tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32090442878900930342024-03-23T11:13:51.878+01:00Apples and manzanasNon-native parents raising their kids bilingually in Spain.Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-7420146813179523692016-08-12T11:50:00.002+02:002016-09-14T12:27:02.523+02:00What´s up?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">It´s been too long since my last
post. As always, work, kids… life comes in the way. But, since this is truly a
lifelong project, almost one year may turn into nothing, right? (AKA lame
excuse). Here is the update of what´s going on with our young bilingual fellows
at age 6y-3m old (boy) and 3y-5m old (girl). </span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">The kids´ speech is evolving, as it
was expected, and the patterns are turning kind of flexible. The big boy has
changed a bit. I guess it´s the pressure of the social sphere that is powerful,
his friends and most of his interactions are in Spanish, and despite the presence
of some English in school, it´s not enough to balance the situation. The fact
is that he talks to me a lot more in Spanish lately, and I don´t want to twist
his arm too much by interrupting the communication, so I let him be and answer
in English… From time to time I ask him to switch so “we don´t forget our
language”. The good point is that when requested, he can pull out his English
and it´s usually fresh, so he doesn´t seem to have forgotten many words or
expressions, unless it´s a rare one. </span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">We keep watching tv in English
without any complaints, and when we talk about the movies we´ve just seen, they
both seem to understand everything that was said, so we are cool in that area. </span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Our challenge now would be to get
the big boy talking more spontaneously in English (not only on demand…), and
get the little mermaid to finally <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">start</b>
speaking English, since she understands, and is able to say some things but way
less naturally than her brother, even when he was her age. I think she has had
less exposure and clearly less strict patterns from my side, as it´s been
impossible to maintain the same attention than before. You know what I´m
talking about if your offspring is formed by more than 1. </span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">There´s another reason why exposure
has been more limited in case of the little girl and that is the temper
tantrums phase. Since she was 2 years old she´s been having many tantrums and
acting out a lot which makes us focus all our efforts in controlling her in
these moments (suffering I´d say…), and we end up exhausted, and with little
energy to work on OPOL, English playtime or anything but resting our heads,
which are about to explode sometimes. I guess girls are always more complicated
than boys, because although the big one had some tantrums, they were never like
hers. </span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Despite all the above mentioned, it´s
also fair to say that sometimes she does jump in the English field and maintain
a reasonable conversation, not without some effort, and not without pointing
out afterwards how cool it is that she is speaking English with “Papi” and how
happy we all get because of this rare occasion </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">… The truth is that she is coming up
with really funny Spanglish expressions like these:</span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">You
are “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">keaming</b>” your feet – for “your
feet are getting <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">burnt</b>”, here you
can see the Spanish structure (predominant in her) with words in English and
some made-up stuff that she pulled out of her hat (“Get burnt”= “quemarse in
Spanish”). The boy used to work the other way around, using English structure,
English words and some Spanish in the way.</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In
the car – Papi! You must fasten your “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">cint</b>”!!
– for “you must fasten your <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">seatbelt</b>”
(Spanish-“<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">cinturón</b>”).</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I
don´t want to “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ensuz</b>” my hair!- for
“I don´t want to get my hair <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">dirty</b>!”
(Spanish- “ensuciar”=get dirty)</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">It seems that she came to the
conclusion that speaking English is just like taking Spanish Words, cutting off
some vowels here and there, and then using a funny accent to say things (like
chewing on something), all mixed up and… TA-DA… I speak English!</span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Apart from the tough times It´s also
fair to say that she gives us also precious and joyful moments like the other
night, when we were going to bed: </span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">“Papi, if I had all the fathers in line
(I guess she meant all of them, in the world), I would choose you”. And that is
just so sweet… </span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<br /></div>
Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-24336635601490174532015-09-09T22:56:00.001+02:002015-09-09T23:11:05.227+02:00She said YES!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US">She finally said YES!! Well,
actually not only once, my little princess started saying “YES”… instead of
“SI” when I speak to her in English which is a big milestone since no English
words seemed to be in her stockroom… </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US">This happened back in May. Now she turned
2 years and 6 months old she is like a mini-pink-cutest ever-strawberry cupcake-chatterbox,
but mainly in Spanish…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US">The fact is she understands
everything in English but she is still reluctant to answer in the same
language. The closest reference that we have is her brother, and to be fair I
think she speaks more Spanish (more precise, right verbal tenses, accurate and
conjugated adjectives…), BUT less English than him at the same age, as he </span><span lang="EN-GB">had his 2 year old spur in a more
balanced way between the 2 languages. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The good thing is that when I get
stricter and I pretend not to understand anything she is asking for, she
switches and tries to say it in English, so I know she gets the OPOL picture.
