Daily Blog

My mom just got back from a month-long trip to Perú, our homeland, and as soon as she landed, I wanted to know when she’d be over. Not only did I miss her and wanted for her to see her nietos (especially since my baby boy, Santiago, has changed so much in the past few weeks), but also because I knew she was coming back with a suitcase full of awesome goodies from back home. As soon as my momRead More ...

Prepare yourself to fall in love with Buzz Lightyear in a whole new way!  Toy Story 3 opens today and I can honestly tell you-because my daughter and I already got to preview it-that all the raves it´s already getting touting it as the best family movie this summer are completely merited. I will go one step further and call it the best movie made with our bilingual niños in mind! Why?  Well, because Disney-Pixar came up with the brilliantRead More ...

I have what could be considered a textbook American family on my dad’s side of the family:  one aunt and uncle, two cousins, a few great-aunts, great-uncles, and other more distant relatives I’ve gotten to know to one degree or another.  On my mother’s side:  seven aunts and uncles, more cousins than I can count, and I couldn’t keep track of my extended family without a seriously detailed family tree. People have tried to convince me that in Latin America,Read More ...

  There are certain words that are universal in meaning, no matter which language you speak. One of them is ‘Disney.’  Say ‘Disney’ or ‘Mickey Mouse’ to a child who speaks Spanish, German, Mandarin or any other language and her eyes will most likely light up. I know Camila has already developed a love for many things Disney, including fairies, the mouse and, now, Woody from Toy Story. She was ecstatic last week when we got invited to spend theRead More ...

It’s starting to happen. English is slowly creeping into our house. My almost four-year-old is consistently using more and more English. She never fully speaks solely in English to me, but whereas before she’d say an English word or two in a sentence, lately she’s been known to say full sentences. I know there’s nothing wrong with this and I was expecting this would start happening, but it seems like it’s happening a bit faster than I anticipated. I can’tRead More ...

The following post was originally published on September 18, 2009 under the title “How To Create a Perceived Need for the Minority Language.” My 18-year-old goddaughter, Veronika, was recently in town for the weekend and I noticed something pretty interesting that I’m still trying to figure out. Although she was raised bilingual by my (Peruvian) sister and her father, who is Cuban, (but moved to New York as a toddler and thus speaks more English than Spanish,) ever since IRead More ...

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 ...

My husband and I are raising our sons to be trilingual.  Using the OPOL method, I speak to the children in Spanish, and he speaks to them in German.  While our baby is still in the babbling stage, our two and a half year old is quite verbal, constantly commenting on what he sees and asking questions to learn more.  I am often told what a wonderful gift I am giving my children by speaking to them Spanish.  Our pediatrician,Read More ...