Editor´s note: The following is a guest post and vlog by Carrie Ferguson Weir. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=164On78dVlU My girl’s first words were in Spanish. And, I was so proud. Here I was in Tennessee, with no Spanish-speaking relatives nearby and my little baby was hablando español. And then she turned 3 y “I don’t speak Spanish!’’ became her battle cry. (This, despite attending a Spanish immersion pre-school.) Maria is nearly 7 now and she understands everything I say in Spanish, her accentRead More ...
Sneaky Spanish Lessons
What is the ‘Critical Period’ for language learning?
Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on this blog in November 2009. I was recently talking to somebody of Hispanic descent who wasn’t taught Spanish at home, but learned it later on in life. She vowed she wouldn’t follow her parents’ footsteps, but ended up doing exactly the same thing with her kids who are now elementary school-aged. “And, now it’s too late!” she lamented. I immediately reassured her that it’s never too late – that’s just a common myth.Read More ...
Learning Language Through Play
I never thought it would happen to me, but it did. The societal pressure to put my children on the achievement treadmill started to influence some of my parenting decisions. All parents want to give their children experiences to help them grow into successful adults, but sometimes we go overboard. Children today often have schedules crammed full of sports’ practices, dances classes, education enrichment programs, art classes and even programs teaching them reading and math. Like any good parent, IRead More ...
Of Words and Meanings…
The other night, my husband and I were having a pretty “heated” discussion about the right Spanish word for earring. Pretty lame, huh? But I’ve always had a fascination with words – it’s not for nothing that I chose journalism as a career path – in both English and Spanish. Anyhow, for my husband, who hails from Puerto Rico, an earring is una pantalla. To me, una pantalla means a screen or lampshade. So there we were right before bedtimeRead More ...
Palabras: Excess and Absence
I have always been somewhat anal about language – grammar and the like. I think if someone had told me when I was a kid (before I became bilingual) that the nouns I used were interchangeable with others that I had never heard before, I would’ve been…well, perturbed. This is why I am completely floored by my son’s ability to latch onto 2, 3, 4, or more nouns for every thing in his world. Isaiah doesn’t just move fluidly betweenRead More ...
Video of the Week: Dos y Dos
Here it is. A bilingual show for our niños with a live cast that sings, plays, dances and educates in Spanish and English: Dos y Dos. I found out about them over a year ago but had not been able to watch the show. I finally got my hands on a DVD and put it to the test with my daughter. I have to admit that she was not immediately drawn to the DVD cover since it features the fourRead More ...
5 Ways to Respond When Your Child Mixes Languages
This week my daughter and I met up with a Spanish-speaking amiga and her 3 and a half year old son. Camila and him have a preschool, platonic-love relationship and are always looking forward to their play dates. While at the park, my friend mentioned that the only other kid her son interacted with in Spanish is my daughter. I thought that was a little odd since my daughter is still at a stage where she is sorting out bothRead More ...
The End of a Pregnancy, The Beginning of a Trilingual Life?
The first time I set foot outside of the U.S. I was 21 and, quite honestly, it had never occurred to me to visit a foreign country. A friend of mine invited my sister and I to go to Guadalajara, Mexico with a group of students who were going as part of a class. Guadalajara happened to be where my maternal abuelita is from. Since then, I have made it a point to travel every summer to a different country.Read More ...