Now that I sat and mull this over, I think the difference lays a lot on 2
facts: <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">I
don´t turn a deaf ear on Spanish as often as I used to with the boy, I just don´t
have the time now that there are 2 monkeys jumping around and more things to
handle</span><span lang="EN-US"> at the same
time. The result is that she doesn´t have to switch mentally as many times as her
brother did to get what she wants.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">My
wife didn’t have the need to switch into English with the boy to increase
exposure so we didn´t work on this option. Now apparently we should reconsider
it, seing the results…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US">The big boy plays an important role
too. He speaks in English to her sometimes but not very often, and lately he
speaks Spanish to me sometimes, with her witnessing the scene. I answer in
English and we zigzag a little until we follow the conversation in English. But
in the end, when you look at the whole pic, again she doesn´t really feel THE
NEED, which is the key point that prompts the speaking part. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US">Despite all thi</span>s, I´ve perceived a
change in my mindset. I feel much more in peace with the whole situation when
hard phases come along, given the great results reached by the big boy. I mean he
is a competent user of English now; he is 5 years old and if dropped in an
English speaking country (let´s say) he´d be more than able to communicate and
survive. As an example, we went to the beach during our holidays last month and while
we were there he met a group of 4-5 year old British kids and started playing
naturally with them... in English. I just felt like we had got something big, really big in fact, like all the pieces were matching together.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US">There´s also an
interesting (revealing) thing that I´m noticing lately, and this is that, as I read in some
books at the beginning of this adventure, what mum does impacts a 70% on the outcome, and what dad does matters only the other 30%, provided an equal amount of
exposure… This, translated into a practical example is as follows: no matter
how many times I ask the question in English, the girl´s answer is in Spanish,
mum asks the question in English ONCE, and she automatically makes the effort
of answering in English… Here you go Papi, in your face… but hey! Papi never gives up, Papi
never surrenders…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-5275497243544032682015-01-03T08:40:00.002+01:002015-01-07T00:07:51.957+01:00Hard Times in Bilingual town...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">It´s been a while since last time I had the
chance to write a new post. I won´t blame stressful life, work overload or
raising 2 kids… Exhausted? Yes. Are these all the reasons? Probably, but this
time we´ll also add a bit of laziness to be completely honest… <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">Last time I wrote we were evaluating the
signals that we perceived in our big kid which led us to think he might be a
gifted individual. We talked to the specialized department in his school, which
recommended observation both in school and at home. After last months he seems
to be balancing, developing his motor skills which are compared to those of his
peers and also his cognitive skills. Yet he started reading by himself at 3, he
doesn´t seem to enjoy practicing, even though we try to read with him and guide
him somehow to explore and learn new things. Well, not catchy apparently… so
his reading hasn´t improved much in a year. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US">He is more now into dinosaurs
fighting, crashing cars and all the normal stuff that a 4,5 yo kid is supposed
to love. His interest in science (virus, bacteria… curiosity health issues in
general) is still there, but it is not growing exponentially as one could think
after the past month’s boost. Rather than being a “gifted child” as it is
normally defined, we think he might just be a precocious bright little fellow,
but within the reasonable parameters for his age. I have to admit this is kind
of a relief as we were a bit afraid of how to deal with an exponential gifted
kid.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">Regarding bilingualism, we have gone through
some important milestones lately and we were doing fine in terms of bilingual
goals so far. One of the main fears when you see it´s actually working is if
you´ll be able to keep it that way. Here´s a piece of advice for those who are
a step behind in this journey: Probably not, but let´s not panic. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">The fact is that the boy has started losing
some English, partially but progressively. He is hardly initiating
conversations in English with me now and it really puts me in a difficult situation
if we want to continue with the active exposure to the language, without
affecting the communication. I have to review my “flexibility rules” once and
again so he doesn´t get mad at me or refuses to speak the language because it´s
bothering him. I mean he tells me his things, like how his day in school was or
something that happened, and I listen actively reformulating what he says but
in English.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">A typical conversation after school goes this
way:</span><br />
<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="text-align: left;">...so tell me, how was your day?</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: left;">G me ha arañado en la cara!!</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: left;">No
way! G has scratched your face in a quarrel today?</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: left;">Si, y la profesora le ha dicho que eso estaba
muy mal!!!</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="text-align: left;">Wow,
I see, well that´s true, scratching your friend´s face is definitely a very
naughty thing… What happened in the end?</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="text-align: left;">Pues
que…</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="text-align: left;">English
Dani please remember</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: left;">… well… hm… The teacher… Papi, no me acuerdo de cómo
se dice “castigado”</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: left;">Grounded</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: left;">… well, the teacher grounded G…, y luego nos
hemos ido a jugar pero G no ha venido porque estaba castigado!</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">(Oh crap stay in English mode for good shake!!!)
