Courtesy of Donna Pham

Students from seventh through twelfth grade at the school where I teach are interested in comics. Actually, I have recently learned that the correct term for these books is graphic novels. I see them reading during lunch, on the school bus, and sometimes they even try to sneak reading them during class. I love when I see the kids so excited to read.

Learning Spanish can be challenging and tedious for teenagers. Older students often have to struggle to acquire the language. As a teacher, I have always tried to tap into my students’ interests in order to make learning fun. The comics that they so love to read were perfect for the Spanish classroom.

I started by introducing my students to the iconic Malfalda character from Argentina and found other comics on-line that were easy to understand due to the illustrations that accompany the dialogue. I wanted to give the students the opportunity to not just read comics in Spanish, but encouraged their creativity by having them write and illustrate their own works.

The library technician at our school, Tommy Kovac, is a talented and published graphic novelist. He has experience both in writing and illustrating some amazing stories. His graphic novel “Wonderland” was published by Disney and selected by the American Library Association’s “Great Graphic Novels For Teens” list. Tommy took the time to teach my students about the creative process of writing and drawing graphic novels. The students were enthralled and intrigued to learn the process involved with writing and illustrating in one their favorite genres.

Courtesy of Janet Doan

I assigned a project that had the kids take what they learned to create their own comics in Spanish. They were enthusiastic and eager to get started, and spent the next couple of days in class working. The work that the students produced was absolutely incredible! My efforts to teach Spanish benefit enormously when I take a creative and artistic approach for engaging the learners.

So much that I do in the classroom interests my own bilingual children. The activities that we do in class, the books that we read or the songs that we sing can all be adapted to further the linguistic abilities of my own bilingual children. My young sons loved looking at and having me read them the projects of my students. They too were inspired to create their own stories, draw their own characters and tell me their tales in Spanish.

Sometimes tapping into our children’s creative and artistic natures fosters learning and imagination beyond our expectations. Introduce your children to comics in Spanish, encourage them to write their own, and wait to be amazed by the results.

Handy Manny was the first to render me speechless. My twins were toddlers, and my mother-in-law had given them a Handy Manny tool box for Christmas. Awesome gift, hours of play time ensured. We ripped it open, started in with all of Manny’s tools, his martillo, his…his…. A whole set of toys were splayed before me and I didn’t know the Spanish word for any of them. El serrucho y el destornillador - somehow those words never made it into the Spanish classes I’d taken since I started learning the language in seventh grade.

Vocab lists for the countless types of trucks and tractors in this world? They didn’t exist either. I realized that over the years I’d gathered an extensive knowledge of Spanish, yet I was missing the vocabulary of childhood. As we began to read more books, explore more imaginary worlds, I needed a virtual dictionary or at least my husband, a native Spanish speaker, nearby to pinch hit. With time, though, my vocabulary blossomed, and each new word gave me that sense of discovery kids have when they learn something new. I played with each word as it rolled off my tongue, and tried to figure out how to weave my new expressions into more conversations and stories. Soon we were flying a cohete to the moon,

 fighting Capitan Garfio with the help of Campanita,

and learning about the licks and love of a newborn cachorrito. As my littlest learned to neigh and growl, screech, squawk and hiss, so did I.

When we first decided to raise our kids bilingual, I lamented that I’d never get to use the witty English-language sayings parents use to keep their kids in line – stored up over more than three decades of listening to my and other moms. I still have a hard time with the fact that some of my favorite children’s books aren’t translated into Spanish.

I try not to sweat it though. Truth is, I wouldn’t trade my new words for the world.

{first photo by Loren Javier , photo of puppy by  justmakeit }

When my familia decided to take a last-minute trip to the beach, I had to act fast and create a learning unit about the Oceano for my daughter Sofía.  I didn’t have as much time as normal for the planning, so instead of making my own actividades as I usually do, I turned to the internet to pull from resources already available.  Even if you have already past your Oceano Unit, these resources have mucho más to offer than just maritime themes.  Since we only speak in Español in my casa, all our actividades are monolingual, but you can easily use a text box to add words in Inglés to the documents to make them bilingual.

