Saturday, February 25, 2006
Hablamos y hablamos mas OR We talk and we talk some more
My kids can talk. They have a limitless supply of questions. Infinite curiosity. Interesting observations. Surprising insights. And sometimes just plain old silliness.
When people first get to know our family usually they are most interested in the fact that my children only speak Spanish with my husband. Then the questions begin: Don't they ever get confused? Don't they mix the languages? How do they do that? Do they really understand both languages?
These are normal questions, of course. When I was pregnant with my first child I researched bilingualism and found out that in our situation the best way to teach the languages was OPOL or one parent/one language. So from the time they were born, my husband has spoken to the children in Spanish and they respond to him in Spanish. When they babbled as toddlers sometimes I could tell that they were babbling in Spanish because I could hear the pure vowel sounds of Spanish in the midst of their ga-ga goo-goos. As they learned languages they associated Mami with English and Papi with Spanish. No confusion there.
Everyone agrees that being bilingual is an advantage, but unfortunately it is an anomaly in most of American culture. Among most first generation immigrant kids, the minority language is usually lost because of the pressure to learn English. Sometimes educators mistakenly believe that maintaining the minority language means not learning the majority language. This is not true.
When I am home alone with the kids, our talk is primarily in English. I do occasionally speak Spanish, but that's for my benefit, not theirs. When we are together the talk is pretty much constant. I do enjoy the most fascinating educational conversations, and I love to make connections with my kids from one idea to another (like a spiderweb) and talking about ideas if my idea of a day well spent. However, all this talk, talk, talk (in English or in Spanish)can wear me out by the end of a long day. Sometimes when my husband comes home after a long shift, I decide that I am done with talking and tell the kids to address all conversation to their father--I am off-duty for the day.
Homeschool Mami
When people first get to know our family usually they are most interested in the fact that my children only speak Spanish with my husband. Then the questions begin: Don't they ever get confused? Don't they mix the languages? How do they do that? Do they really understand both languages?
These are normal questions, of course. When I was pregnant with my first child I researched bilingualism and found out that in our situation the best way to teach the languages was OPOL or one parent/one language. So from the time they were born, my husband has spoken to the children in Spanish and they respond to him in Spanish. When they babbled as toddlers sometimes I could tell that they were babbling in Spanish because I could hear the pure vowel sounds of Spanish in the midst of their ga-ga goo-goos. As they learned languages they associated Mami with English and Papi with Spanish. No confusion there.
Everyone agrees that being bilingual is an advantage, but unfortunately it is an anomaly in most of American culture. Among most first generation immigrant kids, the minority language is usually lost because of the pressure to learn English. Sometimes educators mistakenly believe that maintaining the minority language means not learning the majority language. This is not true.
When I am home alone with the kids, our talk is primarily in English. I do occasionally speak Spanish, but that's for my benefit, not theirs. When we are together the talk is pretty much constant. I do enjoy the most fascinating educational conversations, and I love to make connections with my kids from one idea to another (like a spiderweb) and talking about ideas if my idea of a day well spent. However, all this talk, talk, talk (in English or in Spanish)can wear me out by the end of a long day. Sometimes when my husband comes home after a long shift, I decide that I am done with talking and tell the kids to address all conversation to their father--I am off-duty for the day.
Homeschool Mami
