¡Somos una familia bilingue! We are a bilingual family!

It's been a while. Actually a very long while. But as most of you know, in our home we speak English and Spanish.

Sadly our monthly Bilingual Corner posts disappeared. Sorry!! But we are going to bring them back!

To help us out, our friend Rebecca at two become four made us this really pretty badge to show that we speak more than one language and how proud we are of that.

<center><a href="http://mummysbusyworld.blogspot.com/"><img width="150" alt="We're a Bilingual Family" src="http://i902.photobucket.com/albums/ac230/RebaMc/bilingualbadgev2.jpg" height="150" /></a></center>

 

Mami and I are going to start up our monthy Bilingual Corner posts and invite you to submit your funny stories relating to being bilingual (or even multiligual!)

This months topic:

How do you celebrate Christmas in your language? (Does speaking another language mean different customs? Past Christmas experiences, etc)  Mami and I are going to tell you about our Chilean/German/American traditions during Christmas.

How it works:

Write about Christmas as a bilingual/multilingual family and your traditions.

Mention Little M's Bilingual Corner and link to our blog

Come back on Wednesday the 15th of December and add your link to the linky tools which will be up.

In the meantime, please take the badge and show everyone that you too are a bilingual family!

Keep warm!

¡chao!

Bilingual Corner No 3 - Nicknames!

A special badge for all bilingual families.

My friend Rebecca over at two became four made it specially for me!

Last month I blogged about choosing names in bilingual homes. This month I wanted to talk about something similar – nicknames! 

I found out the hard way that nicknames don’t necessarily make sense from one language to the next.

Nicknames are personal and sometimes can be funny, really funny! But only to those that understand the language. It may sound strange to others but only you and your family know how you got it.

Daddy calls mami another name, Yoyi.

Yes, Yoyi. Sounds funny, huh? It doesn't mean anything but its just an example of how it works better in Spanish than in English (it took me a long time to figure out mami had another name!)

Okay, you can all laugh now.

She said abuelito/grandad gave her that nickname when she was a baby and it has stuck with her.

So what do mami and daddy call me?

When I was a baby mami called me her “pollito” or little chicken because she says I was really thin and yellow!

After that she started calling me her “monito” or monkey because I would roll around everywhere.  I’ve seen the monkeys at the zoo and I look nothing like them by the way!

Now she calls me her “gordito” or “gordo” which means chubby because I love to eat and I have a very big tummy! I know, I know, doesn’t sound very nice but in Spanish it is actually a term of endearment.

When mami calls me her “gordito” her voice is soft and gentle, her eyes sparkle and she always has a smile. That’s how I know she says it with love.

Daddy didn’t like her saying that at first, but he understands now that mami is not saying it to pick on me.

Mami had a friend from a country far away whose nickname for her daughter meant something not very nice in English. She decided not to use it anymore, at least not at the playground where others could hear. It must have been a very, very bad word.

So tell us, what are your nicknames? Do your nicknames sound okay in one language but don't make sense in the other? Or make sense in English but not in your second language?

I can't wait to hear your stories!

You know what you have to do:

Think about it.
Blog about it.
Link to my site.
Come back and leave your link.
Read everyone elses posts.
Enjoy!

Bye bye

“gordo”

P.S. Please share with other friends who might want to join in each month. When you come back I will have a little suprise for you!

Bilingual Corner No 2 - What's your name?

Gracias to so many of you for writing about being bilingual and the funny stories you posted for the first Bilingual Corner! Its all just for fun, so this month I thought I would talk about our names! See, I realised that being bilingual not only means speaking two (or more) languages but experiencing different ways of doing things – traditions I think mami calls it.
Let me make it easy for you: 

Mami is from Chile
Daddy is from the USA
Which makes me, Little M a Chilean/American born Brit – cool huh? And that’s a whole lot of different traditions going on there!
 

And so the name selection process began...

When I was still in the waters, I could hear mami and daddy talking about what to call me once I came home. It was a bit muffled, but I could sometimes make out parts of their conversations. I tell you, I knew a lot more than they thought when I finally left. Including my name, Little M!

After a day of non-stop bumping around in mami's tummy, when the waters did eventually stay still (which now I now know means that mami was sitting), I could hear mami say “he is going to have English last name, so I want him to have a Spanish first name, but easy enough to pronounce”

Daddy would then say “Any particular names you had in mind?” then mami would say a few and then they would both just go silent. From what I gather, it took them a long time to finally agree to my name. Mami really wanted a Spanish name and happily daddy agreed too! (As long as it didn't have too many "R" because he has a hard time with those still, hahaha!)

When I discovered my name...

I was so happy when they finally did start calling me by my name, “Hola Little M, its daddy” I’d hear him say, and then again, and again and again. So that’s how I knew he was talking to me!

I liked hearing their voices through mami’s tummy and sometimes I would even put on a little show for them and kick my legs or move my arms around.

More surprises...

After being in the outside world now for 18 months (well, almost) I realised that Little M is in fact a Spanish name, however, we have all discovered that it is also a German, French, Portuguese, Finnish, Nordic, and even Lithuanian name! (Daddy saw that a few biathletes in the Winter Olympics where also named Little M and that made him very very happy!)

So I guess mami and daddy made a great choice  - although I still get funny pronunciations at nursery. Don’t they hear how mami says it? Silly people.
 

Your turn...

 

Now I ask you, do you have a first name that maybe is traditionally used in another country or language? Or the other way around? Is someone else in the family named that? Did you choose it to remind you of where you come from? Does it set you apart? Have you had difficulties with it?

So far, no problems here! I've even met a few Little M's although they were not so Little – and when people hear it, they say they like it!

Write and link...

Can’t wait to hear your stories. Please remember to mention Little M's Bilingual Corner and link back to my blog on your post!

I will add a Linky so you can come back and leave your post so others can read it. 

 

Daddy is learning Spanish too! (Bilingual Corner No.1)

Reading a Dora the Explorer book before bed

¡Hola! It's been a very busy weekend here. Saturday while mami was doing housework and daddy was watching cycling, I managed to get some time on the computer and catch up on my blogging. On Sunday mami had theatre rehearsals and daddy and I went to the park, and today we went to Battersea Zoo! I finally saw a real monito (monkey)! Mami always says that I'm her monito but I don't think I look like them at all!

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

Little M's Bilingual Corner

Hmm? What is a four letter word for poop in Spanish? C-A-C-A

The Funny Side of Being Bilingual

London is a terrific city, no denying that! What makes it vibrant and exciting is the wide range of languages you hear on the street everyday. After doing some very serious research at my local sandbox and paddling pool, I realised that there are a whole lot of us little ones not only speaking English, but another language too!

Remember my post about being bilingual? Well, it got me thinking, with so many mami's out there raising a bilingual family, why not start a little corner on my blog where all mami's and daddy's in a bilingual (or multilingual) home can stop by to post their thoughts, ask questions and more importantly, share funny stories!

So get your passports ready, because on the first Tuesday of the month I will pose a question/topic and feature a country to get you talking and we can learn from each other too! You do not even have to be bilingual, you might be a British or US expat elsewhere, etc. Because believe me, there are plenty of funny moments when more than one language is involved!
So what do you think? Why not tell your bilingual mami friends to join so we can get this going.

Let me know if you are interested in joining Little M's Bilingual Corner by leaving a comment below and a little about yourself, what other language(s) you speak, what country you are from twitter name. Make sure to follow mami too @verybusymama.

besos,

Little M