The first thing I did in planning my unit is to create a list of words that I wanted to center everything around so that I would provide consistency and a spiral repetition throughout the unit.  (Laymen’s terms, I wanted Sofía to see the same vocabulary repeated in all her actividades and not introduce the word mermaid on day 1 only to never see it again later.) Once a vocabulary list is established, it makes creating the actividades much easier and provides direction.  Here is my list of vocabulary words for our Oceano Unit.  I’ve included their meanings in Inglés as well.

Actividades

1.  Fotos of Animales. We used the first actividad as an introduction to the entire unit.  Over breakfast one morning, we talked about our upcoming trip to the beach.  I asked Sofía what kinds of animales she thought she would see at the beach (or that lived in the oceano).  As she gave me the names of the animales, I conducted a Google image search of them and pulled up real fotos so that she could see various pictures of the real animal.  Ahead of time, I had created a slideshow of these images to use as a summary tool at the end of breakfast.  Note that although maybe Sofía brainstormed an animal that wasn’t on my list, I still showed her a foto of that animal.  Then I was able to make a decision if it was an animal that I wanted to include in our list of vocabulary or not.

2.  Sorting and Categorizing Objects. For the second actividad, I gave Sofía a plastic basket and we combed through all her toys and belongings for objects that had to do with the oceano. When we pulled out her basket of stuffed animales for example, we made two piles, one for those animales that could be found in the oceano and one for those that could not.

3.  Animal Alphabet Coloring Pages.  The third actividad helps strengthen phonemic awareness and prewriting /prereading skills.  Ahead of time, I had printed out Animal Alphabet coloring pages for each of our vocabulary words.  Sofía and I talked about the animal and the beginning letter.  Then she colored the animal and traced the letter.  Here is the link of the index for letters and their actividades in Español available from Primera-Escuela.   Since not all the animales on our vocabulary list were available from Primera-Escuela, I ended up creating a few of my own animal letters by using sites like:  Hellokids.com and Fun-with-Pictures.com. All are included in the document linked above.

4.  Crab Craft.  We printed out this template from First-School, the Inglés site of Primera-Escuela.  We printed it in color then cut and pasted it together.

5.  Carrera de Observación and Collage. The fifth actividad is somewhat of a Carrera de Observación (Scavenger Hunt).  I used the Seashore Collage actividad from First-School and tweaked it a bit.  Instead of using their oceano shells template, I made and printed my own in color (to cover all the target vocabulary words) and hid them around the living room.  Sofía searched for all the animales del oceano.  She liked it so much that she asked me to do it several times! Later we glued all the animales to the “seashore” which I made by gluing sandpaper and blue construction paper to a half piece of poster board.

6. Online Book: Finbo.   The International Children’s Digital Library is amazing!  You really need to check it out for yourselves!  We found a book about a young whale and had lots of fun reading it over and over again on the computer.

7.  Book:  Debajo del Mar.  Enchanted Learning has a plethora of resources in foreign languages as well as in Inglés.  I particularly like their picture vocabulary sheets and little books.  We printed out the book, Debajo del Mar (Full version is available to members).  Sofía colored it and then I highlighted the beginning letter of each animal word and gave her sticky foam letters to match to each letter.

8.  Fish Bowl Craft: There is an entire lesson plan written up for this actividad.  We basically just printed out the black and white outline of the Fish Bowl Craft and used a color-by-number approach.  The lesson plan offers many optional actividades.

9.  Clay Fish:  We printed out a fish picture from Allcoloring.com and used acrcilla (clay) to color it.

10.  Video:  Lola Aventuras: Un Animal Muy Grande.  As I’m sure you already know, YouTube offers great resources in many languages.   This Plaza Sésamo short video, available on the Plaza Sésamo YouTube channel, is about whales and was a huge hit with my daughter.

I’m sure that once you put your thinking caps on to Oceano Over-Drive, you will be able to come up with a potpourri of small filler “doings” to enhance your study of the Oceano also.  Here are few to get you started!

