Comments on: You Are Experts, too: My Language Dilemma

By: Beth Ortuño

Beth Ortuño — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:21:07 +0000

Hi Roxana!
I grew up with the traditional American system of zero exposure to other languages until high school. Despite this I had a relatively easy time becoming conversant with German, French, Portuguese and even took college-level Russian. I started learning Spanish only around age 30 but have become very fluent. I’m telling you all this because I’ve tried learning both Japanese and Mandarin Chinese but in both cases quit. Why? It was ridiculously difficult for me. It’s just really, really different. My concepts of subject and object, adjective and adverb that had always served me so well became real obstacles. The problem was my WAY OF THINKING. If you have a chance to get your baby involved with a non-European language at a young age, please do it!
Literacy in reading and writing Spanish is important. All you have to do is make it reasonably fun for both of you, not a chore. It may be easier than you think. Using familiarity with French and Portuguese as a springboard, I taught myself Spanish with a dictionary, a book of verb conjugations, and anybody I could find to correct sentences I’d written out in a notebook I carried around: Dominican busboys at the hotel where I was a waitress, Puerto Ricans in internet chat rooms about music, a Mexican lady on the bus stop, anyone. My point is that it doesn’t have to be something separate from “life”. You can work it in.
As my little son gets older I plan to try reading works of literature in Spanish together with him and then we can both write something brief about them for each other. This will fill a hole in my education too! My idea is for him to pick out most of what we read. Maybe he can write letters to a relative in formal style, letters to the editor, musicians, pro wrestlers, whatever. We could also research information about something that interests him and write up a little description of it for his grandparents. I’m sure we’ll come up with other ideas. I think it’s kind of like exercising or eating right… be creative and keep trying until you find something that fits into your life.
My grown daughter tells me she appreciates that I made a point of taking her to church, science museums, cultural festivals and concerts, and the times she had to write proper thank you notes for gifts, or write a well-structured apology to someone. I didn’t drag her through anything really wretched but there were many times she rolled her eyes and would rather have been watching tv! Yet looking back on it these times were not just educational but also brought us closer together.

By: Marisa

Marisa — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:25:15 +0000

Hi,

I’m coming at this months later, and you may have already made your decision; I just wanted to add my $.02 before reading all the advice that I’m sure is excellent.

Simple view: I recommend the dual immersion in Spanish.

Now for the long-winded why of that.

In the end, immersion since KG helped not only my Spanish but English, which was my home tongue at the time. I was in dual immersion in this city from KG through 9th grade, then switched to a college prep school. Unless you are prepared to be super hard-core, providing both adult-child and peer-level interaction in Spanish, as well as academic reinforcement in all subject areas, dual immersion is the way to go. Ours was a half-day program through 5th grade; by 6th grade we were tracked and could spend the entire day in Spanish (as in: Soc. Studies, Science, Math, and Spanish Language) except for staate-mandated classes. The grammar reinforcement we got over those content areas, as well as the widened vocabulary, were superb. In fact, I took exactly one college-level course in Spanish my first year of college… then went on to live in a Spanish-speaking country with no problem. All those years of immersion helped build my language in all areas.

The alternate to teach her yourself isn’t a bad idea, but you’ve got to stick with it, through teenaged and child-aged rebellions, plus the tedium of coming up with a curriculum, plus (again) finding a peer and leisure environment that is just as tolerant of the language difference as you are. It can be done but both parent-teacher and child have to be willing to go through it, or it’ll make your life harder.

That’s my two cents… now, off to read the much more reasoned and researched arguments (I hope) above.

By: Language Summer Camps

Language Summer Camps — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:37:06 +0000

[...] I wanted to share with you that even though we – all of you and I – have gone back and forth (in this post) about whether or not it’d be a good idea for me to send Vanessa to a dual language program [...]

