spanish

We got back from our trip to El Salvador just last week, and it already feels like it was so long ago.  Yet, the memories and benefits we gained from this trip are still well alive.  Some weeks ago I shared about Camila’s cultural immersion with her familia, and promised I’d be back to tell you more about her experience at a local, Spanish-language preschool. I made the decision to enroll her to a local preschool for two reasons: 1)Read More ...

School is back in session, and this year I am back in the classroom too.  I was fortunate to have been able to take a couple years off after the birth of my boys, but now I am back to teaching Spanish to junior high and high school students. Teaching is my passion, and I am fortunate to work at a wonderful school.  Working with teenagers is so much fun.  They are enthusiastic and eager to learn, but unfortunately forRead More ...

One of the challenges of being a not-so-perfect Spanish speaker teaching my toddler Spanish is that I am self-conscious of how I sound in public. I really liked Susan’s blogpost last week about being complimented on her accent and her point that accents are nothing be ashamed of.  However, I was born in El Salvador, and as a Latina, people often expect me to speak Spanish well.  The fact that we immigrated here before my first birthday is really notRead More ...

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 ...

Tita was mi Abuelita.  She was a vivacious, loud, loving bull of a woman.  She lived with my family since before I was born, and until she died when I was 16 and she was 83.  We slept in side-by-side twin beds until my brother moved out when I started high school.  Late at night, we would talk about nothing and everything–she would teach me Spanish prayers and make the silliest jokes that made us both giggle.  When my fatherRead More ...