You may remember I recently made the decision to send my 3 1/2-year-old-son to preschool full-time. Up until January, Santiago had only gone to his all-English preschool three times a week starting last fall. The rest of the time — and prior to him going to preschool — he had been staying home with a Spanish-speaking nanny. Needless to say, Spanish is his first language… but things are starting to change.
When I reluctantly made the choice to send him to preschool five times a week, I knew being exposed to so much English would probably affect his use of Spanish. So I’m not surprised it’s happening, but I am kind of shocked it’s happening so quickly.
Santiago has only been going to preschool full time for six weeks now, and English is definitely invading our home. I guess I’m intrigued with this trend because it didn’t happen with Vanessa who only started going to school full-time when she entered kindergarten. In other words, she wasn’t as immersed in English as her brother is until much later. I’ve been so amused by this that I’ve actually kept a running list of words and phrases he’s been saying lately. Check it out:
- Nos vemos next time
- ¿Me puedes dar a little bit tiny?
- Mira cuantos people hay aquí
- Quiero ver las pictures
- ¿Ese fue un funny one?
- ¡Lo hice all by myself!
I find some of these so funny that I really haven’t made a big deal out of them. I usually just repeat what he said using only Spanish. My husband, on the other hand, is not too happy that he’s miking both languages (worried that this is the way he’ll always talk) and always tells him, “Así no se dice en español…” Santiago usually responds by repeating himself in Spanish. This proves he does know the words in Spanish, but for some reason, the English version comes up first. I image it has to do with everything he hears back at school.
One thing I will start doing is explaining to my son that while what he is saying is correct, he’s saying it in English but that there’s an equivalent in Spanish. I’m also going to start reading to him a lot more — something I’m guilty of neglecting when compared to his sister.
I will say, however, that Santiago has once again proven to me that those of us raising bilingual kids using the mL@H method have nothing to worry about when it comes to their ability to learn the majority language quickly once they’re exposed to it more often. My son’s vocabulary in English has grown exponentially in the last six weeks… demonstrating the amazing power of immersion!
This post is my fear… one of the reasons why I decided not to start my son in a full time program at 2.5! At our house, it will be even more complicated due to the added language, French… so i am not sure what to expect when the time comes!
You make me think that I should not put him in a full-time program at 3.5 years old! I think Vanessa might be influencing him, though… do they speak to each other in English or Spanish? I wonder if having a sibling that speaks both languages around influences how quickly kids prefer the new language.
Good luck! I love reading about your experiences!
Diana, believe it or not, Santiago & Vanessa still play mostly in Spanish. I think it’s probably because he doesn’t really know enough English for them to play. Although his vocabulary in English has grown tremendously, he still can’t have the same kind of conversations in English that he has in Spanish.
Even so, I’m sure the fact that Vanessa already speaks both languages fluently has had an impact on Santiago. But I’m convinced it has more to do with the amount of English he’s exposed to on a daily basis. Beside sending him to preschool full-time, he goes to either before care or after care three times a week, so he’s been definitely spending a good chunk of his day immersed in English.
I think every child is different and that you know better than anybody what’s best for your child. When English starts taking over, we need to make sure they’re even more exposed to Spanish than before. I’m sure this is even harder when there’s three languages involved…
Buena suerte para ti también and I’m glad you enjoy reading my stories!
Way before I had my daughter I would’ve been upset about this. However, since I had my daughter (she is almost 6) code-switching has become normal in our home. I’ve noticed, however, that as the years go by, she’s code switching less. In fact, since she started Kindergarten in a French immersion school, her Spanish has gotten better. She also attempts to have full conversations in Spanish with relatives she knows only speak Spanish (or very little English), and not to mention that she has learned so much French in just a few months. I truly believe that code-switching is part of the learning process, and that eventually she’ll be able to keep them apart.
Thanks for sharing your story, Eugenia. I’m happy to hear your daughter has already learned so much French. Goes to show how much easier it is for kids to learn a third language once they become bilingual.
