At the end of November 2014, right on his due date, our Spanglish Monkey was born. He was a healthy beautiful baby that made Papa Monkey and myself very very happy. At that exact moment the challenge started: How do we raise a bilingual Baby Monkey?
I have to be honest, I had read very little about it. Of the few books and papers we read, though, all had a common and intuitive recommendation for our particular case: each parent should talk in his or her native language (known as one parent one language or OPOL strategy) and be consistent. Well, that was our starting point. Papa Monkey would speak in English and Mama Monkey in Spanish. The rest: common sense and playing it by ear...
I have to be honest, I had read very little about it. Of the few books and papers we read, though, all had a common and intuitive recommendation for our particular case: each parent should talk in his or her native language (known as one parent one language or OPOL strategy) and be consistent. Well, that was our starting point. Papa Monkey would speak in English and Mama Monkey in Spanish. The rest: common sense and playing it by ear...
Are we consistent? Heck no! Papa Monkey often speaks and sings (horribly, ooops sorry Papa) in Spanish and Mama Monkey speaks more in English than she should (to be polite) when in English-speaking environments: with family, on our walks, at the store... Are we happy with the process? Yes! We will tell you all about it in following posts.
The objective of this blog is not to teach anything. We are not experts, not even close! We are starting this blog to share our experiences with families that are in similar situations, with similar issues, especially "Spanglish" families like us, wherever they have decided to raise their kiddos. Welcome! May the Spanglish Monkey adventures start...
A finales de noviembre de 2014, justo en el día que yo salía de cuentas, nacía nuestro Spanglish Monkey. Un bebé precioso y sanote que nos hizo muy muy felices a Papá Monkey y a mí. En ese momento comenzaba el desafío: ¿Cómo criamos a un bebé bilingüe?
Para ser sinceros, hab'iamos leído poco del tema. Eso sí, de los pocos libros y artículos que he leído todos recomiendan una cosa bastante intuitiva para nuestro caso particular: cada padre debe hablar en su idioma nativo (lo que se conoce como un padre un idioma o estregia OPOL, por sus siglas en inglés) y ser consistente. Ese era nuestro punto de partida: Papá Monkey hablará en inglés y Mamá Monkey en español. El resto: sentido común e ir actuando sobre la marcha.
¿Que si somos consistentes? ¡Ni de broma! Papá Monkey a menudo habla y canta (fatal, aaay, lo siento Papá) en español y Mamá Monkey habla más inglés del que debería (por educación casi siempre) en torno a personas que no hablan español: con familia, de paseo, haciendo la compra... ¿Estamos contentos con el proceso? ¡Sí! Ya os iremos contando todo en futuros post.
El objetivo de este blog no es enseñar nada. No somos expertos, ¡ni mucho menos! Comenzamos este blog para compartir nuestras experiencias con otras familias en situaciones similares, con problemas parecidos, sobre todo familias Spanglish como nosotros, allá donde hayan decidido criar a sus peques. ¡Bienvenidos! Empiezan las aventuras de Spanglish Monkey...
Un tema muy interesante a tratar, yo lo del bebé bilingüe creo que no, a no ser que le enseñemos Villaodonense y mostoleño jajaja, pero seguiré tus consejos de mami como mami novata que voy a ser! Un besito y bienvenida a la blogosfera 😊
ReplyDelete¡Gracias Carol! Un honor que nos lea una superblogger como tú. Un besazo
ReplyDeleteI love this idea! Can't wait to read about all your adventures! Love you all, especially the little monkey!
ReplyDeleteSuzy
Thank you Suzy! We love you too.
ReplyDeletePues mucha luck en vuestra bilingual adventure!! Jejejejeje.
ReplyDeleteYou have to enseñá el verdadero spanish macarra
Bss pa you and pa Fadi!!
Pues mucha luck en vuestra bilingual adventure!! Jejejejeje.
ReplyDeleteYou have to enseñá el verdadero spanish macarra
Bss pa you and pa Fadi!!
Tengo que admitir que estoy en una situacion muy parecida :) A ver si pillo algun truco bueno para no confundir al niño y que se pueda comunicar con ambas abuelas ;)
ReplyDelete¡Bienvenida! Los niños son muy inteligentes y distinguen perfectamente los dos idiomas, aunque en ocasiones los mezclen (¡yo los mezclo un montón y no soy bilingüe!). Seguro que lo haces fenomenal con tu peque. Un abrazo
DeleteHello Maria, I want to congratulate you for your blog I have seen I am not the first leaving a comment (I wanted to…), plus I'm training for my English advanced exam next Monday!!! So I take advantage to improve writing skills.
ReplyDeleteAs you have know I've learned Portuguese and Spanish simultaneously thanks to my mother decition to move to Argentina at my birth. She spoke (or trying to) in Spanish, most of the time in order not to confuse me. There seemed no Portuguese influences in my vocabulary until we made our first trip to Brazil (I was 6), just before start school. I did not talk much, but I understood everything! Even I have been encouraged to talk a little with some of my closest family, which totally surprised said: where did you learn and how?
The native language speaking is called "mother tongue" for this simple reason, mothers speak (and some of them a lot!) during pregnancy, this is the first voice that is recognized and the language you used is important. Music, another great influence... please, do not use "Ilenia" music (how to forget Gal Costa or Tim Maia while cleaning the house with mum…?) And of course the interest in communicate with the family.
As Portuñol Kitty I've been I must say pleeeeeeaaase! Do not worry so much for not talking in Spanish... Monkey is learning Spanglish instinctively, so it's "Monkey" languaje for him, of course he differenciatte both but at home, he even will create his own words (don´t be afraid he will be testing, in my case "picapuerta" by picaporte or "cuerpoespín" by puercoespín). All this has a good side as he will understand and assimilate any other languages naturally!!!
Well sorry about the extension, please correct my bad English (I´m testing…. hahahahahaaa!!!), miss you!!! Kisses.
P.S.:I´m Mariana (Sorry, I though was commenting through faceoobk profile!)
ReplyDelete¡Sabía que eras Mariana desde la primera línea! Mil gracias por tus palabras y por tus consejos, tienen mucho valor viniendo de una persona bilingüe. Te echo de menos locuela. Un besazo y cuidate mucho.
DeleteMucha suerte con la educación. Ya sabéis, si el chiquitín decide ser trilingue, aquí estoy pa enseñarle el ruso:)
ReplyDeleteGracias tía Irina. Con lo que le gusta Cheburashka, no descarto que le dé por querer hablar ruso. Mil besos, os echo de menos
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