Of course I don´t yell at him or anything I just try to guide him and be
resilient (focus Dad! never surrender… stay hungry… stay foolish…) <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">The thing is that a year ago I was able to make
him believe that I didn´t understand Spanish so he actually bought it and
switched into English or he just assumed naturally that it was OUR language.
Now things are different. He is a smart little man and knows perfectly well
that I´m Spanish and he is getting lazier to look for the right word, which
isn´t at the top of his mind as he only uses English with me mostly. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">I have tried to explai</span>n him what happens if we
don´t use a language, that, as he sees is in daily life it IS useful (his
school is bilingual, but not double immersion program, they only put more
effort in English which is not bad though). He seems to understand the point and
for the next hour he really makes the effort to switch and use the language as
much as possible, but I see a trend in what´s happening and It´s a bit
frustrating.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">Our little girl is starting to speak now and she ia also affected by this “Spanish flu”… She utters things mainly in Spanish
and with a bit of insistence on my part (“Pelota, well done girl ,but Papi says…”)
he switches then but she makes clear she is not supercool with it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">I know very well that we´ll go through
different phases and there´ll be ups and downs along the road, but when you are
in one of those “downs” it doesn´t feel pleasant at all… I think the way to
take this in a constructive way is to see it as an evolution of the process and
a challenge in terms of adaptation. We´ll see how it goes…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-24680595503248200332014-08-28T01:55:00.001+02:002018-09-28T10:07:54.776+02:00Gifted children<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">I haven´t been able to write any new posts
lately, due to an intense period of work, stressful life and lack of energy
after</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">1. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">long
hours in the office, plus</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: -18pt;">2.super
demanding offspring the minute I cross the door at home</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">…so let´s say lots of things have happened in
the last months, like the kids growing up at light speed, and honestly I
haven´t had the time to sit and think so even fewer chances to sit and write...
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">One thing that we are very concerned about
lately is facing the possibility of our older kid being a gifted individual. I
think writing about it is a great way to put thoughts in order and mull things
over a bit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">I guess there have always been some signs here
and there but I have repeatedly discarded this possibility, based on the idea
that all parents think that their kids are supergifted children in one way or
the other (e.g. “look how well he destroys all the plates of the cupboard, he is
such an artist!”)… I guess I have always thought that I was being just one of
this type.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">The truth is that during the last year/year and
a half there have been some objective facts that according to articles and
books on the matter would classify our little intrepid knight as a gifted child
(no idea at what level or in what specific area, but apparently they could be considered
as evidence). <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">We must say that it´s obviously not our
objective for our kid to be a gifted one, but a happy one. We don´t pursue to
brag about it or show him in the town square like a freak boy. We are truly
concerned about the difficulties that he might face in school or socializing
with peers as he might feel he doesn´t fit in the group, and if this is the
case we´d like to learn how we can be of any help to make sure he grows up
happy and he has also the opportunity to develop his abilities and work on
unbalanced skills.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">As children´s development is very flexible I
think 4 years old is still very soon to state definitely such a “diagnosis”. As
a summary, here are the facts that lead us to think he might have some special
abilities. If there´s an expert on the issue or a parent with expertise on the field, please leave a comment! Any guidance will be much appreciated:</span><br />
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b>
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Memory:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;"> He´s always been very good at memorizing
things. He used to recognize names very early. Here´s the boy at 13 months old
giving me the animals I asked him, and he knew many others in both English and
Spanish.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The same happened with numbers and also
early or at least I think so, as I don´t have many references. As soon as he
started speaking clearly, about 2 years old, he showed interest in numbers, so
I taught him how to count to 10. He learned things so quickly and showed also interest
in languages so I taught him how to count in as many languages I know counting (English,
French, German, Spanish and Italian), and we realized he needed only 1 or 2
repetitions to retain it all, even after weeks of not using them. So far so
good, “the boy is just savvy” we thought… He was about 2,5 years old.</span><br />
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The freaky-scary thing came one day
at 3 years old. We were in the car listening to a cd-story tale (The Tin Soldier).
