Over the weekend, my husband and I had a freelance television production gig and we got to meet a pretty neat Mexican family. The story they shared with us for the TV program we were working for has nothing to do with bilingualism, but I had to conduct all the interviews in Spanish and I must say I was very impressed by how well it was spoken by the children in the family. What surprised me the most is that both, the young man and woman, were born in the United States and have only been back to Mexico a handful of times.
The most amazing thing for me is that these young people were raised by a single mother who has spent the majority of her time working at least two jobs to ensure her children got the opportunities she never did. In other words, it’s not like she was home with them making sure they were exposed to the language on a regular basis. And yet, she managed to raise two bilingual kids who today, at 21 and 27 years old, are able to be interviewed on camera for a television program solely in Spanish!
It might not seem like a big deal to some, but in all my years as a journalist I’ve often found that the children of immigrants — particularly the working class — are more or less able to communicate with their Spanish-only speaking parents, but their vocabularies are limited and English is definitely their preferred language. But this was not the case with the Mexican family we met this weekend. The kids English was impeccable, but their Spanish was not far behind. There were no issues with verb conjugations — one of the easiest ways to botch the languages — and there were only two times that the young woman couldn’t remember the words she wanted to use in Spanish.
I was so happy about all that that after the interviews were done I congratulated both the kids and their mom and I asked her how she managed to do it. She said that there was never a question in her mind that — even though they were born here — her children wouldn’t speak her native language, Spanish. She didn’t know anything about methods to raise bilingual children nor the countless myths surrounding this topic, for her it was only natural — and logical — that her kids would speak Spanish at home and learn English in school.
Now, her 27-year-old son is married and thinking about having children. I was delighted when he told me he definitely wants to pass on the bilingualism gift to them. He said he plans on doing it by speaking to them only in Spanish, even if that means his monolingual wife won’t understand. Luckily, she’s all for it!
{Image via kate.gardiner}
Thank you for sharing this post. It is important to note that bilingualism is a natural phenomenon that develops with consistent and meaningful opportunities to hear and use each language. What worries me is seeing comments like “botch the languages.” When speaking of bilinguals, we must realize that what makes bilinguals bilingual is that they use two languages to varying extents for different purposes. This means that we should not expect them to have equal proficiency in both languages (this is a myth). Rather, we know that bilinguals develop certain abilities in each language (often based on their experiences), and that these abilities wax and wane throughout their life. So, for example, my knowledge of sports (and its accompanying vocabulary, typical sentence structure, etc.) was acquired primarily in English, therefore providing me with many ways to discuss topics such as innings, outs, throw-ins, tackles, free-throws, and penalty kicks. This is more difficult for me (although certainly not impossible) in Spanish. However, when I first began to teach third grade, I did so in a dual language school, and I taught the Spanish portion of the day. As such, I developed a strong vocabulary that was extremely useful in the classroom. Simply because I could not discuss the intricacies of the rules of overtime in soccer to a friend in Spain or my discipline structure in my classroom to a monolingual English speaker does not mean that I am not bilingual. Indeed, I am.
The two young adults you spoke with should be applauded for their bilingual facility, but please help spread the word that, just because they had to ask for help with one or two words, they are no less bilingual, and they certainly do not have anything to worry about! Nor do the parents of children who do not have equal vocabularies in each of their languages.
Hi Ryan! Thank you so much for your comment and congratulations on being bilingual! I completely understand where you’re coming from and I’m sorry if my sentence about botching the language offended you. It was not my intention at all. In fact, if you read correctly, you’ll see that I was not referring to the young woman’s vocabulary, but rather to her verb conjugation abilities because if you know anything about Spanish, you know conjugating verbs is extremely difficult.
On another note, I don’t agree that for a bilingual to say they have equal proficiency in both languages is a myth because I consider myself one of them. I was pretty much raised with both languages from a very early age and while I went to a dual language immersion school where English was the dominant language, I lived in a Spanish-dominant country. I have pretty much lived my entire life immersed in both languages and I make a living writing in both on a daily basis… something I wouldn’t be able to do successfully if I didn’t have equal proficiency of both.
In terms of the definition of bilingual, that’s a real tough one and one I’ve struggled with for the past several years. Put it this way, if I put on my resume that I’m bilingual and I get hired by an employer who’s looking for a bilingual writer but when asked to write an article in Spanish (or English) I’m not able to do it without making critical mistakes, (like conjugating verbs) then I wouldn’t be considered a bilingual writer.
