Comments on: Our Story: How We Grew Up Bilingual

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Mona Gehrki — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:29:02 +0000

Hi Anna,I actually post a discussion on Edmodo, asking the kids why we spent the first day of school doing this activity. They reflect on how it would relate to the course. We read through the discussions the next day before I assign a science-heavy lab in which they face a similar, but more curriculum focused challenge. It’s a fun activity, a good ice-breaker, and reinforces the importance of teamwork and collaboration.

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Our Story: How We Grew Up Bilingual | SpanglishBaby™…

By: A Week of SpanglishBaby Moms: A Tribute to my Bilingual Mamá | SpanglishBaby™

Mon, 09 May 2011 05:28:37 +0000

[...] to make sure my siblings and I were not only exposed to other languages, but to other cultures too. As some of you might already know, I lived in five countries spanning three continents by the time I was 14. My mom truly believed in [...]

By: Beth Ortuño

Beth Ortuño — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:45:59 +0000

I grew up in a not-very-big town, from what you might call “white bread American” or “Euro-American” origins. I love my own culture very deeply, but I’ve always been fascinated by anything international since I was little. I love music, dance, history and hearing people’s stories, and I really like how when you explore someone else’s culture, something is always new. I took French & German in high school & college and always thought I’d be living in Europe someday. Yet I never reached the point of being anywhere close to fluent, along the way I had to leave school, and when I finally could go back to school I realized I didn’t want to be quite that far from home. I decided to focus on Spanish, since there are such incredibly rich & varied cultures “right next door”. By that time I was a 30-ish single mom without the time or budget to do a lot of classes. Earlier I’d gone to Brazil on a student exchange and while there got sick, didn’t have my luggage, and the family I stayed with who theoretically spoke English, didn’t. So I’d learned a little Portuguese — with 1 month of necessity it was amazing how much. Therefore, to try and learn Spanish I decided to create my own “necessity”. I bought a Spanish dictionary and verb conjugation book, and started working on it. I posted sticky notes with vocabulary words all over the place, talked to myself a lot, and carried a notebook around with me everywhere in which I wrote out sentences and basically sort of “attacked” every Spanish speaker I could find asking them to correct me. Then I rewrote and rewrote the correct examples and grammar info that people told me. Eventually I took two classes of college-level Spanish and furiously wrote down every little thing the professor said. Over time my collection of little notebooks grew and I was able to read & write decently with some effort, although not speak or understand speech really at all. But after moving to the big city 11 years ago, here I found many people who did not speak English, and I just kept trying every chance I could to speak with people in Spanish until at some point it just finally started to “click”. Eventually, speaking Spanish led me into my job, and then even into my marriage (4 years now). It’s become an actual necessity not an invented one, and it’s become second nature, just part of who I am. Even my Mom is used to it!
I can definitely testify to what Spanglishbaby contributor Chelsea said in her recent post about the value of just going for it, not letting embarrassment stop you. I know many times people have thought I was a little crazy (just imagine a strange lady coming at you with a notebook at a bus stop), but at the same time, people have always been EXTREMELY supportive and patient with my efforts. And when it comes to understanding what people are about, there is NO SUBSTITUTE for knowing their language.
Also, I can say from my own experience that learning a language requires faith. There can be long periods where you really feel like you’re just not making any progress at all, and you just have to keep going. When the light bulb FINALLY turns on, it’s on!

By: Lisa Renata

Lisa Renata — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:39:18 +0000

Alrighty then, so I am a little behind in the sharing, but here it goes:

I was born in California but raised both in the US and Mexico. Because my dad was still finishing up his University studies in Mexico, soon after I was born we moved to Mexico. On my mom side I am first generation (she studied in the US for a few years, but lived most of her youth in Mexico) and as for my dad, I am third generation or so. As a baby my mom used to speak to me both English and Spanish (she’s fluent in both), but soon people started telling her that that would confuse me (we are talking the 70′s), so she stopped and opted for using the dominant language- at the time we were living in Guadalajara- so that was Spanish. I attended school in Mexico from K to 4th grade and then we moved back to the US. I was then placed in an ESL class and exited within a year (some how English was easy for me- maybe it was because I was exposed to it as a baby or maybe it was because my parents knew of the importance of exposing me to the language by signing me up in extracurricular activities like: softball, cheer leading, art, book clubs at the library and many many more…where I had to use English). Then, when I was in the sixth grade we went back to Mexico for a year and I did not want to come back, but we did and I have been here since. Over all, at home we always spoke in Spanish, at school English and with my sisters? well…BOTH! =)

I love that I was able to live in two different countries. I think this allowed me to appreciate and connect more with who I am and where I come from. To me Spanish- English, or English- Spanish is the same thing…in my mind I can switch from one to the other with no problem, not even thinking about it. But there are words that connect to certain feeling or places I’ve been. I hope some day my kids can also feel the same. I know their experience will be different- for starters they have a Latina mami and a gringo for a papi. I do though, hope someday we live in Mexico for a year or so, so that way they can learn fluently the language, truly experience the lifestyle and make connections with friends ( I still keep in touch with several that I made that last year I lived in Mexico. Hurray for Facebook!). That is something one cannot teach, but one has to experience.

Thanks for sharing your stories ladies. I always love to hear on how others were raised bilingual.
.-= Lisa Renata´s last blog ..around here… :: por aqui… =-.

By: Carrie at Tiki Tiki Blog

Carrie at Tiki Tiki Blog — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:50:38 +0000

Amen, sister. .-= Carrie at Tiki Tiki Blog´s last blog ..Mira, Mira: Movies and Music for the Weekend =-.

By: Carrie at Tiki Tiki Blog

Carrie at Tiki Tiki Blog — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:48:51 +0000

Roxana, I was born in Miami, 10 years after my mother arrived from Cuba. But, I didn’t speak English until I was 4. No need, given that my grandmother took care of me and all the relatives and friends primarily spoke Spanish.

If we still lived there, yes, for sure, Maria and I would speak more Spanish because it is in the air down there, but even though Miami is Latino Center of The Universe, even my cousins who live there struggle to get their kids fluent…

U.S. culture has a strong pull and our children — raised with the second generation like me, especially — will have to work harder. I Have to work harder for it.
.-= Carrie at Tiki Tiki Blog´s last blog ..Mira, Mira: Movies and Music for the Weekend =-.