Editor´s note: The following is a guest post and vlog by Carrie Ferguson Weir.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=164On78dVlU
My girl’s first words were in Spanish. And, I was so proud. Here I was in Tennessee, with no Spanish-speaking relatives nearby and my little baby was hablando español.
And then she turned 3 y “I don’t speak Spanish!’’ became her battle cry. (This, despite attending a Spanish immersion pre-school.)
Maria is nearly 7 now and she understands everything I say in Spanish, her accent is pretty darned good, and when she speaks Spanish of her own free will, I melt and get all puffed-up proud.
Because she’s cabezona, I cannot force the issue. I want her to want to speak Spanish, not see it as another way to bump heads with me. So, I have to be sneaky about it. I buy bilingual books, and Spanish workbooks; we play a lot of music in Spanish; I ask her to explain Spanish words to her non-fluent father; and I invent games.
When I am really desperate to get some practice in, I adopt an embarrassing cubanaza persona and make her laugh by pretending to misunderstand her English words or shouting “perrooooo-h cal-iennnnn-tehhhh!’’ in my best Sábado Gigante voice when she eats a hot dog. When she’s laughing and having fun, she’s more apt to roll with the Mother Tongue.
During our Gulf Coast vacation (no tar balls!) in June, it was her idea to shout Spanish words while we played in the ocean. Watch the video and you’ll see what I mean about how creative we’ve got to get around here to practice el español. I’m extra joyful that it was her idea.
And then, tell me, do you have to sneak the Spanish in? If so, how?
I need new ideas.
She may be on to me.
I understand what you mean about trying to sneak some Spanish lessons. I teach my twin daughters some Spanish words as I’m driving them or picking them up from school. They love to point out things they see on the street. It’s like playing Eye Spy but in Spanish. I also make up my own games in order to make it fun for them to learn the language.
Our first daughter was born in Maryland. And because both my husband and I are Cubans and we were raised in Hialeah, we knew that eventually she would learn the English language, so we made it a point to only speak to her in Spanish. This last for the first four years of her life. One time, we were called to go back to the nursery at church because she didn’t understand what the teacher was saying.
We eventually moved back to Miami when she was four years old and that’s when she started to learn English. She speaks, write, reads perfect Spanish. I think it’s because it was her first language.
Our second daughter was born eight years later when we were already back in Miami. This child learned both languages at the same time. And her Spanglish is perfect.
My mother always told them, if you want to eat at my house, you better know how to speak Spanish. No problem there.
Ody, my grandmother used to kick us out of the house if we spoke English…and in Miami, you don’t want to get kicked out in 95-degree temps, so all of the cousins and I spoke Spanish, for sure. My kid doesn’t get that from her Abuelitos…Ay.
Gosh, that’s a pretty fun way to sneak a lesson I have to say!! Great idea!! I imagine how proud you were hat SHE was the one who thought about it!!
I feel this….the older my son gets the more hesitant to spanish and the more sneaky I have to be, including bribes (:
I have started playing a game with my 9 year old where we look up one spanish word a day and have to used it throughout the day. Whoever uses it more wins. He loves this for some reason…and I too get into it, trying to beat him.
Boardgames… I have found ¿Advina Quién? and Cadoo both at our local Walmart. Also, Amazon has several as well. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_13?url=search-alias%3Dtoys-and-games&field-keywords=spanish+board+games&x=0&y=0&sprefix=spanish+board Kids don’t even realize they’re speaking in Spanish because they’re having so much fun.
Yes, yes! I agree. We like Manzanas con Manzanas, which you can find if you search for it by name on Amazon. We also like Derrota a los Padres, although that one has pretty frequent cultural references that go right over my head! Barnesandnoble.com has Cadoo and Conga in Spanish as well, both for 19.95. I haven’t tried either of those yet, but I have my eye on them!
I love board games. I’m going to have to check out your suggestions, though, because I think my daughter is at that age where she’s starting to understand how to play them. The only one we have is Zingo! and we bought it either at ToysRUs or Walmart – can’t remember.
Carrie, thanks for such a great vlog! I’m so happy for you that your daughter had such an awesome idea.
I can’t imagine how it’ll be when my daughter refuses to speak Spanish. She’s almost 4 and there are absolutely no signs of that yet. I imagine it’ll come when she starts school… and I’ll have all these great ideas to help me deal with it! Thanks to all!
My husband speaks exclusively in Spanish, I speak in both English and Spanish all day long.
American and Hispanic Latino Couples on Facebook
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Love this story because it just goes to prove that our kids do absorb everything we do and our efforts never go to waste.
Sneaky in the best way possible.
Love this post Carrie! What a fun idea your daughter had at the beach!! My husband and I too, noticed a major shift in attitude with both of our kids at about age 3 or 4 with their willingness to speak Spansih. We too have resorted to sticker charts, bribes, etc at times. But I am happy to say that at age 8 1/2 my daughter is again excited about her ability to speak Spanish. I think she has an awareness that comes with this age, that being bilingual is really cool. Her monolingual friends and parents often ask her teach them and she is very proud of her skills. She also really is into listening and singing popular Latin music… her current faves are songs by Juanes, Shakira and Carlos Vives. My 5 year old son on the other hand is still ‘contra la corriente”. I know he too, eventually will come around. We are constantly speaking in Spanish, playing in Spanish, listening to music, and yes sneaking it in whenever we can! Thanks for a post that we can all relate to! Check my daughter out on my latest blog post (it was her idea to model the songs for our students. Yippee!). http://www.bilingualfun.blogspot.com.
You guys are all sneaky! And you give me great ideas.
Also, Jen…I have seen my girl get all proud when she helps translate for another kid, so perhaps she’s not as reluctant as I fear. Love your kid!
Thanks y’all and thanks to Ana and Roxana for the welcome mat! I love Spanglish Baby!
I am biracial; my mother is black and my father is from santiago de cuba. despite having a desperately long cuban name my father did not want me to learn spanish. at first this bothered me quite a bit. however, i am to realize that he thought he was helping me. after my parents split, at 6, i never spoke spanish again. until one day i was attempting to understand a mexican immigrant. amazingly i begin to speak in broken conversational spanish. some words i did not even think i knew–especially the slang. lol.
im still not fluent. only mexicans & hondurans live around me so my family picks on me horribly about my mexican accent. i am desperately trying to become better. its quite difficult when you have little interaction besides phone conversations back home.
congrats on teaching ur children. i wish my father had done the same!
gracias por compartir tus experiencias!
vivo en Hawaii donde casi no se escucha el castellano, asi que a mi hija “le meto” el castellano con juegos ( ella tiene dos ahnos). contamos los escalones ( 1 al 21), digo los nombres de frutas en el supermercado, y cada vez que dice algo en ingles, yo lo repito en castellano.
trying to keep it “natural” while speaking with her… but I can see my battles in the future since my daugther is also a little “cabeza dura”!