Hola Roxana: Gracias por su respuesta. El caso es que sí, siendo experto del biinguismo, sé mucho del español y del desarrollo bilingue. Entiendo qué difícil es entender conjugaciones de verbos en español, pero usar los verbos de una manera académica y usarlos de una manera para comunicar son cosas distintas. Igual que el inglés, el español tiene algunos patrones que se pueden seguir mientras uno intenta conjugar verbos y, desde luego, también tiene muchas excepciones a las “reglas”. Siendo portavoz para los bilingues, es importante darse cuenta de que los que todavía están aprendiendo conjugar los verbos en manera académica son bilingues, o por lo menos bilingues emergentes. Como tal, es mito (éste es un hecho, no para debatir) que bilingues verdaderos tienen proficiencia igual en ambos idiomas. La animo leer dos libros que enseñan sobre el desarrollo del bilinguismo (en inglés): (1) Bilingual: Life and Reality por Francois Grosjean, and (2) Dual Language Development & Disorders por Johanne Paradis, Fred Genesee, y Martha B. Crago.
Las expectativas de que habla usted de un jefe que quiere que escriba igualmente en dos idiomas sólo muestra la falta de conocimiento que rodea este tema del desarrollo del bilinguismo. Si el señor (o la señora) se diera cuenta de que todos los bilingues no tienen las mismas habilidades en ambos idiomas, eso sería clave de su comprensión. Claro, el jefe puede mandar que usted aprenda las palabras equivalentes (y las conjugaciones de verbos, el sintáxis, etc.), pero esperar que usted ya las sepa no es realista.
Digo todo esto porque me doy cuenta de qué recurso tan maravilloso es este sitio Web–sobre todo y especialmente para los padres que les crian a sus hijos bilingues. Como tal, tenemos que invitarles y darles la bienvenida a más personas como miembros de nuestro “club bilingue”. Así fomentamos el aprendizaje y curiosidad de manera verdaderamente bilingue–usando los recursos linguísticos de ambos idiomas y no cada idioma aislado.
Si tiene cualquier pregunta, ¡me encantaría platicar más!
Thanks for the story. I wish, though, to know more on how she did it. My own experience is that it is very difficult, not so much for lack of willing from the parents, but from the children. In my case, I speak to my children in Spanish and force them to watch cartoons and movies in Spanish, but still they do not want (or know) to speak it.
From what she tells me, she did it by speaking to them ONLY in Spanish all of the time. I’m guessing she found a way to make sure her children understood that not speaking Spanish was not an option and by giving them reasons to do so, like being able to communicate with their grandmother back in Mexico.
Good luck and please don’t give up. My suggestion is that you keep speaking to them in Spanish and hopefully they’ll come around…
Wow – Very inspirational. I hope it’s not too late for my kids to reach that level of fluency. Every year that goes by and my kids fall further behind “grade level” in their spoken Spanish ability, I kick myself for not having absolutely insisted that Carlos speak to them in Spanish since infancy. My boys are learning and getting better every day, but the rate at which they’re learning Spanish just can’t keep up.
A month or two ago we went to an event where a Spanish-language TV station ended up interviewing us. Carlos obviously did great, I did pretty good (I would have made mistakes even in English because I was nervous), and then came the questions for our 10 year old. At home he understands everything I say in Spanish, but he just froze when this guy asked him questions in Spanish, and to my horror, he kept turning to me (I was off camera at this point), and saying in English, “What did he say? Can you just translate it?”
I felt so embarrassed because I had told the TV station people that he was bilingual when they asked me. I only felt marginally better to see that the children of other people they interviewed, (who had TWO native Spanish-speaking parents), didn’t do any better than my son.
Anyway – nothing I can do about it now but keep pushing them along and doing our best. Thanks for the story to kick me in the nalgas and remind me to keep going.
Thanks for sharing your story, Tracy! I’m not sure I knew that Carlos didn’t speak to them in Spanish from infancy. Why not? Did he not want to?
Either way, I don’t think it’s too late at all. Just keep at it and, as you already know, make sure their exposure to Spanish is as much fun as possible. Are you not doing Spanish Summer?
I would agree with your assessment of children of immigrants… sounds very much like my level of proficiency, anyway. Good for this Mom; she’s given her kids an unbelievable gift.
Thanks for finally talking about > Raising Bilingual Kids Against All Odds |SpanglishBaby™
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