Comments on: English Books Be Gone!

By: Barry

Barry — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 20:27:27 +0000

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By: Small Changes Making Una Gran Diferencia In Our Spanglish Home | SpanglishBaby™

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 08:24:54 +0000

[...] Libros. We haven’t made as bold a move as Suzanne did by donating all her English books, but we have made an effort to buy and borrow more books in Spanish than before. This is just as [...]

By: Beth Ortuño

Beth Ortuño — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:25:14 +0000

Through my job I get to know a lot of bilingual people and many times it is a family business. I always wonder why some people are completely fluent and comfortable where a brother almost the same age or close cousin avoids the second language and feels uncomfortable writing in it. I guess my thing is to try and put the language into the child while he is little because I do not know how he will take to it.

By: Beth Ortuño

Beth Ortuño — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:11:44 +0000

Suzanne, I do not think your decision is extreme.
Although I have from the beginning spoken to our son in English, I truly predicted our son would be speaking mostly Spanish before starting school. He spends more hours with his father and Tia speaking to him in Spanish, and most of our life is in Spanish. Even around our neighborhood Spanish is the language most often heard.
I wouldn’t go back because my parents and my older daughter do not speak Spanish, and I wanted the baby to be able to interact with them directly from the beginning. However, it has surprised me how quickly and completely English has come to dominate, for him.
At this point he is 3-1/2, not in school yet at all, but we are having the problem that he stubbornly insists on speaking in English to his father, really anyone if he knows or suspects that person may understand him that way, no matter how that person may try to convince him to stay in Spanish. When we were visiting Mexico he spoke Spanish to his grandparents and younger cousins but refused to speak Spanish to his Tio who very strongly resembles his father or to his older cousins. He has got in his head that men and older kids understand English and then he insists on speaking to them in English (even if they actually DON’T understand).
I now try to speak with our son a lot in Spanish as well as in English. Emotionally, I am not prepared to give up “Goodnight Moon” in favor of “Buenas noches Luna”, and I know my daughter would miss being able “Goodnight Moon” to read to her brother. She was an older child before I even started learning Spanish, so that is just the way it is. But I do insist on reading to him in Spanish as well and I am more aware now that nothing about having Spanish be a part of his life is going to be automatic or can be taken for granted.
I am also rethinking our plan of enrolling him in classes for Mandarin when he is 4 (the minimum age for the classes). I have German coworkers, some of them good friends, have family in Germany, and even a friend whose son is bilingual in German thanks to his dad. It does seem like there will be so much more opportunity for getting our son a strong start in German at a younger age. So although I was leaning toward exposing him to a non-European language… we have no direct connection ourselves to Mandarin, and it is becoming obvious that we need to go with the one that will be easier for us to support.

By: suzanne mateus

suzanne mateus — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:42:26 +0000

Yes, I know what you mean about high quality Spanish books BUT Im going to go the extra mile (if thats even possible over the net) to find and invest in some Spanish books. That being said, they’re certainly not as accessible as English books. Oh the challenges in raising a child with another language

By: suzanne mateus

suzanne mateus — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:41:11 +0000

Ive thought about saving a few for when non spanish speaking people come over…in fact Sabrina has some English books given to here by some very special people. I haven’t thought about how Im going to handle that. I think I may just save them for her. It sounds like you have been successful in nurturing a positive response to Spanish from your kids…I hope to do the same

By: suzanne mateus

suzanne mateus — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:39:24 +0000

I don’t know if its rash. I think its just part of my goal of exposing her to as much Spanish as possible. I think what it comes down to is what your philosophy in raising a bilingual child is. People have their own definition of what it means to be bilingual. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Glad Im not alone in this crazy endeavor LOL

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:27:54 +0000

We started out with a Spanish-only rule — which is a good rule to have, I think — but we found ourselves reading the same books over and over and over again. We just didn’t have access to a ton of high-quality books in Spanish (hard to find), just the small shelf at the library. Plus, there are some really terrific books in English that I love myself (she is sooo into the Mo Willems books) so we do a mix now. I sometimes get the Olivia books in Spanish and read them to my daughter, and she doesn’t seem to notice the difference.

I guess the way I see it, my parents didn’t read to me in Spanish when I was little, and my fluency is just fine.

By: Susan

Susan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:24:58 +0000

I haven’t banned them, but I do give them away. I keep some on hand for when my mom comes and stays with us. Some I will translate as we read them. A couple times I have even typed out the translation and pasted it into the book.

I do the same with media. All music and videos are either in Spanish and German (the language Papi uses with the boys).

I’ll probably allow some English when they are older, but for now, they don’t want it either. When I turned on the car yesterday the talk radio station that I was listening to came on and my 2 1/2 year old said to me, “No ingles mami, quiero musica en espanol.”

By: Siobhan

Siobhan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:04:02 +0000

It’s so funny that I should read this today as my husband and I just recently made this decision, which was hard for me (hence why we didn’t get rid of ALL our books in English! blush). I posted on facebook that we were planning this and a few of my friends (kindly) commented that they thought this was a bit rash (even one friend who is also raising her children bilingually).