Daily Blog

I’m going home. Finally. It’s been three years since I was there last. It feels like a lot longer. The trip takes pretty much the whole day since there are no non-stops flights from Denver to Lima. Still, I can’t wait for the smell of my beloved Pacific Ocean to hit me as soon as we clear customs and the airport’s doors open to the outside world. I can’t wait to be embraced by my loving family who will undoubtedlyRead More ...

Given that workplace compensation for bilingualism is becoming more and more scarce in the U.S., I am grateful that I can reap the benefits of my Spanish skills as a self-employed tutor. While I do not get paid more per hour for being bilingual, I often book Spanish-speaking clients, whose business I would otherwise lose due to an inability to communicate. In Orlando (where I live) and all over Florida, there is a particularly great need for ways to bridgeRead More ...

In the past couple of weeks there have been two studies released related to Latina mamás which have been of particular interest to us here at SpanglishBaby for the insights they’ve revealed related to how ingrained our culture is in our daily lives regardless of our acculturation level. Just this past Monday, BabyCenter released The Hispanic Moms Acculturation Study, which is part of their larger 21st Century Mom Insight Series. The study interviewed 2,479 Hispanic moms — from recent immigrants toRead More ...

A mom needs all the help she can get to get her preschooler to brush her teeth. Music and songs always drive the message home with my girl, so this animated video from Kids Concept has been fun and motivating to get her to brush, brush, brush those dientes! httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmhF_u-kReM&feature=channel Do you have a favorite video, song or book to get your kids excited about brushing their teeth? W2DU658K5373 ...

I’ve always been a sucker for old photographs, letters, diaries, lists — anything that will somehow give me an insight into my and my family’s past. My parents were pretty good about saving stuff like that in an old wooden trunk which has seen better days and is currently in my sister’s possesion. So I was absolutely ecstatic when just a few days ago my mom handed me a small brown envelope with something I’d never seen before — orRead More ...

Who gets to be trilingual? The situation always seems to present itself as such: one parent speaks one minority language and the other parent another minority language and they live somewhere, where the majority language is spoken. What about those parents who are monolingual? What about parents who are both what they call heritage speakers of a minority language, like myself? What about parents who would LOVE for their children to speak more than one language, but can’t afford toRead More ...

I finally filled out and turned in all the registration forms required for my daughter to enter Kindergarten this fall. After getting over the fact that she’s about to reach this humongous milestone, I also had to come to terms with the fact that she won’t be going to a dual language school — at least not for now. I can’t lie. It was an extremely difficult decision to make, but at this time in our lives, I’m confident it’sRead More ...

When thinking about Spanglish, I usually think about the words we use day-to-day.  Phrases like “Want your agua?” pass through my lips all the time. I keep trying to remind myself to speak en Espanol, not in English, but lots of the time what comes out is our familiar old friend, Spanglish.  Something I’ve only recently started to think about is the body language that accompanies my Spanish-speaking Latinidad and my English speaking American identity.  They are very different, andRead More ...