One, two, three…
One of cool mommy friends, Dariela, told me that I’ve let my Spanish talk with Izzy go off the deep end. This was after Dari asked Izzy, “Izzy, quieres jugo de manzana?” She asked her if she would like some apple juice. Izzy said, “I want apple” and pointed at the bottle Dari was offering.
When Izzy was born, I promised myself that I was going to speak to her exclusively in Spanish. This rule applied to her teachers at day care, Grandma Loly, my mother, and myself. Unfortunately, my friends have noticed the change and have given me a nudge. Nudge noted.
Since last week, I’ve been speaking to her in Spanish and boy it’s hard work. Kids are extremely smart; so don’t underestimate the amount of languages they can absorb.
Izzy understands Spanish, but will not speak it. My goal is for her to be bilingual – fluent in both Spanish and English. Speaking to her in Spanish is easy, but I keep on catching myself saying words in English. Her favorite word right now is “Moco” – booger. Yes, booger is the only word she is more than happy to say over and over.
I just recently read a post on Spanglish Baby’s blog called “Loss of the Heritage Language” and it really opened my eyes. This post is about the loss of one’s native language through the generations; the language your parents, grandparents grew up speaking and for me it’s Spanish. Izzy is my first-generation American born daughter and I don’t ever want her to loss the Language and the Heritage I grew up with.
Here’s what I plan to teach Izzy in the following weeks:
- Numeros = Numbers
- Colores = Colors
- Animales = Animals
- Frutas = Fruits
- Partes del cuerpo = Body parts
- Comidas = Foods
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m so happy!!!! Yay!! One of my first inspirations of a bilingual mami. Great job Cecy, you’ll see the results quickly, I guarantee it!!
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thatsitmommy Reply:
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:52 am
I was driving Izzy to day care this morning and decided to leave her DVD player at home. Today we learned to count in Spanish. Surprisingly enough she was able to count up to 5. Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco y seis. WOW! She was able to follow my lead from 6-10. Baby steps.
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good luck girlie! i know how hard it is but i think it’s definitely worth it. i went to korean school until 10th grade and although getting up on saturday mornings was like a mild form of torture, i look back and appreciate it now. i was able to go to korea and get by on my own in college…
moco!
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thatsitmommy Reply:
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:53 am
Wow! Saturday classes. Must’ve been tough, but yeah…you’re right. At the end, it’s all worth it.
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I always said I’d teach her English if you teach her Spanish….now get to work!
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Cecy Reply:
January 22nd, 2010 at 6:25 pm
This guy! Is too ridiculous.
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It s very difficult to use just spanish for us bilingual parents, whom are used to interchangeably speak from englsih to spanish. You have to be determined to speak in spanish only because when they hit preschool in 3 months or less they will speak english fluently..and then really loos the spanish.
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Cecy Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Hola Ana,
I believe you. De acuerdo. I’ve been speaking to her in Spanish exclusively and she’s starting to open herself to speaking a few words with me, but I’ll need a lot more than a week. This is my mission: Izzy will learn to be fluent and bi-literate, if that’s even a word, by the time she’s out of H.S.
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i really wish my parents taught me the joys of speaking/understanding ilocano & tagalog. good luck with izzy! don’t let her down!!
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