promise to regularly speak Spanish to my children. At the end of February we are going to spend a month and a half in Ecuador (my country of origin) and I want them to speak better and to understand more. Therefore, I will give it my all for them and for my grandmother. No more excuses.

 

To that end, a am going to start a Spanish club. I plan on creating typical games but in Spanish. For example, Pictionary. I don't know if they have this in Spanish but I am calling it Dibujonario. :D I plan on inviting some friends who are seriously interested in learning Spanish to come to my house to play with us. I also plan on cooking with them typical Spanish dishes but the recipes and instructions I give will be totally in Spanish. We will see how it goes.

[Laura Corin]

My boys have learned much of their Chinese from playing games in the language, whether it's outdoor play with their friends, or board games with our Chinese helper. We have bought some games in Hong Kong (Monopoly, Hotel, etc.) that have bilingual instructions, and any day that the boys don't have a formal Chinese lesson, they play with her for an hour.

 

Laura

[Mabelen]

I agree with Laura. I am also a native Spanish speaker, with 2 girls: 11 and 3. The older one usually answers back in English unless I insist on Spanish being used. The little one tends to reply more in Spanish than in English, even when I am using English when my dh is around.

 

The playgroup option worked out really well while I lived in England. Unfortunately, we relocated to the US when my oldest was almost 3 and have not managed to replicate the set up over here.

 

I wish you the best in your endevor. Please, keep us posted and have fun in Ecuador!

 

Mabelen

[Patricia in WA]

Ese es mi problema. La mayor no quiere responder en espanol porque le da pena cuando responde mal. Como hago para que hable mas. Ella tiene mucho vocabulario pero no quiere usarlo.

 

That is my problem. The oldest does not want to respond in Spanish because she is afraid to answer incorrectly. How do I get her to use it more? She knows tons of vocabulary but does not want to use it.

[Mabelen]

?Ojal? tuviera la soluci?n al problema!

 

Estuvimos en Espa?a en noviembre para la boda de mi hermano y all? tuvo que hablar en espa?ol, pero no fue suficiente. Mi familia no sabe ingl?s, mi marido sabe un poquito de espa?ol, pero no mucho. Cuando se lo ped?an, mi hija mayor traduc?a muy bien del ingl?s al espa?ol, pero le costaba mucho hacerlo a la inversa.

 

Lo que tengo previsto es empezar a cubrir m?s gram?tica este verano. Creo que usar? Break the Barrier, he visto muestras y me gusta bastante. Cubre gram?tica muy sistem?ticamente y tambi?n se trabaja vocabulario y geograf?a y aspectos culturales del mundo hispanohablante.

 

Aparte de eso, por supuesto, seguir habl?ndole en espa?ol, leer libros juntas, ponerle pel?culas y canciones en espa?ol, etc.

 

Now for the translation:

 

I wish I had the answer to the problem!

 

We were in Spain last November for my brother's wedding and she was forced to use Spanish, but it wasn't enough. No one in my family in Spain speaks English, my husband speaks a little Spanish, but not much. When she was asked to translate, she would do a great job translating from Spanish into English, but she would struggle the other way round.

 

What I am planning to do is to start covering more grammar this summer. I will probably use Break the Barrier. I've seen samples and I quite liked what I saw. Grammar is covered systematically, as well as vocabulary, and Spanish speaking countries geography and culture.

 

Other than that, of course, I'll keep talking to her in Spanish and have plenty of Spanish books, movies, songs around.

 

Mabelen

[jedbel]

I am Cuban American and spanish was my first language. I learned to speak english in first grade but spanish will always be my true love. My boys understand some spanish but do not speak it. I feel terrible about this and I know it is mostly my fault since I speak english to them most of the time. I have vowed that this year things will be different and yet I need ideas! I have decided to only speak spanish to them during the day and also to read spanish books and have them narrate even if the narration is english at first. That is all I have been able to come up with so far..any ideas?

 

I feel desperate when I think about them never being able to enjoy spanish poetry (my passion), lit., music aaahhhhhhhh what have I done:eek:

[Patricia in WA]

I have written 2 posts on my blog about what I am trying to do with mine. Read the bottom one first. I hope it gives you some ideas. Do not despair!

 

 

Getting them to use what they know is my problem.