• Have a fish-themed lunch!  Eat fish sticks, cheddar goldfish, and fish gummies.
• Use fish-themed plates.
• Read various oceano-themed stores that you might have around the house or find in the library.
• Do an oceano-themed puzzle together.
• Put on a mini-play with the some of the marine animales that you found around the house.
• Declare a certain day of the week for everyone to wear a piece of clothing with an oceano theme!

And most importantly, plan some special familia time together—of course at the beach if you can!

Have any actividades to add?  We would love for you to share them!

Special thanks to Elizabeth for providing this activity. Visit her site, La Mother Tongue, for more activities for parents raising bilingual children.

Part of my plan for raising bilingual children has always included teaching them how to read and write in Spanish. I find it very discouraging that so few elementary schools offer foreign language education. It is shocking considering all of the recent studies that demonstrate the cognitive benefits of being bilingual. To make up for this shortfall in the public education system, my sons will have Spanish classes with me at home. I am doing some part time home schooling to make up for this major deficit in their education.

While I am a Spanish teacher, I was trained and credentialed for the high school level. Teaching my children how to read and write in Spanish has required me to learn some new methods and strategies. I was not in any hurry to teach my son how to read, but rather followed my child’s lead. When he started to ask me what signs said and began to sound out words on his own, I knew he was both interested and ready to learn.

During our family trip to Peru last year, our children attended a pre-school part time, and I was able to stay and observe the classes. I wanted to learn the most effective strategies for teaching Spanish literacy skills. The teachers at the pre-school were wonderful at explaining the process and different activities used to teach reading. The method used throughout Peru, and in many other Spanish speaking countries, is known as the Coquito method. Created in 1955 by teacher Everardo Zapata Santillana, this method follows the syllabic structure of Spanish. The system is phonetic with children learning different phonemes and then how to string syllables together to form words and later sentences.  It is a logical method for teaching the Spanish language. Mr. Zapata Santillana explains “El espanol se aprende en solo dos meses porque se lee como está escrito y se escribe como se escucha.”  (“Spanish can be learned in only two months because it is read as it is written, and it is written as it is heard.”)

I had planned to stock up on books and materials for teaching my children prior to visiting Peru and visited the Coquito store.  Much to my surprise Mr. Everardo Zapata passed through the store on the way to his office.  I was amazed!  Even though he is now in his eighties, he still goes to work everyday improving upon Coquito and its teaching materials.  I made an appointment to return the next day and was thrilled to be able to actually meet the man who created this wonderful method that has helped generations of children learn how to read.  He was very kind and welcoming, explaining how to use the books that we purchased and even giving me books to bring back to the United States.

Now that I have been using the Coquito books and posters with my son, I am amazed at how easy it is to teach him Spanish using this process. My son loves to learn and actually calls our reading sessions “playing Coquito.” It is so easy for him to sound out words and string together sentences. The whole teaching and learning process has been a rewarding and fun experience, and I am fortunate to have discovered one of the best methods to help him achieve success.

*I am not an expert on the method of teaching using Coquito, but I have found it fairly straight forward and easy to use. You can also check out these two YouTube videos about the history of Coquito and its creator Everardo Zapata Santillana.

Coquito Clasico can also be purchased on amazon.com through La Tiendita.

{Image credit: boeke}

Yesterday we talked about how important it is to keep your child’s mind active over the summer months. While there are many ways that you can keep kids busy right at home – one popular option is summer camp. Summer camps range from free and inexpensive to costly; some are sleep away camps and others are day or half-day camps. You can choose a local camp or one as far away as Costa Rica or Spain.

To keep your bilingual child’s mind growing over the summer, today we’ll introduce you to Spanish language learning summer camps. Language learning summer camps focus on teaching or immersing children in a second language, and most of these camps even make it a cultural experience as well. Below we’ve provided a mix of Spanish language learning summer camps across the nation and beyond, as well as resources to find camps that teach other languages if none of these fit your needs.

