I recently spent a few days with at my parents’ home, where I was warmly greeted by my mom – a full-fledged white girl raised in Texas – and my dad – who was born and raised in El Salvador. Their Amazon Yellow-Nape parrot – AKA “The Green Chicken” – was not as enthusiastic about my arrival (yes, I teased him when I was a child. Don’t judge). He’s been in my family since we acquired him in El Salvador in 1973 – yes that makes him around 37 (older than my brother, I should point out).
The Green Chicken literally grew up with us. He traveled with us from El Salvador to Puerto Rico, to Costa Rica and to Miami. He continued on to Brazil, then Canada, back to Miami and finally to Houson as my parents continued moving around. As a result, he is tri-lingual: he speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese. And with every word he uttered during my visit to my parents, it was like he was taunting me with his language skills. Why?
My kid only speaks English.
THIS is a sore point for me. My older sister and I speak Spanish and English fluently and French badly. My younger brother and sister add Portuguese to the list since they also lived in Brazil. (I need to say my younger sister also speaks German and French or she’ll get mad at me.)
I suppose I could cut myself a break and say that – hey – my sibs and I learned Spanish because we grew up in Latin America so we didn’t have a choice. And I could say that my kid only has occasion to use his Spanish when he’s speaking to me. Yeah I could say that but it would be a total cop-out. I mean: I live in L.A.
The truth is: my sibs and I had a choice. Well, my parents did. They chose to put us in bilingual schools. And I don’t mean the schools where the U.S. Embassy kids go when they are in Latin America, where Spanish is taught one period a day in much the same way it’s taught in U.S. public schools.
No my parents sent us to schools where the population was mostly not American. We HAD to speak Spanish. At home, we were encouraged to learn Spanish (more than encouraged, really). And with every move we learned a new kind of Spanish, since in every Latin American country the Spanish is different.
I swore I’d be the same way; that no matter what, my son would learn Spanish. I mean: think of the advantages right?
Turns out? It’s not that easy. I married an American of Polish & Irish descent who wholeheartedly supported and encouraged my desire to teach our son Spanish. But the kid refuses – mostly because it was (by necessity) an English-speaking household. He’ll learn words I push on him. But fundamentally heisn’t interested in learning.
So here I sit, sick with the realization that The Green Chicken could be stealing my kid’s jobs of the future. (I kid, I kid.) But in all seriousness I’m re-motivated to make sure my kid speaks Spanish. Because I’m not letting that Green Chicken show up my kid!
It’ll take commitment and determination on my part. And I’ll need to find ways to persuade the kid and make him interest. So I ask of you: what techniques do you use to get your kid to want to learn another language?
Ay mujer... I'm in the same boat.
ReplyDeleteNone of my kids speak Spanish. Or Tagalog.
Oh the shame... ):
OhOh...you know this is my favorite topic and I promise, promise not to write a blog post in your comment section!
ReplyDeleteMy biggest advice for a 5-year old would be to immerse him in Spanish in a Spanish-speaking country doing something he absolutely loves to do. While at it, he's likely to make a friend that only speaks the language and he'll be forced, in a good sense, to speak it. He needs to find a value to the language. And, unfortunately, at this age, mamá is not enough.
There´s also Spanish immersion summer camps in the US and in Latin America.
Or, just steal the Green Chicken and bring him to LA to tutor the boy!
I'm in the same boat too. I had the best of intentions to get my kid to speak Japanese. But at home we only speak Englis. And to top it off, my mom (who is from Japan) only wants to speak to him in English so he can understand her.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I can bribe him with cool Japanese manga in the future...
My American-born Thai cousins are both fluent in Thai. Though refusing to speak much of it because of their cute little American accent, they understand perfectly. My aunt put them in weekend Thai school through high school and they speak a mix of Thai and English at home.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Thailand in a Thai speaking household but my parents encouraged us to excel in English. They both have been educated abroad so they definitely saw the value. I got sent off to immersion programs in the summer and all of that.
The biggest influence, I think, is all English-language movies on VHS in my household were all in original soundtrack while most Thais would've gotten them dubbed. We had control of the remote so we can pause to ask if we didn't understand something. Later on with closed caption, we were looking up words as we go.
I hear you girl!! I speak Spanish to my kids, my husband speaks English to them, my husband and I talk in English (and I think this is my problem) my husband is not fluent, fluent in Spanish, but can communicate, so I think I should make him a favor and push more Spanish at home so he can learn as well :) My 6 year old is in a no-Spanish mama!! stage right now (my 6 yo keeps teaching my 2 yo vocabulary in English, aughhhhhh!)
ReplyDeleteThis is what we are doing at home, we try to go once a year to Mexico, this works wonders!! when they are watching a movie, I change the set up to Spanish (sometimes they don't like it, but, hello? I the mom right?), I speak Spanish as much as I can, read Spanish as much as we can, listen to Spanish music and my husband just said to them that Sunday is now Spanish Sunday, we are just allowed to speak Spanish, I hope I can start Spanish Saturday soon...
Hope it helps, raising bilingual children is not an easy task but is worth it, I know they will thank me one day :)
I stuck my kids in a Hebrew immersion program. It made a huge difference.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely hard for me also. It's a daily struggle. I often forget that I should be speaking spanish and catch myself talking to the kids in english. I also have a similar experience like Silvia's.
ReplyDeleteAbby only speaks Spanish to the girls and I mix both. They only speak Spanish to their grandparents, so we know they speak it, but they rarely have conversations with us in Spanish. I suggest you only speak to him in Spanish. He may not speak it back, but you'll know he's learning it.
ReplyDeleteNo Green Chicken is going to show up the Kid. You'll find a way
ReplyDelete