[Mabelen]

Patricia, he estado leyendo tu blog. ?Est? muy bien! Da la sensaci?n de que eres muy activa y bien organizada y tus hijos se benefician de ello.

 

Yo no s? que m?s puedes hacer de lo que ya est?s haciendo ahora mismo o est?s planeando hacer. Yo he hablado a mis hijas en espa?ol desde el primer momento y aun as? la mayor me responde la mayor parte de las veces en ingl?s. La cuesti?n es que gran parte de sus vivencias ocurren en ingl?s y ?se es el idioma mayoritario, el idioma que necesita para comunicarse con casi todas las personas con las que se relaciona, con excepci?n m?a.

 

La ?nica soluci?n que funciona sin duda es que pasen temporadas en pa?ses hispanohablantes rodeados de personas con los que tengan que comunicarse en espa?ol. Si no tienen la necesidad, siempre van a elegir la opci?n del m?nimo esfuerzo, es decir, el ingl?s. Lo importante es que sigan escuchando y practicando espa?ol a diario, de este modo cuando se vean forzados por las circunstancias a comunicarse en espa?ol lo puedan hacer sin demasiado trabajo.

 

Mabelen

[Patricia in WA]

Gracias por tus palabras. Mi familia prefiere practicar su ingles con mis hijos cuando eatamos juntos en vez de dejar que mis hijos practiquen espanol con ellos. :rolleyes: No me doy por vencida. El tiempo que vamos estar en el Ecuador mis primos estaran de vacaciones del colegio y tendran mas tiempo libre con ellos. Espero que eso los ayude. :D

[Mabelen]

Muy buena suerte con tu estancia en Ecuador, espero que sea muy fruct?fera.

 

Por cierto, tienes unos hijos preciosos, ?son guap?simos los tres!

 

?Tu esposo es norteamericano? Mi marido es natural de Sri Lanka, pero tiene nacionalidad brit?nica, llevamos ya ocho a?os aqu? en EEUU. Nos gusta, pero echamos de menos tener a familia cerca. La m?a est? toda en Espa?a y la de mi marido est? repartida por distintos paises.

[Patricia in WA]

Muchas gracias. Lo guapo se lo acredito a mi esposo. :D Si el es norteamericano. Nos conosimos el segundo ano de la universidad y realemente fue amor a primera vista. Por razones de trabajo nos hemos mudado mucho. Pasamos 4 anos mudandonos cada seis meses. Mi hijo varon mayor nacio en Irlanda. Los ultimos 7 anos hemos vivido en Atlanta y recien nos hemos mudado a Seattle. La mayoria de mi familia vive o en Nueva York o en Ecuador asi que entiendo muy bien no tener familia cerca.

 

 

Te cuento algo, en este momento mi hijo menor y mi hija estan acostados en mi cama viendo Plaza Sesamo. :eek: Si hay esperanzas. Y te confiezo que casi nunca escribo en espanol asi que espero que no este haciendo el ridiculo.

[Mabelen]

?Jajaja! Patricia, te aseguro que no est?s haciendo el rid?culo escribiendo en espa?ol :) ?Te criaste aqu? en EEUU?

 

Me parece que eres demasiado modesta, he visto una foto tuya y t? tambi?n eres guapa.

 

Ya veo que eres una experta en mudanzas. Me gusta viajar, pero no me gustar?a tener que mudarme tan a menudo como t?...

 

?Plaza S?samo! La coproducci?n con la cadena estatal de televisi?n espa?ola se llama Barrio S?samo. Tengo varios v?deos de esa serie, a ver si ma?ana pongo uno y lo vemos las tres chicas juntas.

 

Ya me voy a la cama, estoy en la costa Este, y aunque soy trasnochadora, ya es muy tarde.

 

Mabelen

[Jean in Wisc]

I majored in Spanish about 30 years ago. Even thought I studied in Spain and Mexico during a couple of summers, I never felt as though I had gotten as fluent as I would have liked. I ended upgoing to grad school for Teaching English as a 2nd Language--I figured that English was my native language, and I could teach it as a native speaker :D.

 

One of the research papers I did in grad school was about bilingual households. It was fascinating! The families that seemed to be most successful in getting their children to be truly bilingual had each parent speak to their child in his/her specific language. Although they would choose just one of the languages when the whole family was together, when the child was with just one of the parents, they would speak that parent's language.