You’re right about code-switching being totally… I do it all the time with my husband, although it’s more in the sense of going back and forth from English to Spanish and not the kind that Santiago has been doing where part of the same sentence is in English and the other part in Spanish.
I think that, as I said in the post, Santiago knows all the words he says in English in Spanish and he’s just trying them out in his second language because he can and because he’s been exposed to them at school…
In our household I’m a SAHM and speak English with just a tiny bit of Spanish (which I use as much as possible), and their father is bilingual but has a work achedule that keeps him away from them most days. On his days off he speaks a little Spanish with them, but not as much as I’d like. I read to them in Spanish, and have them watch cartoons in Spanish, but they don’t speak much (they do understand more). We just got notified that our 5year old got into the full Spanish immersion program we wanted for kindergarten, and it seems to have sparked her interest; she’s throwing out her own phrases now like “te quiero mucho gracias,” and others that may not entirely make sense, but shows interest and more vocabulary than I even knew she had. She also taught her baby sister to count in Spanish, which they both combine with English as they dem necessary, as they do with colors. My mom is a teacher who works with children with hearing loss, many of whom speak ASL (sign), English, and often another language at home, and says most children don’t have any difficulty sorting out what language is appropriate where/when.
Hi Kristina and congrats on getting into the full immersion Spanish program for your daughter! I’m sure she’s going to do great and you’ll be amazed by how much and how quickly her Spanish vocabulary and comprehension will grow.
I’m not really worried about what my son has been doing lately. I’m just amazed at how quickly English is influencing his speech and how different things have been for both my children.
My 3 1/2 year old just started preschool in January. We only speak Spanish at home and his babysitter is Colombian, but English has also invaded our home. When he takes a bath he asks me, “Hoy es un hair wash?” because he’s not a fan of the shower on his head. It’s hard for him to translate things like “circle time,” “pom pom balls,” and “rhythm sticks.” But when I pick him up, he always greets me and talks about his day in Spanish. I just support him the best I can.
That’s so cute, Holly! It’s crazy the things they come up with, right? There are definitely some phrases my first-grade daughter has a hard time saying in Spanish too… and sometimes I don’t know their equivalent in Spanish either!
Supporting the best way we can is what it’s all about!
Hi there!
I just started following your blog and the first post hits right at home!
I have two daughters completely bilingual, one is 23 and the other one 20. In fact the 20 year old decided to go further and she speaks 4 languages fluently (Italian, French, Spanish & English). It is important to say that with my second daughter, I had all kinds of fears, very similar as yours.
When my first daughter was born I only spoke Spanish to her, but the minute she enter preschool her confusion started to show up and she turned very quiet and observant. Then the second daughter was born and she was immediately immersed in both language since Daddy and I would speak to her in Spanish and her sister in English. Then I took my girls to Mexico when my youngest was 2 1/2 years old. Up to that day she refused to respond in Spanish to me even though I made all the efforts for her to do it. I was so afraid of what my mother would say, since her granddaughter was not going to be able to talk to her (my mother only speaks Spanish). The first 2 days of our stay, my daughter was mute, completely silent and only nodding when she was asked about something. Then at the 3rd day something miraculous occurred. My daughter started speaking like a native with cousins and grandparents. My mother then looked at me and said “Didn’t you say she did not speak Spanish?” and she just laugh. Later on I became a Spanish teacher and ended up writing my own curriculum for Spanish Teachers. This task made me do tons of research to just confirm that, if you speak in Spanish to your children, no matter the errors, no matter the mixing of languages which in our household by the way we call “Spanglish” (my daughters keep on texting me with those expressions), your children will never loose their Spanish. It will always be there. I have so many experiences throughout our life that I could share with your new moms, but I don’t want to bore you.
I can only tell you that if you keep on speaking your first language to them and proudly share your culture, your children will be grateful that you did it! It is very rewarding when they say “muchas gracias mami por enseñarme español y por darme tu sangre mexicana”. My 2 cents.
