Photo by me
Last year, after my daughter Vanessa turned two, I enrolled her in a Parent’s Day Out (PDO) program at our local church. She goes once a week for 4 hours and seems to get a kick out of it. During orientation, we made sure her teachers were aware that, up to that point in her life, she had been exposed only to Spanish with very few exceptions here and there–we live in Colorado, after all. The first day of the program, again I reminded her teachers that although she probably would understand their instructions because of their simplicity, she only knew to communicate in Spanish. They told me not to worry, that everything would be fine. But like any “normal” mother, worry I did. A lot. I mean, I knew nothing bad would happen, but I wondered how in the world she would communicate her needs to her two teachers…
When I went to pick her up after that first day, I was relieved to find her smiling, wanting to tell me all about her day. I approached one of her teachers and asked how she had done. I was told she was an angel, but a very quiet angel. “She didn’t say a word,” Ms. P told me. I was fine with that because I knew from her demeanor that she’d had a good day. However, I wished her teachers spoke Spanish so they could be as amazed as I was at her extensive vocabulary–in Spanish. At 25 months, Vanessa said a lot more words–and I mean a lot–than most kids her age. In the end, I guess I just continued worrying about her ability to be understood.
As time went by, I noticed that she had picked up a few phrases in English–even though she only attends the PDO program four hours a week. She’d come home and say things like “he ya go,” “am soyee” and “am okay.” The crazy thing was that she would say these phrases at the appropriate times. When handing me a toy, throwing her cup or after tripping and almost falling, for example. My husband and I found it amusing, but more than anything, amazing to realize that she understood the actual meaning of each phrase. My worries about her abilities to communicate with her teachers started to dissipate, albeit just a bit. On occasion, I would still ask her teachers how she was getting along in respect to the language and they would say: “She doesn’t say much, but she seems to understand everything we tell her.”
Photo by sknaB noIA
So on we went, until one day recently, a crazy thing happened. A crazy thing–that I still can’t believe–happened! Check it out:
It was kind of late–which translates to: I was very tired–and we were finishing having dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant. Vanessa was sitting in her high chair playing with some fortune cookies, minding her own business. My husband paid the bill and for some unknown reason gave me the pen the waitress had brought for him to sign the check. Without really thinking too much about it, I said to him: “That’s not mine.” In English. Just like that. Vanessa looked at me and said: “Mami, ¿eso no e tuyo“? To which I responded, completely oblivious to what had just happened: “No, Vane, eso no es mio.” Immediately after both my husband’s and my jaw dropped to the floor. What had just happened? Had she translated my sentence word-by-word? Yes, she had!
When did she start doing this? How did this happen? How did she know? Who told her? So many questions, none of which could be answered. Maybe it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but to us, it was a HUGE deal. For us, it meant that Vanessa is really on her way to being bilingual, that she gets it and maybe it also means that we’ve been doing the right thing! It’s nice to get some reassurance once in a while, don’t you think?
I still smile when I think about it! I’m sure she probably thought I was crazy to make such a big deal out of it, but I believe in celebrating her each and every chance I get 
Have your kids done things like this that make you feel you’re right on track? Do you have a story of a small triumph like this one you can share with the rest of us?
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That was a great story!
Okay, here’s mine. During supper one night I was trying to tell my husband that I had bought a mousetrap at the store. I was telling him in Spanish as not to alarm the boys that we might have a mouse in the house. I don’t know why I was doing this since he only understands a little bit. What happened? Well, my husband just kind of looked at me with a blank stare while my 7-year old interpreted what I had just said into English. LOL!
Karen’s last blog post..Web site: Online Free Spanish
Hi Roxana:
I´m enjoying the blog a lot! It´s really amazing what Vanessa can do! Children can actually understand there are two ways (or sometimes more) to say things. They “know” instinctively that there are 2 names for each thing. When they start being exposed to the second language of course. And there is no confusion in their minds.