 

I recall several of the parents commenting on not answering their children if they did not speak to them in the correct language once they were old enough to understand that two languages were being spoken. Frequently the children would come and ask "What is this?" to both parents, trying to discern the proper vocabulary. When very young, the child would speak fluently using vocabulary and grammar of both languages until he suddenly realized there were TWO languages being spoken--that is when the questions would begin.

 

Another interesting study was done on how well the students did in their school work--especially in their language studies. When young, the children tended to drag behind their mono-lingual peers. However, as they grew a bit older (was it upper elementary??), they began to pull ahead of their peers.

 

I should dig through my materials and see if I still have that paper anywhere. Very interesting.

 

This is not anything "practical" for those of you who are trying to raise bilingual children in a day-to-day reality, but I just thought someone might find it interesting.

 

:)

[Isa]

One thing I've done is read in Spanish every day (although not consistently in the last six months), and requiring my children to talk to me in Spanish about the book. If they ask me a question in English, I require them to ask the question in Spanish before I answer. I don't spend too long on this, but my goal is to get the kids speaking in Spanish a little every day.

 

Eventually, I plan to require a certain amount of time each day (i.e. 15 minutes) where they can only speak to me in Spanish.

[Patricia in WA]

Jean,

 

Thank you for your post. It is very difficult for me to speak only in Spanish. Although I learned Spanish first, English became my language. I do speak both fluently so it is just a habit I have to break. I will report that I have begun speaking to the children everyday in Spanish. They are not up to answering in Spanish fully, but they are using more words they know. I usually do it when we are preparing lunch or dinner and it is taking us more time but worth the effort in my opinion.

[Patricia in WA]

Isa,

 

This is a wonderful idea. I do read to them in Spanish (not enough of course) but it is time to take it to the next step. Thanks.

[Guest rBilingualJourney]

I just wanted to take a moment to say "hola" and introduce myself.

 

One of my greatest desires is for my children to be bilingual in Spanish and English. The challenge is my husband and I speak English, and we're not from Spanish-speaking families.

 

So we're learning Spanish along with our children. I look forward to hearing everyone else's bilingual journey experiences. And hopefully, eventually, I'll be able to post in Spanish and English like many of you.

 

My children are:

Jaida 6 years old

Janai 4 years old

Jessi 4 years old

Jaden 1 year old

 

¡Hasta la próxima vez!

[genestaz]

Thanks for this thread Patricia! I just recently joined the forum and have been looking for other families' experiences with raising bilingual children. My kids are still really young, 4, 2, and twins in the oven! My native language is English. I minored in Spanish in college and spent a semester in Ecuador. My husband's native language is Farsi. He lived in Argentina for six years during adolescence before moving to the US so now he's trilingual. My husband and I have both spoke only in Spanish to the children since they were babies (although of necessity my Spanish is still peppered with quite a few English words and my grammar is probably atrocious). My mother-in-law takes care of the children when we're at work and she speaks to them only in Farsi. We speak English to each other. My kids speak English with my family and Farsi with my husband's family. In the community most people they interact with speak English. However, we do have Farsi speaking friends and Farsi speakers in our Faith community. We also work in an immigrant community with a lot of Spanish speakers. We've met Spanish speaking friends there and more Spanish speaking friends at my son's Spanish immersion preschool.

 

The result of this linguistic environment so far: My oldest speaks all three languages fluently. His Spanish is far better than mine. He insists that people who usually speak to him in one language stick to that language. So if I try to talk to him in English so that people around us will understand what I'm saying HE will tell me "hablame en espanol mommy." The weakest of the three languages is English. His vocabulary is somewhat mixed. Some words he only knows in one of the languages, others he knows in all three. This doesn't bother him. He just substitutes the word he knows in the middle of his sentences. My 2 1/2 year old is at the two-word at a time stage and so far says words in all three.

 

My concerns and challenges: This seems to be fairly common in young bilingual children but most families report that kids start losing the secondary languages later on. One reason why we're considering homeschooling. But if we homeschool I'm not sure what to do about English. Always assumed the schools would take care of that and right now my son won't talk to me if I address him in English. Also, I have no idea where to find good textbooks in Spanish, much less in Farsi. Regular books and videos aren't a problem because we have a Spanish library close by.

 

Yikes, I have to get my son to school.

 

Genesta