Roxana is a bilingual and bicultural mamá to Vanessa, an inquisitive first grader, and her always on-the-go little brother, Santiago – both of whom are growing up between two worlds and in two languages. A long-time journalist, Roxana is in charge of all editorial content on SpanglishBaby.
http://spanglishbaby.com
Twitter: @roxanaSB
Posted by: Roxana A. Soto | 20 Comments
I used to be pretty harsh on myself if I couldn’t finish a sentence without going back and forth between English and Spanish when speaking with other bilinguals, an action commonly known as code-switching among linguists. Like many bilinguals and monolinguals alike, I simply believed this was wrong. I thought it meant I wasn’t really proficient in either language—even when I knew this not to be the case—or that I was simply forgetting my Spanish. I was wrong! In theRead More ...
Posted by: Roxana A. Soto | 4 Comments
After almost 18 months nurturing SpanglishBaby into the incredible useful online resource for those raising bilingual and bicultural children it has become thanks to all our readers, I tend to think that everyone knows about the myths and misconceptions associated with bilingualism (or multilingualism). I guess after such a long time reading, researching and learning about the benefits of bilingualism, it’s easy to forget that not everybody is aware of them. So I was bit surprised last week when IRead More ...
Posted by: Roxana A. Soto | 27 Comments
May is almost over, but we still have a few days left to celebrate Latino Books Month! And, in honor of this celebration, we wanted to give all you mamis (and papis) a chance to win a set of books from Hachette Book Group. Con el verano right around the corner, it’s always a great idea to have a few good reads for those lazy summer afternoon en la hamaca, right? So go ahead and check these out! There’s aRead More ...
Posted by: Roxana A. Soto | 12 Comments
As soon as the plane landed in Miami last Wednesday, I called my niece who was waiting for us at the airport and asked if she could takes us directly to Pollo Tropical so I could get my fix of Caribbean fast food. She thought I was kidding because, as they say, you don’t know what you have until you lose it. But I wasn’t. When my husband and I left Miami for the Rocky Mountains four years ago, weRead More ...
Posted by: Roxana A. Soto | 4 Comments
My daughter, Vanessa, is always curious about what languages other people speak. I didn’t teach her that. Neither do I go around introducing people to her by announcing they speak English, Spanish or both. Yet, it’s pretty usual for her to want to know. Once she finds out, she likes to make all aware that she speaks tres: español, inglés y francés—which she doesn’t, but I love that she thinks that way. The little French I’ve exposed her to, hasRead More ...
Posted by: Roxana A. Soto | 16 Comments
“Mami todavía no vamos a ir a home porque estamos buscando un treasure.” This is what my almost 4-year-old said to me last week as we were heading back from our regular afternoon stroll to the duck pond by our house. I was floored. I know this is totally normal in the journey of those becoming bilingual. I’ve researched and read enough to know there’s nothing to worry about, but I can’t deny I was pretty surprised. I mean, I’veRead More ...