english

Since we have moved our daughter from a Spanish immersion daycare to one where English is spoken 100% of the time, we have noticed a few interesting things happening. We have noticed that she will try using English phrases, like “get a diaper, please” in response to our Spanish request, “Agarra un pañal, por favor.” In fact, she frequently uses the following phrase, “No, mami es… I’m sorry” in response to my “lo siento.” This kind of dialogue extends toRead More ...

In Costa Rica, I was always known as gringa or macha (Costa Rican speak for blonde), and my very American-sounding name was mangled every which way when I was growing up. Then I moved to the U.S., and my name was suddenly easily pronounceable, and blending in was much, much easier. I loved it. I don’t like drawing attention to myself — I can be shy, I’m not a natural-born storyteller at all, and although as an interpreter I oftenRead More ...

  Planned Bilingualism: Five Questions to Consider by François Grosjean from Psychology Today — Another useful article from Prof. Grosjean perfect for those just about to embark in the journey of raising a bilingual child. Surge in immersion programs spreads from the Star Tribune — In Minnesota, the number of dual language immersion programs has doubled since 2006 with a total of 85 at the elementary and middle school level, with some programs even in high school. Reading stories like this one is likeRead More ...

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 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 ...