At some point I turned it off and I realized he was reciting the following words,
not only a few, but he could finish the story by heart starting from any point,
saying the exact words. Then I moved the 13 minutes story to different points,
back and forth and every time I stopped it he could continue like he was
reading it mentally. Not a single mistake. Alright so I definitely couldn´t do
that and it freaked me out so badly. Then I tried the same thing with other
bedtime stories and he had memorized some of them with 10 to 15 pages, word
after word, and the funny thing is he was kind of surprised that I couldn´t do
the same thing, like it was the most natural thing for everyone.<br />
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<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Reasoning:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;"> We have the feeling that his mind
doesn´t stop working. Every single moment he is awake he is just turning things
over in his head. We notice that the most brain-active moments are when he is tired, before going to bed or just walking home. He gets hiper-talkative and strats firing questions related, and not related to the issues being discussed. </span><br />
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b>
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Extreme curiosity:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;"> Kids always ask “why”, and that´s normal
curiosity in children we assume, but in his case it´s a constant, extreme and exhausting
patern. We have had the chance to compare our conversations with others of same
aged kids, and the other kids ask “why” too, but not even close to the million
times he does. He asks why for absolutely everything around him. The other day
he asked (after staying quiet for a while, which is the sign that he is into
something…) “why are we always ALWAYS swallowing saliva? and what does it do inside our stomach?” or “how do viruses
and bacteria work?”, “how can roosters yawn with their beaks”, “where were the
3 giants while Fearless John was eating their dinner, and what were they doing,
and why?” It didn´t make any sense for him that dinner was ready, hot soup on the table and they were not there... hmm suspicious. Some of these questions are mainly related to the conversations we are
having when something calls his attention, but others come out of the blue
after he´s been thinking for a while.</span><br />
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b>
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Awareness:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;"> He shows a very active awareness
about transcendent issues. Recently he was being disciplined by mom for
treating his sister too roughly, and he replied “I don´t care, cause my sister
is going to die, we are all going to die. She is going to grow up and have
babies in her belly and then she´ll get old and die, so nothing really matters!!”…
Alright so you just turned 4, right?</span><br />
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b>
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Self-consciousness:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;"> He showed a high level of self-consciousness
at an early age. At 2,5 years old he wouldn´t take off his long sleeve T-shirt
on a hot day because he didn´t want people to see the little scratches he had in his
arms, after some fight he had with a schoolmate. Now at 4 he is extremely shy
when it comes to showing his body naked or the possibility of being shown up in any kind of situation. I´d say he is more close to a teenager than a toddler on this. </span><br />
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b>
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Reading:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;"> He started reading spontaneously at 3 years
old (in Spanish). I mean nobody gave him formal instruction. He was good with numbers so he liked reading license plates
when we were in the car. When he got to the letters, he didn´t know how to read
them and that seemed to bother him a lot, so he would start asking what letters
were those and how to pronounce them. We focused only in one language
(Spanish), as reading/writing is phonetic and therefore less confusing. After we
explained him the letters he´d ask for some examples like in “C as in CASA (house)”
so he got the use of the letters with examples. We didn´t realized but he was storing all the information in his database. In some weeks he got all the letters down pat
and started reading words, although without recognizing the meaning at the end.