Tip: If you fall in love with a camp outside your home state, consider sending your child to stay with relatives who live in the area while they attend. What could be better than summer camp and getting to spend a week with the abuelos, tíos or primos?

Spanish Language Summer Camps by State

California:

Bay Area – Juguemos en Español Spanish Summer Camp

Glendale – Gift of Language

Irvine – Camp Hola

San Diego - Lingua Natal

Los Angeles area:

North Hills – The Language Garden School

Hollywood – Kallpachay Summer Camp

Glendale – Art Box

Glendale and La Cañada – Lango

Colorado:

Denver – Fiesta Camp

Lowry – DMIS Language Summer Camps

Florida:

Weston – Camp Lingua

Miami – Isabella & Ferdinand (also in Washington, D.C.)

Illinois:

Chicago – Camp MK

Elgin (and other cities) – Language Stars

Maryland:

Bethesda – Sidwell Summer
Bethesda – Language Stars

Massachusetts

Charlestown – Spanish In Motion

Michigan

Detroit – Bilingual Fun

New York & New Jersey:

Various locations – The Language Workshop for Children

NYC – Queen Sofía’s Spanish Workshop

North Carolina:

Chapel Hill – Immersion Island

Raleigh and Cary – Spanish For Fun

Texas:

Austin – Live the Language

Virginia:

Alexandria (and other cities) – Language Stars
Charlottesville – WishWish Language Camp

Other camps to check out:

• OBG Adventures specializes in “travel and learning excursions for girls ages 11-16 with an emphasis on a multicultural camp experience.” (Excursions leave from the Bay Area, California.)

• Mis Amigos annual week long summer camp in Silver Spring, Maryland is especially for children adopted from Latin America, and their siblings.

• La Semana Culture Camp in Minnesota for children from Latin America.

Experiences that stand out from the crowd:

Concordia Language Villages in Minnesota – (Wow! Click through and check it out!) You can also read more about this program in this post from our archives.

Study Abroad opportunities for older children:

• KidsCamps.com- (searchable by language/location)

• ZandorSpain.com- (various types of camps offered in Spain)

• SpanishAbroad.com- (various programs in various countries)

• Don Quijote Spanish Summer Camp- (Spain)

• SpanishInTheWorld.com Camps- (various locations across Spain)

• TeenSpanish.com Camps- (various locations)

Resources to search for Camps Which Teach Various Languages:

• Swopnet.com

• KidsCamps.com

We hope you come back for more: tomorrow we’ll have a guest post from someone who attended a kind of study abroad/exchange program here in the U.S. as a teenager from Peru. She shares how the experience shaped her in terms of both being bilingual and bicultural.

Do you know of a great language/culture summer camp we didn’t include?  Please tell us about it in comments section or in our SpanglishBaby Playground and help us build a list for all to find a bilingual summer camp in their city.

{Image credit: courosa}

They say that once you learn to ride a bicycle, you never forget – but is it true? Do we actually retain all skills and knowledge once learned? The truth is a skill usually must be consistently practiced or it can be lost, at least partially. This is especially evident in school children who go on summer break. At the start of each school year, precious weeks are wasted in the classroom as teachers try to get the children back to where they left off the last school year.

Just How Much Do Students Lose Over The Summer?

Here are some statistics we learned from a new study put out by Rand Education:

• When students return to school after summer break, they perform, on average, one month behind where they left off in the spring.

• While all students lose some ground in mathematics over the summer, low-income students lose more ground in reading, while their higher-income peers may even gain.

• Not all students experience ‘average’ losses. Summer learning loss disproportionately affects low-income students due to:

- Insufficient access to educational resources.
- Being part of school districts that are under-funded and/or under-staffed.
- Lack of transportation to programs.
- Inadequate parental support and involvement.

How Do Race and Ethnicity Play a Part?

“Due to the inequitable proportion of low-income minority students, similarly sized achievement gaps are found between white and black children in the United States, white and Hispanic children, and native speakers and English language learners.” – Rand Education.

