Bilingual mamas

mavilabride4evah · July 2010

What is your main language at home? For those with older babies, did you concentrate on one language or speak both?

I'm trying to figure out what to do with DD. She's with my MIL all week who speaks to her mainly in Spanish. At home we mainly speak English. Sometimes when I say something in English she looks at me funny but if I repeat it in Spanish, she understands. For ex, I asked her if she wanted some waterand nothing. But when I said quieres agua? She pointed to her cup.

Anyway, do you think we should just focus on one or does it not really matter?

carolette24 · July 2010

I have a 10 month old and I mainly speak spanish to her at home, my husband is American and speaks to her in English. Because she spends more time with me she understands Span much better, my husband even says with his cute accent "ven con papa" because she doesn't know him as daddy yet.

We attend mommy and me classes in Nova and I brought up the subject to her teacher (who does not speak spanish) and she told me to stick to spanish as much as possible if I want her to be billingual because the rest of her surroundings (dad, school, future friends, etc) will be all in English so she will get it anyways as she grows, which I guess makes sense.

Do what makes you comfortable and remember even when she looks at you with confusion children are little sponges and pick up on just anything you want them to learn!

GL!

taxbride · July 2010

If you want her to be bilingual, speak as much Spanish as possible. She will absorb English from everywhere else (even in Miami). Our 3 year old understands both languages, but his English is light years ahead of his Spanish. DH speaks to him only in Spanish,and he gets some Spanish in school (bilingual school) and some from me (my English is better, so I speak mostly in English). DH and I speak to each other in English, though.

When he's alone with DH he will speak Spanish, and pretty well, but not right away. It takes effort to get him to speak full sentences in Spanish when anyone is speaking English, although he speaks Spanglish easily (often nouns are in Spanish and verbs in English). And he speaks to his little sister in English.

I'm learning why they call it the Mother Tongue--he usually speaks Spanish more easily when I speak to him in Spanish instead of just DH. I have been trying to make more of an effort, but I slip up pretty often.

Our 16 month old only has a few words, and those are mostly in English, although she also fully understands when we speak in Spanish.

Tania

mavilabride4evah · July 2010

Thank you ladies. Interesting

I think we'll make more of an effort to speak Spanish at home.

turtlebabies · July 2010

I have a little sister who is 13 years younger than I so I have the memories of her growing up in the same environment. At my grami's she only spoke spanish but with my other sister, my parents and myself she spoke english. She did ok. On the other hand, my mom tells me that when I was in the same situation I didn't learn english until I went to pre school. But it came in a snap and the truth is I learned it perfectly to the point where most people who speak with me think I'm gringa! LOL! I plan on talking to LO in spanish and my hubs in english cause his spanish is not the best. good luck but don't sweat it, i hear this that before they go to school is the time that you can easily teach them the most languages and it will stick with them.

nicole0719 · July 2010

I do not speak Spanish but my husband and in laws do (they speak no english at all). Since DS1 stayed with MIL for daycare from 6 mo to 18 mo he learned both to understand both english adn spanish. At home we speak english and at my in laws spanish is spoken. Now (he's almost 3) he speaks both well....and if me and my MIL are in the same room he will speak to me in english and her in spanish.

I am in education and I just want to share this....if your child goes to public school and only spanish is spoken at home he/she will be placed in ESOL classes and it could slow them down in their regular classes as everything else will be in english, they may fall behind. The majority of students in the ESOL classes are students who are born IN the US but parents do not speak english (or dont speak it to them). Obviously every child/family is different and you have to do what is best for your family. I would, however, at least introduce english before they hit school so they are not placed in ESOL or have some exposure so they do not fall to far behind. Luckily, though, kids that young learn language quickley and catch up fast.

Albah · July 2010

This really depends on how much English and Spanish is spoken to a baby, If it is equal amounts, they will learn both. But like in our case and what seems to be yours as well, the toddler is around SPanish more. My mom takes care of E on week days and speaks Spanish to him; I speak mainly Spanish to him as well. My husband speaks a little bit of both. So of course, E speaks/understands mainly Spanish. But I am completely ok with this as he will learn English in school. This is the way I was taught and I am completely fluent in both languages, so this will be the way I teach my children.

MrsJOSEnADRI · July 2010

My mom is going to take care of the baby while I work and she mainly speaks Spanish. I figure that she'll get so much Spanish with her that DH and I will speak to her in both English and Spanish. Although kids do pick it up in school pretty quickly, I do want her to speak English fluently when she starts Kindergarten. After having taught Kindergarten and 1st grade for several years, I saw how rigorous the curriculum is and I don't want language to become a learning obstacle, especially, when I saw how frustrated the ELL students get because they just don't understand what's going on. If we decide to put her in preschool at around 3 or 4, then it will be no problem b/c she'll pick it up before starting Kindergarten. But if she stays with my mom until she starts Kindergarten then I definitely want to speak English and Spanish to her at our house. DH and I are both fluent in both languages so I figure she can learn both at the same time which is kind of what I did because my parents spoke to me in Spanish, but my brother spoke to me in English.

southmiamiwifejen · July 2010

Albah:
This really depends on how much English and Spanish is spoken to a baby, If it is equal amounts, they will learn both. But like in our case and what seems to be yours as well, the toddler is around SPanish more. My mom takes care of E on week days and speaks Spanish to him; I speak mainly Spanish to him as well. My husband speaks a little bit of both. So of course, E speaks/understands mainly Spanish. But I am completely ok with this as he will learn English in school. This is the way I was taught and I am completely fluent in both languages, so this will be the way I teach my children.

Ditto this, basically word for word. MIL and my mom take care of my daughter during the day and they both speak to her in Spanish (MIL strictly in Spanish, and my mom I would say maybe 75% in Spanish with 25% of English mixed in). DH and I speak to each other strictly in English, but we speak to DD in both - me moreso in Spanish with a bit of English mixed in and DH the other way around (more English w/ a little bit of Spanish). I had a strong preference for Spanish when I started pre-k but picked up English very quickly and it never slowed me down

I'd love to instill strong Spanish in DD and concentrate moreso on that because I know that between cartoons and pre-school, her English will be fine by the time it starts to really matter.

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