Reading a Dora the Explorer book before bed
As some of you know, I blogged about my Bilingual Corner to tell you about the funny side of being bilingual and to meet other mamis and daddies doing the same thing. Being bilingual means knowing another language, and sometimes that means that one parent does not know the other language. At least that is how it is with daddy!
See, daddy does not speak Spanish naturally like mami does. He has been learning over the past few years. But truth be told, I know more than him! He sounds a bit funny when he calls me over to sit down "Little M, ven aqui" because it doesn't sound like mami at all.
He sometimes gets his words confused like the time he mixed up the word for socks (calcetines) with the word for olives (aceitunas) when getting me dressed. That one really made mami laugh! But he is learning more and more each day.
I may not be able to fully speak to mami and daddy, but I understand everything she says. My two favourite words in Spanish that I can say to them are tete / dummy (absolutely essential to know this word) and mama (also, very important, especially to lay on the guilt!) Pretty smart huh?
I'm saving the rest of my words for a few months from now to keep them in suspense. From what I can understand, no is the same in both English and Spanish, but I purposely ignore that one all together. Eh.
So for all you other bilingual mamis and daddies:
1. How do you work around not knowing the other language?
2. What language do you mostly speak at home?
3. Do you have certain times or activities you do using just one language?
4. Anything funny, including mistranslations?
I would love to hear from you! (you don't have to answer all 4 questions, they are just suggestions!)
- Blog about your experience on your site
- Then come back here and leave a link to your site in the comment box so that we can all read it
- Link to Little M's Bilingual Corner on your site
- You can also just read it, enjoy it and leave any comments or suggestions
- Have fun!
¡Chao!
P.S. You can also find a review of my 3 favourite Spanish books at RedTedArt's blog
That is so great that you are teaching your little one to be bilingual. I am doing the same with my daughter. She loves the Muzzy DVDs. We also use Little Pim. have a great night!
ReplyDeleteMama Hen
Hi,I have just started following your blog ;) My Isabelle is also bilingual. You can read more about it on my blog
ReplyDeletehttp://wwwallbabyadvice.blogspot.com/2010/05/raising-children-bilingually.html
@Kahanka
Hiya, we "met" in Twitter today.
ReplyDeleteYour son is soo cute. Keep it up the bilinguality .
That's how it works for our family: I speak in Portuguese to the girls, my husband in English and they're also going to a local Primary School; I can say that they were totally bilingual by the age of 2 and half.
I have so many stories... I need to find some in my blog.
Hey Little M, being bilingual is pretty fun so keep practicing! And let me know when Spanish becomes too easy and you want to learn Norwegian :)
ReplyDeleteCheck out my post on being a bilingual grown-up: http://nordicainlondon.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/bilingual-me/
@eedvardsen
Your son is very cute!!!
ReplyDeleteI am working on the kids being bilingual also (daddy doesn't do spanish either). ( :
Most Malaysians are trilingual.
ReplyDeleteYour son is very cute!
Hi! Stopping by from MBC. Love your blog.
Have a nice day!
I'm definitely on for this - maybe I should even get daddy to write...
ReplyDeleteHow lovely x
ReplyDeleteNew Mummy - thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteCartside - getting daddy to write would be great! I'm sure he's got funny stories :)
Veronica Lee - thanks for coming by and for your compliment. 3 lanugages? phewww. that's a lot! Will stop by your blog too.
Marcela - my daddy is actually quite good, he just doesnt feel comfortable. Maybe doing lots of fun activities will help him speak more!
Ju - I love that you actually write your blog in portugese too..that would be too much work for me. I'm on a limited computer schedule before mami puts me to bed!
Hi Little M,
ReplyDeleteyou can find my answers here:
http://intrepidlybilingual.blogspot.com/2010/06/monolinguals-in-bilingual-household.html
I speak Greman when daddy not around and both when he is. He doesn't mind and if he doesn't understand something he asks!!
ReplyDeleteI am hoping that my boyfriend will be able to teach our baby Spanish when the time comes.
ReplyDeleteI met him over there and while he is not Spanish and by no means fluent he has a good grasp of the language.
My cousin still lives in Spain as he married a Spanish girl and I also want my little boy to know the language when he goes over to see his cousins and our friends there. I think it will do him well in the future too.
DeliciousNess x
Ooh I'll try and write something to include tomorrow. Great idea. x
ReplyDeleteLittle M, you definitely are learning the Spanish words you need for survival! Keep it up! :)
ReplyDeleteWe are a right mixed bunch. I am British, my husband Norwegian. We met whilst living in France. This is a great story of how languages fall apart along the way. Eldest (15) bilingual Norwegian, lived 2 years in France so learnt to read and write in French. Moved to Lanzarote where he's now in intl school, so speaking pretty good Spanish as well. Number 2 (12), left Norway at 2yrs, moved to France spoke perfect French, but moved to Lanzarote aged nearly 5 and forgot it all. Now speaks some Spanish and mainly English. Number 3 (6) born in France, spoke some French, moved to Lanzarote now bi-lingual Spanish and English, and some German, moving to Norway in 6 months...to learn the language.
ReplyDeleteFinal twins (4), bi-lingual Spanish and English, moving to Norway to learn Norwegian in 6 months. We speak English mostly and some Spanish at home. I can't speak Norwegian yet, but speak Spanish, French and English obviously. Hubby, Norwegian, English, Danish, Swedish,Spanish, German. Quality depletes as you get down the list...