Comments on: Full Language Immersion Abroad

By: Language, Culture and Familia Immersion in El Salvador | SpanglishBaby™

Language, Culture and Familia Immersion in El Salvador | SpanglishBaby™ — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:18:38 +0000

[...] time Camila celebrated her third birthday with her familia Salvadoreña. She also spent three weeks completely immersed in a Spanish-only preschool during the weekdays. Her Spanish was flowing beautifully since it was the language she heard the [...]

By: Iyari

Iyari — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 07:20:07 +0000

Hola mamasitas!!
I’m so happy to read all these great stories about your bilingual lives and how you continue to pass this gift on to your children. Although I moved here from MExico at the ripe age of 1, I was only allowed to speak spanish at home and often spent summers as well as the Christmas holidays in Mexico. So I will always be thankful to that since my spanish is quite fluent. Because of it, I have been able to work on and off camera in may tv commercials. I now have a 3 year old of my own and have not been as adamant with my spanish as my parents were and feel guilty she only understands it. SO I have been on a hunt to find a bilingual pre-k and have found NO success!! I currently live in Los Feliz and am willing to move if I find a school. Does anyone know of any bilingual pre ks????????????

By: steph

steph — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:30:11 +0000

I grew up spending all my summers in Colombia. I was raised in the U.S. by a single mother whose entire family lived back home in Colombia. I had no idea that I was sent over b/c she couldn’t afford summer camp for me. All I knew was that from the day after school go to out for the summer and until the day before school got back in, I was shipped off to Colombia and I loved it! I had a ton of cousins who were my age who I lived with for about 3 months every year. And living with them meant going to school with them too since they have their short break during the summer. I had so much fun going to school. Now interestingly one of my cousins went to an “American” school meaning that everything was taught in English, so at that school, I was the cool kid who spoke perfect English! Those summers in Colombia solidified my Spanish and gave me the Pisa accent that even now as an adult is recognized wherever I go (like yesterday when the Colombian waitress at Disney World immediately asked if I was from Medellin). I hope to one day send my kids to visit thier primitos and hope that they get to go to school to.

I did also take gymnastics and dance with my cousins while I was there.

By: Dariela

Dariela — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:41:56 +0000

What you were able to do is sooo great! Hopefully we will be able to do that if not once a year maybe once every 2 years and I think that helps them sooo much. The little booklet is very cute! Para el recuerdo!

I am always afraid of that situation of not controlling the Spanish anymore at school but I trust that he will still have it in him no matter what. I’ll keep talking to him in Spanish, reading, singing and so on even though his school might be only English. But you know that in the end when they grow up they’ll have it because we are here to help them have it NO MATTER WHAT (LOL!) and they’ll love it.

By: Cita Online

Cita Online — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 23:28:02 +0000

Growing up, I spent every summer in Lima at school with my cousins. Even though my parents required Spanish at home, I know it’s entirely because of those summers in Lima (and the “gringa” taunting that came with poor language skills) that I can speak Spanish fluently today.

My (future) children will definitely spend summers in school in Latin America if at all possible… school is fun for kids anyways!! I got to eat Peruvian candy at recess, make lifelong friends, and of course I did really well in the English class!

By: Ana Lilian

Ana Lilian — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:59:13 +0000

HI Marcela,
Great to read that your son had the same experience! I didn’t do any more extra-curricular activities, but will throw that in the mix next time since she’ll be older and more receptive.
Thanks for sharing this story!

By: Ana Lilian

Ana Lilian — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:57:44 +0000

Don’t you hate it that money has to be an obstacle to immersing your children in their heritage? You are doing such an amazing job teaching your kids Spanish that there’s no doubt they will bilingual. There are so many paths to achieve the same result. Love your Tips to Raising Bilingual kids videos!

By: Ana Lilian

Ana Lilian — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:55:17 +0000

Thank you for sharing your story! Every time I read one of your blog post or the comments you leave here I am in awe of your journey and the amazing life your daughter is living.
Do you find it challenging to “help” her out when it comes to learning Chinese and Spanish when you don’t speak it?

By: Marcela

Marcela — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:54:11 +0000

Ana Lilian–

I loved your story. We also arrived not long ago from our immersion trip in Colombia. Ian is now 5 and we are still taking him every year for a month to a private school where he does full immersion. It is a regular school, and like you I had a lot of help from my sister.

The school my son attended was the same one his cousin Camila goes to, although she is 15.. Many schools are willing to take him for only a month because they understand the situation we are in.

In addition we had the chance to continue with horse back riding lessons and karate lessons where he made a friend! That was very helpful in making him talk in Spanish only. After a week he was talking like a parrot in Spanish of course.

Immersion is the best way for us to keep Ian’s Spanish going, and even though we live in an area where Spanish is spoken (NYC) he prefers to reply and speak in English. Now that we returned not long ago he still speaks to me in Spanish and I make it a daily task to read in Spanish every single day.

I am soooo happy many other parents like you are doing this!

By: Tracy

Tracy — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 01:51:19 +0000

Your daughter is so fortunate that you’re able to do this for her. What amazing experiences she is having! The card from her classmates is adorable… I wish we were able to do something like this with our boys. If we had the money I’d bring them back to El Salvador every summer. As it is now, only the oldest has been and he was only a year old and doesn’t remember it. Every year we say we’re going to go but as you know, it isn’t cheap… hopefully next year. In the meantime, we keep speaking Spanish at home. You gotta work with what you’ve got.