By: Language Summer Camps

Language Summer Camps — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:37:06 +0000

By: Unapologetic Polyglot

Unapologetic Polyglot — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:23:12 +0000

Are there any Spanish/English/third language three-way immersion programs in the area, where students learn three languages? If not, maybe you can get one started. The model is called an 80/10/10 model. It's the best of all worlds-they can learn Spanish, English and a third language. Other than that, my personal opinion is that we think that the children here in the United States will become bilingual, but English becomes dominant. Unless you have the commitment to strictly adhere to a "Spanish only at home" type of policy, she may be at risk of becoming more dominant in English. Research shows that this even happens with students who are native Spanish-speakers, are immersed in Dual Immersion programs...and then lo and behold they get into fourth grade and they only want to speak English. Unapologetic Polyglot’s last blog post..Thank Goodness for Alternative Discourse

By: Dariela

Dariela — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:57:02 +0000

I just wanted to say thanks for posting this cause it made me think about it. I wasn't even considering this, I mean I wasn't looking into the future of my child so much but I realize now that this is something I will definitely want to consider for him. I want him to be biliterate, I don't think I could teach him though, I want him to be in a school that teaches him, thanks again! Dariela’s last blog post..Black & White

By: Roxana

Roxana — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:32:04 +0000

I’m so happy I decided to write this entry because all these comments were exactly what I was trying to elicit. I’m glad I have some time to figure this out, because the truth is you’ve all brought up some valid points and I have started to see this whole issue under a different light.

I particularly appreciate the comments from those who were raised the way I’m raising Vanessa (Ines and Kalen’s husband) because they’ve actually been through it. Again, I still have some time, but I will definitely keep you all posted as to our decision.

Ines, qué risa, no me acordaba para nada de lo que dices, ja, ja!! Y, si, qué bueno que no me hiciste caso!!! By the way, I don’t think you need to apologize fro being too blunt, like you say, because we truly appreciate passionate comments. We are passionate about this whole subject matter, hence the creation of SpanglishBaby!!

By: Ines

Ines — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:25:01 +0000

Thanks for the clarification! But… I still feel the same. Rock solid Spanish learned at school and reinforced at home is much better than trying to be trilingual with the possibility that your daughter will not be fully fluent in Spanish nor the third language. I, like your daughter, was raised by native Spanish speakers and I still feel that I lack much of the technical Spanish that you can only truly learn by being schooled in the language in question or by living abroad. Your daughter can always take an elective third language (which is what I did). I started with French. After 4 years and against your advice I switched to Portuguese. Good thing I didn’t listen to you because I ended up marrying a Brazilian!

BTW, I’ve noticed that many people are diplomatic when they post (as they should be!). Let me apologize in advance if I am too blunt with my opinions. I really do try to “soften” them up… but I have very strong opinions on the matter and sometimes can’t help myself!

By: Kalen

Kalen — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:30:28 +0000

I have to say that teaching someone to read and write in Spanish is really difficult. My husband and his sisters are totally bilingual. They spoke only Spanish at home until they started school and started learning English. However when it comes to reading and writing my husband admits he wishes he was bi-literate. He has expressed interest in learning Portuguese but would prefer to actually learn his own birth language and be able to read and write as he does in Spanish. As you know, there is so much more vocabulary exposure from reading books than just from speaking and hearing. Since its already a concern for many people that Spanish could become a chore at home since most of what’s heard outside of the house is English.. I think trying to teach all about reading and writing at home would become a difficult task.

On the other hand, I am concerned that some of the schools that offer dual language programs are not necessarily what they claim. A friend of mine put her daughter in a Spanish/English dual program and says they only had one teacher who would speak all in Spanish to the Spanish speaking kids and then only in English to the English speaking kids. So instead of coming out ahead and knowing both languages, the whole class was falling behind because the teacher was taking twice as much time to teach what a normal teacher would. I hope to find a dual language program for my daughter because she is not learning as much Spanish as I would like at home but I hope to find on that won’t leave my daughter behind on her normal education.

Good luck!

By: Sisi Martinez -Purfield

Sisi Martinez -Purfield — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:37:33 +0000

Gotcha. Hey when the kids are a little older we can start a children’s spanish book club, where they read and discuss books and do fun projects.