Why does this happen and how can it be prevented?

Unless your brain is somehow clued in that the information you’re presenting to it is important, either by the emotion you’re feeling or through repetition, then it is designed to forget it. Forgetting what you don’t use is the brain’s way of working efficiently – much like a computer that deletes unused and temporary files.

So how can you make sure that what your children are learning is “downloaded” to the hard drive?

Repetition and consistency. According to the Rand Education study, “Summer learning programs can prevent the loss of knowledge and skills.”

Does it Matter Which Summer Program My Child Attends?

• Not just any summer program will do. Quality of the program and regular attendance are important.

• Also important:

- individualized instruction
- parental involvement
- small class sizes

Where Does Bilingual Education Play Into This?

While the Rand Education study did not look into whether there is an information retention difference between bilingual and monolingual children, other research exists to suggest that your bilingual/trilingual/multilingual child will fare better over the summer months.

A study done by Psychologist Ellen Bialystok found that bilinguals are more resistant to memory loss related illness, such as Alzheimer’s disease; whether this benefit can be applied to bilingual children who are out of school for the summer remains to be seen.

Conclusion

Bilingual or not, having your child involved in educational activities over the summer months will benefit them as they head back to school in the Fall. You can work one-on-one with your child at home, or enroll them in a class/program. Whatever you decide to do, keep their minds active!

Tomorrow check back with us as we’ll be sharing some of the great language learning summer camps and programs across the country, (and even a few outside our borders!)

Share: Are your children enrolled in any type of bilingual summer learning programs?

Sources:

NPR – Being Bilingual Boosts Brain Power

Rand Study – How Summer Programs Can Boost Children’s Learning

Stanford University/ScienceDaily.com – Forgetting Helps You Remember The Important Stuff

Photo credit: ThomasLife

For months I’ve been trying to figure out how I would go about teaching my daughter, Vanessa, how to read in Spanish. I know she’s been ready to learn for at least six months, but I guess I’ve been the one who wasn’t ready.

My original thought was that I’d teach her how to read in Spanish before she entered Kindergarten in the Fall. Once there, she’d just follow along with the rest of the kids in her class and “learn” how to read in English. I use quotation marks because the truth is you only learn to read once, regardless of the language.

I read and researched about the best way to teach her to read in Spanish, I bought workbooks online and when I went to Perú in February, and Ana even got me some more materials when she attended LéaLA Fería del Libro at the end of April. I was stressed out.

Vanessa’s preschool teachers told me she was ready, she recognizes almost every letter in the alphabet in both English and Spanish. She’s always asking me what it says here or what it says there. She copies words she sees around the house on white pieces of paper with her markers and crayons. She tries to spell out words using the magnetic letters on the fridge.

Recently, a good friend of mine suggested an idea she had used to teach her daughter how to read. She said to label as many items as possible around the house (she did it in both languages) so the words would become familiar to my daughter. I thought the idea was genius. And, yet, I’ve done absolutely nothing to implement this or the many other ideas I’ve been given.

Part of it is that I don’t feel capable enough (read: don’t have enough patience) to teach my daughter how to read. The other part is that I’ve been debating the benefits of Vanessa entering Kindergarten already knowing how to read.

When we went to her Kindergarten orientation earlier this week, the principal told us they’d start slow and would hopefully be reading by the end of their first year in elementary school. I think it was then when it hit me: there’s no need to rush this one. I’ve decided it’ll be better if she learns how to read alongside her classmates. Even if it is in English.

My new plan is to transfer the reading skills she’ll learn in school into Spanish and finally put to good use all the materials I’ve been accumulating the past few months. I think it’s going to work out great. I’m stressed out no more!

What is your experience? Have you taught your bilingual children to read in either language? Any tips?

Speekee TV is a UK-based online series of Spanish episodes aimed at children 2-10 years of age. I had the pleasure of watching all 10 episodes currently available via subscription with my son. Though he speaks fluent Spanish already, he loved the program and asked me to watch it every chance he got.