Its called “Spanglish”… All of us exposed to both languages use it. Its not a problem unless you make it seem like a problem. It’ll help him stay bilingual, the only downfall to this is if he’s ever translating for someone and he doesn’t know the correct spanish word, he’ll say the whole phrase in spanish and that one word in english..lol.
Experts say that childrens brains are like a sponge, so the younger you expose them to a different language, the faster they’ll pick it up.
The older he gets, he’ll start to learn what language to speak in certian situations.
This was my fear when my twins started school full time (dutch) at 4 years old but it did not come true and a year later they are still fully bilinguals and growing in their spanish. We live in the Netherlands and I am the only source of Spanish as their father does not speak it or even understand most of it, all my family lives in spain and the few spanish speaking friends do not have kids speaking spanish. We also do not have any bilingual program in the area. We use OPOL and I am very strict with that as I never talk with them in dutch. Even when friends are coming, I talk to them in spanish and then translate for the other kids to understand. Even on the street when people look strange to me, I just keep on speaking spanish to my kids. Only at dinner time when we have a conversation including dad, then we talk dutch.
What I notice was that at school they learn a lot of new expressions and words, we did not use at home. When they used that words, for example “nos hemos sentado en el kring despues de hacer buitenspelen”, I repeated the sentence with those words translated. “que bien que os sentaseis en asamblea despues de jugar fuera” and then on the following days I would ask them about those activities/words using the spanish equivalent. For example “habeis hecho asamblea hoy despues de jugar fuera?”. For me it felt like their knownlegde of concepts was growing and only had the word in dutch and a hole for the same word in spanish so I have spent many efforts closing them. it has helped me a lot to have friends living in spain with kids a little bit older than mine so I could ask them about the proper word but when they also do not know, I just simply translate it.
We have always read a lot in spanish but since they turned 4.5, we have started to read chapter books in Spanish. These books (for example we are reading now charlie and the chocolate factory) are too difficult for them to read by themselves but they are not for listening every day to a few chapters. They stop me maaaany times to ask what many words mean but to my surprise I see them using them like sabiduria a few days ago. Also the book reading gives a chance to talk about the chapters and what they think it will happen using those new words.
I also believe that the fact that they use spanish mostly when they play, helps them to develop further the language. I try to encourage that as much as possible, joining their games and asking them questions about them. For example today they were playing with two castles who were at war in dutch so I ask them “quien gana la guerra?”. This was a cue for a lot of spanish speaking about their play and funny enough, after they told me about what they were doing and i went back to make dinner, they continued playing in spanish.
Further when they started school, I visited the school everyday during 2 weeks and talked in the class about spain, spanish food, music….I also taught the kids to count to 10 and a simple song and explained them why I lived here and did not go back to spain. I think it did help them and the other kids to see that they speak other language as something normal (we live in a small community and there are only very few foreign people here).
The last thing I have seen in my friends is that you should try to keep your spanish as”pure” as posible if you want them to do so. If you also switch from one language to another, they find that normal and will do it. Of course, this is the normal way many families in US talk and I am absolutely not against it but if we do not want our kids to do it, we should also not do it. It is curious to notice that even when we do not speak conciously both languages to them, it could be that we start using less and less spanish without noticing. I have a friend from Venezuela who has two daughters of 8 and 5 who do not speak or understand much spanish. According to her I was lucky my kids were so talented because she talks always to her daughters always in spanish. One day we were at her place, I proposed to make an experiment and place a tape recorder in the living room. After an hour or so, we listened to it again and she was surprised that mostly she talked to the kids in dutch but then repeated it in spanish or first in spanish and then in dutch. It was for her very tough to see that their kids are just “off” while she talks spanish as they know that after a blablablablabla, dutch will come as when she stopped doing it their kids did not understand her and asked her to repeat ir in dutch.
I am very aware that this is a long time run and that maybe in the future things will change but until now, this way is working for us. Maybe it will be also useful for other people. Buena suerte