After some weeks he started reading complete words in a meaningful way. We
never pushed him to practice because we want him to read as a pleasant game. We
only try to explain him that reading is the way to discover things that we don´t
know. He hasn´t practiced much mainly because of the next topic.</span><br />
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b>
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Frustration: </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">He is very perfectionist and he gets
extremely frustrated when he doesn´t perform a task in an outstanding way. He is
lately more interested in reading but he sometimes says that he doesn´t want
to read because he doesn´t want to make mistakes. For him making mistakes is
just not acceptable. We try to work on it an talk to him about making mistakes,
and how everybody (we, everyone) makes them and you just have to assume it and move on, but he
has an issue with this.</span><br />
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b>
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">School is boring:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;"> He is refusing to go to school
lately. At the end of last school year he started to say that his mates were repeating
the same letter/color/shape all the time, and that he wants to know (literally)
“how planes work”, “how microwaves heat up food” and stuff like that. We try to
explain things to him the best we can but we have to admit that we can´t expect
that the school pays such a personalized attention only to him. As a result he gets bored. </span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> Regarding explanations, if there´s something we don´t know, or we don´t know how to explain it in an
easy way, he says “don´t worry, you may look for it in the internet and then
tell me about it after my siesta”. Of course we know the first thing he is
going to ask after his nap is if you had the opportunity to look for the info
about (let´s say) why certain mushrooms are poisonous and things of the like. He does the same thing when I don´t know a word or expresion in English. Now the classes are starting in 10 days after summer holidays, we are worried
because he has already said that he doesn´t want to go back to school.</span><br />
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Bossy: </b></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">He is very bossy with adults. He questions and
rebels against authority very frequently, trying to negotiate and demanding a
reasonable explanation for every rule. He also talks to adults pretending he
knows all and trying to explain to others what he just learned like he were an
adult and he knew it all since long ago. I thing he sees himself as an equal when
he talks to an adult and he doesn´t want to admit that as a kid he is just
discovering everything.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Social difficulties:</b></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;"> We perceive that he has trouble
sometimes when he initiates conversations or tries to initiate a game with
other kids, like he feels threatened. He always sends preventive attacks and
tries to tease others from the beginning. We try to explain him that being nice to people in advance is a good way to make friends but he doesn´t seem to see it that
way.</span></div>
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<b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"> Motor skills:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;"> He lags clearly behind his peers in
terms of motor skills. He runs slower and in an uncoordinated way and he falls,
trips over and stumbles, more than the other kids. We believe it´s a matter of
time that he reaches this milestone but he is very aware of his limitations and
gets very frustrated when these differences arise when playing with others.</span></div>
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We think all this facts show that his skills are unbalanced, as some are very developed and others are behind the average. We fear that we might fall short at guiding and helping him develop due to the challenges that this (being really a gifted little man) may imply for him, his sister and the whole family in the end. Gifted or not (who cares) as all parents I guess we just count on good intentions, daily efforts and the hope that it´ll somehow work just fine in the end...<br />
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<strong>Update:</strong> Some years after, at the age of 6 he passed a formal IQ test, and results were he´s been a quite precocious kid, getting more balanced along the years. He has in fact really high capacities, althogh not reaching the pure definition of "gifted", that would imply getting him in a special program or changing school to really adapt. As we said who cares about labels, the important thing is he es growing happy and he is well integrated in his class which is what matters the most. </div>
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Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-24254604498699540482014-04-26T01:05:00.003+02:002014-08-31T20:23:45.082+02:00Girls just wanna have fun<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It is said that babIy girls are more likely to start showing abbilities (talk, walk, climb up things...) earlier on and specially if they are the youngest siblings. I was more than curious when we knew our little princess was comming, and after a year I can certanly confirm the statement. It´s not entirely the case, as her brother started walking on his own a week before turning 1 yo, and this little fairy seems to be more confortable crawling around whenever more than 2 steps in a row are required...</div>
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Nevertheless, there are many other things that she is mastering before her brother did. She grabs tiny things with more precision, seems to be very agile crawling and climbing, and also shows great skills at understanding and imitating sounds. I never thougt she was going to respond this early to English stimuli, since her exposure hasn´t been in my opinion quite consistent. But here she is answering questions and showing her deep insight on the animal kingdom...</div>
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So even though it might seem like she is not paying attention, she definitely is grasping the whole thing... We have tried and we see she reacts to the same things in Spanish so maybe we can start saying she is walking down the bilingual path with us now... and this is just as excitind as it could get!</div>
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Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-61025250459849001512014-02-23T23:16:00.002+01:002014-02-23T23:16:37.306+01:00Second Child, double challenge!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US">When we were about to be parents for the first
time I read in a book about bilingual parenting, that a second or a third child raised in a bilingual family were in many cases <b>less likely</b> to reach the same level of accuracy and fluency than a first child. I wondered at that time if this was really something to keep in
mind, or even applicable to our case, IF we were going to have more than one
kid (which sounded crazy at that time… go figure!). I mean, if you are the same
person, following more or less the same pattern with all your kids, why would
the second one have that burden…? …until you have the second child.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">After our second one our life has turned more than
chaotic for the first months. In our case, as the little baby girl is
mummy-centric, the oldest one is more in contact with me, so his level of exposure
has even increased, I could say that as a consequence I have noticed a pretty good
evolution in this level of English, I can observe now more transferences into
Spanish (English structured sentences with Spanish words, when he is speaking
Spanish, e.g. “Mamá, la vaca está con el FARMERO”, as in “farmer” instead of
GRANJERO). But if you take a look at the little one, it is true that she is
having significantly less English exposure than her brother at the same age,
since I used to read, play and sing more only with him in comparison. Now she
is 11 months old, she is able to crawl and steal his brother´s toys as we play
together, so she is getting (let´s say) “environmental” English and she is sometimes
included in the game with her brother´s permission, but still it is not direct 1
to 1 interaction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Although she seems to understand both languages
pretty well (she reacts to commands, songs, animal names…), I have reacted
trying to focus more on her, for example arranging more 1 to 1 moments, like
when it´s bedtime, even when this means playing less with the
older one. I definitely get now the reasons for the statement in that book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">BUT, as British say, “every cloud has a silver
lining”, so let´s not be such a "Pechvogel" (as Germans would say). There are also positive facts that
benefit the second child, especially in case of non-native parents like me.
