I’m the product of a bilingual school and I will be forever grateful to my parents for making the decision to give me such an amazing educational opportunity because I’m sure my life would not be what it is today had I gone to a regular school.
Unfortunately, I’m currently not able to do the same for my kids. As you’ve probably read here before, my options in terms of bilingual or dual language immersion schools in Denver are pretty limited and, for now, Vanessa is just going to our neighborhood school. I would love nothing more than for her — and eventually for her brother to — to be able to get a bilingual education. But until our family situation changes, I’m in charge of her instruction in Spanish.
Since I know first-hand the benefits of a bilingual education, I figured I’d share these with you, in case you’ve been thinking about it for your kids and need a little push.
1. Biliteracy — While it’s great to speak two languages, it’s even better to read and write in both languages or be biliterate, like myself. I thank my bilingual education for this ability since I was taught all of my subjects in both English and Spanish.
2. More choices in resources/literature — I can’t count how many times I’ve been doing research and I’ve been unable to find the information I’m looking for in English and I’ve turned to Spanish and a whole new world has opened up (or vice versa). In terms of reading, there’s nothing like enjoying a novel or a poem in its original version instead of the translated one as something is always lost in translation.
3. Opportunities to study (& work) abroad — A lot of kids who have the opportunity to get a bilingual education have a much easier time going to study abroad and continue to practice and expand their second language. Many times, this also translated into the opportunity to work abroad, which opens a whole new set of opportunities.
4. Easier to learn additional languages — I’m convinced that since I was educated in two languages, adding a third one came fairly easy. The school I went to believed so much this was true, that we were introduced to a third language of our choice by the time we were in fifth grade.
5. More professional opportunities — Being schooled in both English and Spanish is the one and only reason I’ve been able to have a successful career as a journalist in both the English and the Spanish media. Being bilingual has given me a lot more professional options as well as a higher salary.
Notice that none of the benefits on this list include all of the cognitive and health benefits of being bilingual. Taking all this into consideration, it’s impossible to argue that speaking two languages is not a huge advantage in today’s society.
{Image via woodleywonderworks}
Disclosure: This sponsored post is part of Univision’s Education Week and the Es El Momento campaign. As always, all opinions are my own.
We do have A spanish immersion school in my area but I am not part of their school district. I have to ask permission from my district for my son to attend another district which is very difficult for them to agree. Something I am willing to do for my son who will start kinder next yr. Our concern is the school district is zoned in the bad parts of town which are another city than us, we moved to our current town are a few years back because of the good school district and good area before the Spanish immersion schools opened. My son’s first language is Spanish and is now speaking both after starting preschool last yr. I am very torn a. Continue my Spanish with him knowing it will get harder to do as he gets older with limited spanish resources( groups etc.) or b. immersion School in bad neighborhood. Spanish is very important to us but also keeping with good morals and am afraid of what he will be exposed to there. I thought of starting a moms group bilingual families so he
more exposed, all of our friend with kids even Spanish speaking, their kids are English only. Any
thoughts??
As a bilingual special education teacher who works in one of the worst neighborhoods in my city, I say find out more about school before you completely give up on the idea of sending your son there. My school has some wonderful and talented teachers, that happens to be located in a bad barrio. Try to visit the school several times, during several different times of the day. Safety is a definite concern, So go with your gut! If you don’t feel like that school is the right environment for your son, know that you can do a fine job raising him in a bilingual environment without an official scholastic program. ¡Suerte!
B.H. You are already so conscious of what you want for your son. Whatever you decide, you will make it work.
We lived in Japan and Singapore for the first three years of my son’s life. He was listening to three languages and because I don’t speak Japanese, I couldn’t continue to teach him that language. I have been able to work Spanish because I don’t send him to an immersion school. Although I send him to a private school that teaches Spanish in the first grade, I can’t completely rely on them to teach him everything.
Every night, just like he practices piano and does homework and reads, we set aside Spanish time. He knows it’s part of the routine. Also, we live away from family and that makes it harder to practice too, it’s so important to us. We have to do it.
But I came to comment to agree with numbers 3,4 and 5. My husband and I felt very secure to move to Asia, learn a little Japanese (taxi and baby Japanese) and it has given us both more opportunities.
Good luck!
Thanks for the advice and kind words I feel like no one understands this topic where I live so it is comforting having the support. I have spoke to the principal over the phone and she was very welcoming and invited me to visit. She was the one who told me the steps to take to get him in. The other option for school is a new science school who is in my dsitrict and they have a chinese immersion program although I wish it were Spanish I wouldn’t mind him learning a third language also and continue the Spanish at home. Just don’t want to overwhelm the him.