The format of the videos is great for any age. They feature Speekee (a cute, purple lemur) and a couple other animal puppets, Jim (the company’s co-founder), and five Spanish children speaking, dancing, and singing. Each episode is about 20 minutes long and has a theme based on location: for example, “El Parque” or “La Fiesta.” The images are a mix of real-time video – filmed in Spain – and interesting animations using items on the screen.

I love that the introductory and concluding songs are always the same, though the imagery changes depending on the episode’s theme. Kids can pick up on the lyrics quickly, and they’re the type of tunes that are sure to get stuck in parents’ heads all day! Both the songs and dialogue have Spanish and English subtitles, which make the videos applicable to older children who can read. In addition, there are useful downloadable activity pages with every episode that summarize the new vocabulary.

Cute video and kid-friendly music could describe any Spanish lessons. What sets Speekee TV apart is its quality vocabulary. Speekee has full conversations with his viewers, consistently asking “y tú?” With no prompting from me, my son answered him every time. I imagine that this would be the case even for children who have not been exposed to Spanish before, because of the smart repetition of key phrases. Because it is a European production, Speekee TV features Spain-specific vocabulary and customs, which is great exposure for any of our children who are accustomed to only Latin American Spanish. I highly recommend Speekee TV to all young Spanish learners because it is engaging and contains a variety of conversational topics. The videos are funny and educational, and your children will want to watch them again and again. I, for one, can’t wait for the second installment of episodes: “Speekee 2!”

All of Speekee’s products are perfect for the SpanglishBaby community, especially because they were created by parents with interest and expertise in language learning. Along with Speekee TV, there are DVDs and teaching products available, including a forthcoming Homeschoolers Curriculum and forum. An online subscription is FREE for the first two weeks; thereafter, it is just $7.50 per month (with an option to cancel at any time).

To start your adventures with Speekee, enter the giveaway to win three free months of Speekee TV access.  Go here to enter giveaway –>

THE GIVEAWAY!

Speekee TV is giving away a three month free subscription to one winner.  To enter just leave a comment telling us why you think your child will benefit from Speekee TV.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then this is how you can get additional entries (only after you’ve completed the step above):

**Please leave a separate comment for each so we can count them and avoid mistakes.

1. Subscribe to receive blog updates and subscriber-only content via email and leave us an extra comment letting us know you did so or that you’re already a subscriber. Make sure to leave the comment using the same email you subscribed with.

2. Follow us on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway including a link to the post and @SpanglishBaby. Copy the link to the tweet in an additional comment on the giveaway’s post.

3. Like SpanglishBaby on Facebook and join a thriving community of parents.

This giveaway ends Sunday, May 1st at midnight EST and is open to everyone over 18 years of age.  Check out the Giveaway Rules.

Disclosure: We received a sample to review the product. All opinions are our own.

I received the México Learning Puzzle and am pleased to say it´s a great product to give your child a visual image of the land many of us have deep connections to.  The colorful puzzle, meant for children three and above, has 48 piezes that are just the right size to fit into smalllish hands.  My girl just barely turned three and has a short attention span when it comes to puzzles, but she will still sit with me while I put it together and tell her about the Mexican cities and towns illustrated in each puzzle piece.  It´s a great tool to get the conversation started about this magical country and it´s people.

The Mexico Learning Puzzle joins the North American and the Puerto Rico map as part of the Ingenio catalog.

THE GIVEAWAY!

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to the winner:  Terra!

We have a México Learning Puzzle to give away to one winner. To enter please tell us why you would like this map.  You can see more details about the map here.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then this is how you can get additional entries (only after you’ve completed the step above):

**Please leave a separate comment for each so we can count them and avoid mistakes.

1. Subscribe to our feed via email or RSS and leave us an extra comment letting us know you did so or that you’re already a subscriber. Make sure to leave the comment using the same email you subscribed with.

2. Follow us on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway including a link to the post and @SpanglishBaby. Copy the link to the tweet in an additional comment on the giveaway’s post.

