Well, sorry it's been a while - I've been busy.
Thanks to the folks at Multilingualmunchkins for the encouragement.
Anyway, I did do a couple more blog entries in January, but i thought I would be clever and record them as audio podcasts, but I've run into problems with getting somewhere to host the files - I think I've got it sorted now, so you can expect to see (hear!) them here soon.
Laniña´s speech and language is improving every day - mostly in English! She´s got to the point of making cute grammatical mistakes, and when she hides she now has in fact left "Where´s me?" behind and has started to ask "Where´s my me?" instead!!
Her Spanish mistakes aren´t as cute, I´m afraid: wrong verb endings and she does still insist on calling me yo instead of tú (because I call myself yo of course!)
She speaks much less Spanish, but still uses certain words like biblioteca especially if it´s something that she does principally with me. When she clearly knows a word in both languages there is a definite delay as she chooses which one to use, and seems to look for reassurance afterwards. She is much more confident in English. This is only to be expected.
Periodically, though, she asks to see Español , which is the DVD of the Usbourne first Spanish book. And in the last week, I myself found one of her counting books so boring that I asked if she wanted it in Spanish - she enthusiastically did indeed want to hear it in Spanish! Now I have been asking if she wants her bedtime story-books ¿en inglés o en español? and she has responded Español every single time. Very encouraging. I don´t really translate the story, though - we just chat about the pictures on the page.
Up until now, while I have obviously been reading her Spanish books in Spanish, I´ve been reading her English books in English - I mean sometimes she really wants Green Eggs And Ham (good luck with trying to translate that one!). My concern is that I feel she will start to pay attention to the words soon and I really don´t want to mess up her reading! I´ll let you know how it goes...
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¡Hola! I am writing as Rocinante (not my real name - I'm shy!) and my daughter is Laniña - also not her real name! She's four now. I speak to her in Spanish, even though that´s not my own first language. We are just seeing how it goes, and that´s what this blog is about. Hope you find it interesting and encouraging if you are in a similar situation, or considering trying it out.
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4 comments:
My son is now 5 yrs old and from the begining I spoke to him in Spanish and my husband did the same in russian, we got him used to listen mummy speaking spanish and daddy russian all the time at home and out side as well.I think that, since we have done this from the very begining, he didn't feel under pressure and is taking it as a natural thing.I always used to read to him in spanish, even books written in english (we live in UK) I used to translate them for him and he was very pleased and happy with it; my husband used to do the same (he still does it). Since he started school I have to practice reading his school books with him, which are in English of course, so I have started reading in English for him, funny enough he seems not to notice the change, and the most admirable thing is that he is not mixing any language, he speaks spanish very clear, has an extended vocabulary, his russian is a bit rusty as my husband doesn't spend as much time with him as I do, but our son manages to have conversations and understands when someone speaks to him in russian and his english has improved a lot since he started school; so I think that all the effort that we put in teaching our children a second or third language is worth when we see them interacting so naturaly in any of them, that feeling that tells you "Wow! We did it! we have a bilingual or multilingual child!" is unbelievable rewarding.
Cool, I'm glad things are really working out for you! Thanks for your comment. Kids are all different, but I always think that it's helpful to hear about other people's experiences! It's good to know we're not alone.
Just catching up on your posts. Regarding Green Eggs and Ham, there actually is a spanish translated version. Instead of "Sam I am", it's "Yo soy Ramon" (to rhyme with jamón, of course!). I would be more than happy to transcribe the text for you if you'd like. :)
Michelle, also doing non-native spanish with my son David.
hee hee, thanks for that michelle. green eggs and ham is old news now, though, i'm afraid. we haven't done it in ages. i'm really glad to know that there's a spanish version, though!
gracias
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