Bilingual StridesPosted by admin on March 10th, 2010
Since I recently began contributing to SpanglishBaby, I have been re-energized in my efforts to keep my son surrounded by Spanish. The shifting balance of Spanish and English has been particularly interesting to watch. He has always responded differently to each language, but has recently developed preferences according to the rules of his interactions thus far.
I speak only Spanish to him, with few exceptions (i.e. when I’m frustrated and can’t find exactly the right words). He watches equal amounts of Spanish and English television — his favorite is Pocoyo — and I only read to him in Spanish. (This becomes funny when translation is involved.) Most days, it’s just the two of us interacting en espanol.
In the past few weeks, he’s become quite opinionated about my use of English. He doesn’t flinch when I use English with other people in front of him, but he completely ignores me if I speak directly to him in English. Today, I took him to Starbucks. Because I was speaking to the barista in English and my brain was in that mode, I asked if he wanted a cookie in English. He didn’t even look at me. But when I said “quieres una galleta?” he nodded and said “mmhmm.”
Things are the opposite with my mom. He spends a lot of time with her when I’m working and on her days off. She uses only English with him, but she’s starting to learn some Spanish words. He laughs when she speaks Spanish and sometimes even shushes her.
This awareness of separate languages is an exciting development because he’s simultaneously advancing towards the stage of nonstop talking. He said his first complete sentence (5 words) a few days ago, but it was English and Spanish mixed together. I was so excited to hear him mix the languages (code switch) because it means that he has a command of both grammatical structures. I feel like a scientist conducting an experiment, and being blown away by the results. Every myth that we grow up with about our limited brain capacity explodes at the moment that a 2-year-old says a coherent sentence in two languages, with native accents in both.
I suppose that for someone who grew up in a bilingual household, this wouldn’t be such a crazy discovery. For me, though, it’s an amazing thing to witness. I know plenty of people who grew up speaking Spanish at home and English at school, so I know it works. Still, there’s no lesson like seeing it happen in your own child. We think that the “firsts” stop after the first step, the first word, but I’m learning that there are many, many more to come.
I wish that every child in the world could have the gift of bilingualism, but all I can do is encourage other parents to do what they can to expose their kids to a second (or third or fourth) language. There is room in those little heads for all of it.