3. Blog about this giveaway making sure to include our link, and you’ll get TWO additional entries.

This giveaway ends Sunday, October 10 at midnight EST and you must have a valid US address to enter.

Disclosure: Ingenio has been one of our most loyal supporters and sponsors. We received samples to review the products. We only accept sponsorship from companies we can write positively and honestly about.

Check out the Giveaway Rules.

Photo credit: Ivan Walsh

A friend of mine who is a Spanish teacher at a local elementary school said something over the weekend that got me thinking about whether or not everybody is capable of learning a new language. She said that in her years as a teacher, she’s seen with her own two eyes how some children struggle to learn Spanish while others pick it up with unbelievable ease.

The most interesting part is that, some times, the students who struggle are the ones you’d least expect: the Latinos (usually second/third generation and above) whose parents may not speak Spanish to them at home, but they’ve been exposed to the language, to some degree, thanks to their grandparents and/or other elder members of their family. Meanwhile, she’s had many students who come from completely monolingual families who have demonstrated an almost innate ability to learn Spanish with near-native pronunciation and all!

Her stories got me thinking about how I often hear people say that someone has “an ear” for languages. It seems as if it’s a common belief that learning languages (just like learning to play a musical instrument) comes much easier to some than to others. Is there any truth to that? Well, I went searching and I found out that there’s actually been some research, at least in adults, that suggests brain anatomy is linked to the ability to learn a second language. In addition, it seems that, in general, having greater cognitive abilities helps make the progress faster. In fact, some linguists believe some people have a stronger, innate language learning ability than others.

When people find out I’m bilingual, they usally share with me that they’ve attempted to learn Spanish, but it hasn’t stuck and they’ve given up in frustration. And, then, I know a few people who are so determined to learn a second language that they find a way to make it happen. As with anything in life, this is obviously accomplished only through hard work. But, besides hard work and age (which we’ve written about in the past) what else determines the speed and ease with which someone can learn a new language?

Personality

People who are introverted or anxious tend to make slower progress, especially when it comes to developing oral skills. Most probably, people with this type of personality won’t take advantage of or seek opportunities to try to speak and practice their new language. Learners with a more outgoing personality will probably not care about the inevitable: making mistakes. They’ll most likely practice their new language a lot more because they don’t mind taking risks.

Native language

In general, if your children’s second (or third) language is from the same language family as their first language, the task will be much easier. So, for example, an English-speaking child will learn German more quickly than a Japanese child.

I’ve been debating which language to start learning next and while Mandarin seems like the logical answer, I really want to learn Italian. Whenever I’ve mentioned this among Italian speakers who know I already speak Spanish and French, I’m always told it’s going to be increcibly easy. This might have to do with the fact that Italian is not a tonal language, like Chinese, which is a topic I’m extremely interested in and I promise to write about in the future.

Experiences

People who have already gained general knwoledge and experience are in a better position to learn a new language than those who haven’t. This means that someone who has lived in different countries and has been exposed to other languages and cultures has a stronger base for learning a new language than the person who hasn’t had such experiences.

I know for a fact that this made a whole world of difference in my life. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I was born in Peru, but in my childhood years, I lived in Mexico, Argentina and South Africa (where I was exposed not only to English, but also to Afrikaans and Zulu) before moving to the United States. Both my siblings and I, as well as my parents, have a fascination for languages!

Language status

There is some evidence that when the second (minority) language has a lower status than that of the majority language the learning progress is slower. It’s undeniable that this still seems to be the case with Spanish in the United States. We’ve actually written about this here.

In the end, I think one of the most important factors is motivation which, without a doubt, strongly correlates with achievement. My father was determined to learn English as an adult, and he did everything in his power to make it happen – including the painstaking method of reading with a dictionary right next to him so he could look up the words he didn’t know (which, at first, I’m sure included the majority of them). Not only did he become fluent and proficient in English, but being bilingual is what opened up the doors that took us, his family, on the amazing journey through five different countries that I described above. Proof that if you really want something, it’s yours!