It Can´t Hurt
I never really questioned whether or not Vanessa would grow up bilingual. As far as I knew, we would talk to her in our first language, Spanish, from the moment she was born. English, I figured, she would pick up from her surroundings – we live in Colorado – and eventually in preschool. In fact, the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that I want Vanessa to be multilingual. It can’t hurt. It hasn’t hurt me. On the contrary, being a bilingual journalist has opened twice as many doors as being a monolingual one would ever have!
Maybe it has to do with my own fascination with languages. I speak three and for a while now, I’ve been toying with the idea of learning a fourth one. Most of the members in my family are bilingual and several of them speak a third language – maybe not fluently, but well enough to make themselves understood if need be. In fact, an aunt of mine recently started taking Italian lessons and she is in her late sixties!
Why Do It?
According to the Multilingual Children’s Association, there are more pros than cons to raising your kids bilingual. Check some of them out:
- It is easier to learn another language from birth than it is during any other time in life — baby simply has two first languages.
- Multilingualism has been proven to help your child develop superior reading and writing skills.
- Multilingual children also tend to have over all better analytical, social, and academic skills than their monolingual peers.
- Knowing more than one language helps your child feel at ease in different environments. It creates a natural flexibility and adaptability, and it increases her self-esteem and self confidence.
- Career prospects are multiplied many times over for people who know more than one language.
Cultural Identity
Photo by mattlogelin
All these reasons are great, but the truly most important reason for me is that it wouldn’t feel like Vanessa is my daughter if she didn’t speak the language of our ancestors; if she couldn’t sing Arroz con leche…; if she couldn’t call her Dad, “Papito”; if her cousins in Perú, México or Puerto Rico asked her to play “a las escondidas” and she had to ask me for a translation…Speaking Spanish to her is about cultural identity, it’s about familia. It’s a matter very close to our heart.
In the end – no matter your reasons for doing it – it’s a win-win situation. We, at SpanglishBaby, hope we can show you so in the months to come. We also hope to answer your questions, give you tips on how we are doing it and hear what you have to say about this mighty challenge that is totally worth the effort!
Thanks for stopping by and we hope to see you often!
We are all here to inspire and motivate each other. Share with us your reasons for raising a bilingual/bi-cultural child.
{First Photo by Photo by JAG Photography}
Awesome website!!! I agree – the more languages/cultures one can absorb, the better. I just wanted to share my personal view on this issue. I raised (still raising) a bilingual child. My daughter is almost 18, and I am proud every time I hear her speak Spanish. Her accent betrays the fact she is not a native speaker; nonetheless, she can communicate very efficiently with all her Spanish-speaking family. Veronika spoke only Spanish until about the age of 4. She learned English at pre-school in a matter of days/weeks. While her written Spanish can still improve, she has no problem communicating with her Peruvian side of the family, as well as with her Cuban side. She has traveled to Peru several times, and she is never an outsider. Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing. Veronika is no longer a baby – but she’s definitely a Spanglish Teen.
Bienvenida, Gloria! Thanks for sharing your story with all of us. You are definitely already a pro!
It’s a very interesting and useful blog! It’s very rewarding to see how our nieces and grand nieces speak fluent Spanish. It would be very disappointing not to be able to communicate with them in our native language. In my case, it was a real blessing to attend a bilingual school. I´ll never stop thanking my parents for their vision of the future. The opportunities I have now are incredible. My whole job is related to bilingual knowledge since I teach English and Spanish to Mexican and American executives. Being bilingual also “prepare” your brain to learn more languages, I also speak French and are attempting to learn Italian. (Going well, so my teacher says).
Congratulations and good luck on this great blog!
Ana, your sister Marilu sent me this site to review and I am very glad she did. I think this is a GREAT website that is going to help us all to be able to bring our kids up bilingual. I am a native Spanish speaker and my husband (from Ecuador) and I have made a great emphasis on making sure the kids (5 and 3) speak only Spanish at home. I am currently starting to teach them to read and write in Spanish and am facing several issues choosing the methodology to teach them. Maybe you guys can blog about that. Congratulations and keep up the great work! If I can help you guys in any way, let me know. Ale
I’m “typical” American. In the part of Ohio where my dad’s from, my family started emigrating there in the 1830′s and continued speaking their native language (a form of German) all the way up to the end of WWII, when the whole community abruptly switched itself to English only. So an extremely important part of our heritage was preserved for well over a hundred years and then willingly obliterated in just a few. Although people had the best intentions at heart, I think it was a mistake. I wish I had that strong connection to my own past. On my mother’s side we know some were originally Irish by their names and a small handful of family stories, but really there are very few details. My husband is from a place in Mexico where even the “new” Spanish culture is centuries old and there are many aspects of the indigenous culture still going strong. I want my son to feel comfortable in his own skin always. As he goes through the challenges of life I want him to be able to close his eyes and imagine the warmth of both Ohioan hot apple cider and Mexican atole. To do that he must have good command of both languages.
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