I usually tell my English language students to be “exposed” to the language as much as possible, listening to music, the news, speeches or whatever, even if they don´t understand a single word. This will “prepare the ear” i.e. make them get used to the
sound and tone of it, which is the first thing that a human being understands before learning how to speak.
By the way Vanessa looks very pretty in the picture. Congrats.
I love it! Isn’t it amazing how intelligent our children are!
My story is that we go to Music Together classes, which we love, and one time one of the songs was an American Lullaby called “All the Pretty Little Horses”. One day, my daughter, who is three, starts singing the tune. I think, “aw, how nice. I love that song too.” Then I realize that she is singing it in Spanish!!! How cool is that!? She is translating it as she sings from the English to the Spanish! I am soo proud.
Her translating is happenning more and more as she gets older, but I have noticed that her younger brother (21 months) is also doing it. If I were a good mom I would have paid attention and written down when he actually started translating. Oh well.
Roxana, I love reading your site, your story reminded me when my niece started to attend daycare at the age of two. Like Vanesa she had only been exposed to Spanish and the daycare she attended did not have any bilingual person in staff. The first day of daycare around noon they called my sister in law because the whole day Camila has said “Leche” repeatedly since she arrived that morning and they couldn’t figured out what she wanted. My sister told she wanted milk and sure enough after they gave her milk she stopped asking for “Leche”. In fact for the next month or so that was the only thing Camila would say at the care so her nickname became little “Leche”.
Thanks to all for sharing all your stories. I love finding out what everybody’s going through… Keep them comin’
Cute story! I wish I could pick up new languages as easily as children do. And what a sweet picture of Vanessa
This is such an encouraging story. My daughter is about to turn 20 months and my husband and I speak only Spanish to her. She’s not in daycare and spends all her time with us so we sometimes wonder if we are making it more difficult for her to pick up English later on. She speaks and understands more Spanish than English but reading your story supports our core belief that we’re on the right path. I love your blog and can’t wait to read more!
Carla (MamaHeartsBaby)’s last blog post..Monday Momisms
Hi Roxana, so here is my story, this just happened to me over the weekend. We were going to the drum circle near our house and my daughter was talking in Spanish and she said “teno cito” so my husband and I reply to,” ah tienes tu osito? and she said no “teno cito” and we said ah tienes tu lacito” which she was wearing, and after two fail communication she said no, “five” and we said ahhh “cinco”
I was in absolute awe, how we couldn’t understand and she resorted to her other language to communicate that she had five of something.
Amazing!
Hola, Marianna:
That’s awesome! Congrats and thank you so much for sharing! I just loved your story. It is truly amazing what children are capable of doing. Yo me quedo con la boca abierta todos los días!
Okay, this is my first time to this site, but I’m sooo happy to find this community. Me and my husband both speak English as a first language and I do “okay” in Spanish, but our son’s caregiver speaks only Spanish and I speak to him in Spanish and he goes to a Spanish immersion pre-K. Okay, my story…so my son pretty much up to this point only spoke in Spanish so I actually got a little worried about his English, but everyone said “don’t worry he’ll learn” and stick to Spanish. Well I had a friend visiting who only speaks English and during our morning routine my son plays with Play-Do that he puts out on his table. However, he does not want anyone touching his Play-do and is VERY serious about it. My friend being new and not speaking Spanish did not know this and I apparently forgot to tell her. Well, he looked at her very intensely as if to say “she speaks only english” and said “DON’T TOUCH DIS” I fell out! I didn’t even know he knew that much english!!! Similar to your title…I can’t beleive it really works!
I really enjoyed these stories! My son is 20 months old and lately I’ve been getting the idea although he doesn’t talk much, he’s understanding everything in both languages equally well. After reading these stories I’m convinced it’s possible!
My jaw dropped open reading this! LOL. I know this happened a long time ago but WOW, that is just so awesome. The brains of bilingual children are so amazing.
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