Raising a bilingual child can undoubtedly be a lot of work, but it can also be extremely amusing.
Just check out the conversation I had with Vanessa yesterday:
— “Bueno conocerte,” she said as she shook my hand playfully.
— “¿Qué que?” I asked her as I shook her hand back.
— “Bueno conocerte,” she repeated emphatically.
— “¿Qué significa eso?” I quizzed her.
— “Nice to meet you,” she responded confidently, surprised that I would ask such a thing. I couldn’t help but laugh wholeheartedly.
— “Pero eso es en inglés, Vane,” I explained.
— “Entonces, ¿cómo se dice en español?” she asked genuinely curious.
— “Mucho gusto. O, encantada de conocerte. O, un placer conocerte, Vanessa,” I responded.
And then, she laughed wholeheartedly.
Now you. What amusing anecdotes do you have about raising bilingual children?
My daughter creates new Spanglish all the time:
moon + luna = “muna”
please + por favor = “please favor”
I love please favor! That’s pretty original!
OMG my son does the same, MUNA.
My son says “muna” all the time! That’s hilarious! I love how creative they can be with language.
LOL! We do this a lot! Our son will be 3 next month. I don’t know if it’s all Spanish speakers or just the ones in our life who use 1 word for a lot of things; example “toalla” being a towel but also could be a small blanket, napkin, etc… At a restaurant just the other day Marco tells me in English “Want towel” and I say “Ok, here you go. Can you say napkin?”. He says “No Mommy. This a towel”. He’s always quite insistent about it. I think he’s kinda stubborn — wonder where he gets it from?
LOVE it. jajaja…She is adorable and hilarious.
Similar things happen way too often at our house… Here are a couple:
http://latinaish.com/2010/07/10/spanish-summer-flavor/
http://latinaish.com/2010/07/15/spanish-summer-conejito-azul/
Thanks, Tracy! Kids are too funny! I remember reading those on your blog. Are you guys doing Spanish summer again this year?
Spanish Summer was sort of the start to making a more determined effort to speak more Spanish at home. Though I’m not perfect, I have more or less continued to speak to the kids in Spanish most of the time since then. I will definitely be doing Spanish Summer again though. Getting my husband to play along 100% and getting the kids to respond to me more often in Spanish will be the big thing this summer. The good news is that, while they were resistant to Spanish Summer last year – this year they’re enthusiastic. My 12 year old even asked me, “Can we do Spanish Summer again? I want to be fluent by the time I start the next school year.” — Exciting!
A cousin of mine once said: “¡le van a tirar una fiesta a mi amiga!”… I didn’t get it at first, but when I finally understood she literally translated “they’re gonna throw a party for my friend!” I couldn’t stop laughing… I explained her how to say it in correct Spanish and she laughed too!!
I’ve heard that one before… Having lived in Miami for 20 years, you hear a lot of stuff like that! Although, in Miami, instead of fiesta, they would’ve said pary or pari (as in party). This is especially true of Cubans and Puerto Ricans, or at least, that’s the case in my experience.
A mi me pasa al contrario con mi hija de dos años, cuando escucha algo en Inglés o una canción, dice: También se dice pato o la palabra que sea en ese momento.
Have a nice weekend
I once knew a sweet little girl who was born into a home where only Spanish was spoken. She had just started school and was learning basic English. Once day she brought me a snack, and I responded with a smile and a thank you. Her reply? “Of nothing!” I stood confused for a moment but then realized this a literal translation of “de nada” from Spanish to English! ; )
Zoe loves school buses. As we’re biking to school she narrates, There’s a other autobús escolar! Dos autobús escolars! And today she said “I want jugar my tapa!” (play w/ the cap to her lotion).
Also, a couple of weeks ago she said something in Spanish to the secretary at work. The woman was clearly lost, so Zoe translated herself to English! (she just turned 2)
I love what they come up with! My favorite of all times with adrian is: Mami, estoy jambre. Lol! He even does the h as j like in english. Sometimes I don’t want to correct him cause it’s so cute!
My oldest always says “Mama, I want quiero comer” and I say, Aiden, you don’t need to say “I want”..its redundant. (he is 4), So he says um “I want comer?” hehe.
When I was little, I always got confused with tenses and dialect..my mother is from mexico and my father from Nicaragua…they would always confuse me with their different Tu tenses…my mom said Tu my dad said Voz…so I just made up my own and said tuvoz!
My 2 and 1/2 yr old son has recently become very sensitive to the fact that he lives in an English-dominant society, and he sometimes gets furious with me for speaking to him in Spanish. For example, I told him something was “rojo” and he kept saying “that not rojo! that red!” and I was telling him they were the same thing. And he agreed that they were, but he just didn’t want to say it in Spanish. He’s also told me to “stop talking to him like that” when I speak Spanish. It’s sort of discouraging for me. Has anyone else encountered this with their kids?
Moniqua, my 3-year-old son is trying that with us every day. Not only that, I have heard a lot of people say their kids do it, too. Many parents even say at some point they stopped insisting on Spanish in the home because of their kids’ reaction. The way I look at it, God made parents because kids don’t always know what’s best. You know, sometimes when my son asks for a popsicle right before dinner, especially if he asked really nicely, I give it to him. Mostly, however, I respect his feelings by finding Papi to distract him until dinner is ready — but not by giving him a popsicle.
The thing is, unlike some other more common decisions about parenting, when choosing bilingualism we unfortunately do not always get positive messages about raising our kids bilingual, which can cause us to question ourselves. Sometimes even teachers or doctors are misinformed. I would just say, keep connected with spanglishbaby.com and anyone you find supportive & encouraging, and let your son have his feelings, but keep on going with what you are doing.