bilingualism

My very active 83-year-old aunt called me a few minutes ago to ask me to accompany her to one of her multiple events. She is from Ecuador and has been living in San Francisco for about 65 years, since she came to the U.S. for college. She got married with an Italian-American guy and had four children. Her children live around the Bay Area and except for one of them, who learned Spanish in college; they speak only a fewRead More ...

We did our very first Google+ Hangout yesterday and we’re super happy with the results. It felt great to just be able to hang out with a group of moms — including our expert — talking about a topic we’re so passionate about and that we’ve invested in so much. For our fist session of SpanglishBaby LIVE, we tackled the always popular subject of dual language immersion programs. And there was so much to talk about! From the many DLRead More ...

We moved into a new house last May. I was so excited since I knew that there were a lot of children in the neighborhood.  There were boys the same ages as my sons living on either side of us. I envisioned my children having many fun afternoons playing with the other children in the community. Unfortunately, my visions of our new life in the neighborhood never came about. Things started out well. The day that the moving truck officiallyRead More ...

The magic words “make them learn English” from The Economist — Immigration reform was huge this week and with that came talk of whether undocumented immigrants on their path to American citizenship should be required to learn English. As long as they’re not prohibited from speaking their native language, the author says, and I couldn’t agree more. “The solution to this apparent conundrum is very simple: bilingualism. It’s a healthy thing that Americans have historically been too suspicious of.” The U.S. needs toRead More ...

January is almost done, completely ushering in 2013. I love this time of year because it serves as a natural point of review and reflection. Sure, you can make goals and resolutions anytime of year. In fact, I encourage anyone to mediate on what is most important in their life, setting actionable steps to achieve those goals. But, January is just that time of year that gives everyone a chance. No excuses necessary. My identity continues to change and grow,Read More ...