Vanessa + her older brother, Joseito
Just the other day, Vanessa announced to both her father and I that she likes Spanish better than English. I just stood there as proud a mamá as can be and then I wondered: “How long will that last?” She is, after all, only 3 1/2 years old and hasn’t really been exposed to her reality: English is dominant and Spanish still isn’t given the value it deserves. (More on that in a later post…)
I hope that as long as I’m able to create a perceived need for Spanish, she will continue to want to use it on a daily basis. She has know figured out that both her father and I speak English and although she hasn’t said anything about it just yet, I’m sure it’ll come up soon.
I want Vanessa, and eventually my baby boy, Santiago, to always feel that Spanish is just a normal part of their lives. The holidays were a great time to help make this happen. My cousin, her husband and their 10-year-old daughter, Vanessa’s second cousin, came from Mexico for a week during Christmas. Besides the fact that we had an awesome time, it was an incredible opportunity for my daughter to bond with our family, in our language. She might not realize it now, but I know eventually this type of experiences and the relationships she’s building with her extended family, will make a whole lot of difference when the inevitable happens and Spanish starts losing ground. Vanessa spent a whole week immersed in Spanish spoken mostly by one of her peers, another child, albeit a few years older. Nothing could’ve been better.
But, speaking about the inevitable happening, one of the most interesting things that took place over the holidays was something that took me completely by surprise, something new I learned about this bilingualism journey.
My 19-year-old stepson, Joseito, spent Christmas with us this year. As I have mentioned before, he is bilingual and I saw with my own two eyes how the mL@H method was successful with him. He used to live with us, until a little more than a year ago, when he decided to go back to Florida with his mom. Anyhow, fairly quickly into his stay, I noticed he was speaking to us mostly in English – the opposite was true when he lived with us. I nudged him by speaking to him only in Spanish. He tried, but it wasn’t happening and he finally said in frustration that he didn’t remember how to say a lot of words in Spanish. W-H-A-T?
The culprit, we found out, is that even though he lives in Miami, surrounded by our culture and our mother tongue, irony of ironies, he conducts his life mostly in English – even at home with his mom.
I was stunned by the possibility of losing a language even when you’d assume that after so many years, it’d be cemented. Now, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t as if he couldn’t speak Spanish at all, it was more like it wasn’t flowing. It was a real challenge in terms of vocabulary.
Even though I never considered myself fluent, I’ve experienced this with French; however, I wasn’t raised with it from birth like my stepson was with Spanish. In other words, I was surprised – and warned, in a way – by the fact that although I know it’s a cliché, if you don’t use it, you truly can lose it!
I can relate to your article in many ways. As a teacher and a mother of three children born in USA it is hard not to experience what you are experiencing. To keep your child interested in any of the languages he or she is exposed to you need to keep speaking to him or her in that language. Also reward them somehow if they communicate with you in that language. Make it sound like a game not a punishment. And most important keep that reading going with bilingual children’s books. We know the advantages of knowing more then one language. Don’t we?
This post of your personal story really gave me a kick in the rear Roxana, and I thank you for that. I continue to put at the bottom of my ‘to do’ list one of the most important things I could accomplish any day and that is to sign Matthew (our 17-year-0ld) up for an online Spanish tutor.
Since he successfully completed Spanish 4 in High School and refused to move on to AP Spanish, it has been our goal (mom, dad and son all agreed) to maintain Matthew’s fluency in Spanish with an online tutor.
See, Matt’s last name is Menes, which mine used to be for seven years until his biological Dad and I divorced back in 1993. He hears the Spanish and lives the culture (of which I am so thankful for) when he visits his Dad’s family for the many Latin celebrations and Holiday gatherings.
We all realize the many benefits to being (at least) bilingual in this global economy, and so today, thanks to SpanglishBaby and its continued commitment to help us all raise bilingual children, I AM going to get Matthew signed up to start Spanish online tutoring today!
Gracias/Thank you.
.-= Beth Butler´s last blog ..Music Monday Features the Spanish Alphabet – Say it! Sing it! Write it! =-.
We’re here to inspire, Beth, ha, ha! All kidding aside, did you sign Mathew up for the online tutor? I hope you did. It’d be a waste for him to lose his fluency after all the hard work. BTW, what exactly is this online tutor deal? I know nothing about it. Maybe they can help me with my French….
What? Incredible that he forgot vocabulary after only a little over a year! Of course, my two older siblings who were born in Mexico and were native speakers don’t have fluency and so are very self conscious when speaking Spanish now (unless it’s to our parents). The sad part is that they didn’t pass on the language to their children.
Wow, AG! I would’ve never thought that about your siblings. But why don’t they have fluency and you do? What do they think about the fact that you’re raising your kids bilingual?
This post created just a tad of controversy at home. My husband didn’t agree with the title. “C’mon,” he said. “He didn’t forget his Spanish.” I told him to read the entire thing. My stepson left a cryptic comment in our Facebook page. All it said was “Nice.” I still don’t know what he meant…
Anyhow, of course he didn’t forget his Spanish, he just doesn’t use it all the time like he used to when he lived with us. I’m sure if he had stayed a bit longer, he’d been able to get back into the swing of things without a problem. I guess I was just surprised since I hadn’t seen him in over a year…