Here are some that I can recall:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US">More vocabulary:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> With our first one, I went through a
process of acquiring 20 to 30 new baby-related words and expressions per week.
Baby bottle, merry-go, nappies (diapers), pacifier (binky), see-saw and so on… Alright I might not be Shakespeare right now, but the picture is totally different. Now
the lion has a mane, the baby has buggers, and the boy picked up an acorn that was right next to a fern, and all come to my head
instantly when I´m with the little one, with no stuttering, or rolling up my
eyes looking for that word… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US">Better fluency: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">I dedicated the first 8-10 months of
the older kid´s life to get used to say absolutely everything in English, so
that I got the fluency I needed (baby talk wise) for the time he was older and
therefore more aware of my “non-nativeness”. Now most of the daily expressions
are ready to go from scratch and I´ve had time to correct things that I got wrong
or not too accurate at a first stage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US">Sing along dad!:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> <a href="http://applesandmanzanas.blogspot.com.es/2012/01/2-words-sentences-and-being-with-him.html" target="_blank">This</a> is the list of rhythms
and songs that we sang back in those days (2 years ago). Now we keep the same songs, plus new
ones, AND we have a top ten list with the ones that worked better for him.
Coincidentally it´s more or less applicable to the little girl. Does this go in
the genes??<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US">-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US">More English children-related media:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Most of the days after dinner we
watch some 30min of tv together. You all know how much kids love repetition, so
after 3,5 years I´ve watched Kung-Fu Panda about 1.345 times, the same for
Cars, The Incredibles, Toy Story (yes, the whole saga), all the episodes of
Pocoyo, Peppa Pig and the latest acquisition, the entire season of Ben and
Holy´s Little Kingdom… That is a lot of English exposure for dad too!! Jolly
good!! Also we move from passive exposure to active interaction by commenting the episodes together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US">Much less anxiety:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> The Human Being has lots of trouble
with uncertainty. We just can´t handle it, so knowing more or less what to
expect and how far you can go gives you a certain amount of what is called "peace of mind"! Most
of the “what ifs” that prompted back in those days have now an answer or at
least some clear ideas about what´s to be expected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US">No self consciousness in public: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">I used to feel shy when I was
speaking to my boy in English in public, due to the mix of awkwardness and
insecurity that I felt at the beginning. Now my boy and I can maintain a full
conversation about many things, we play jokes, we sing songs and he asks me his
25 questions per minute about everything, all in English. And I feel proud of
him. I know cases of kids with both native English speaker parents, same aged boy/girl, and he/she doesn´t have as much vocabulary neither he/she shows the same fluency and accuray, so in our case his achievements are entirely his, not ours. We are impressed by how far we have gone together, and sometimes I can even detect some
jealousy in the people listening around, so now I´m more than fine with
speaking clearly and out loud with him and therefore with my little one too. And I think
he notices this and considers our pattern as normal. And I´m sure I may be
making some mistakes, but now I have the routine of researching and correcting
them on a weekly basis, and that´s proven to be a great thing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">For all these things we are willing
to challenge that statement and include “me fruity pancake” all the way in our
English fun. Now I´m sure my boy is all in with me, and I´m sure we´ll get
there, because he is a hell of an assistant!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-28439169951271883992013-10-19T21:38:00.002+02:002013-10-19T21:52:22.035+02:00You´ll never walk alone<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">One of the most overwhelming feelings when one starts a bilingual adventure like ours is the perception of being all on your own against the mainstream, the majority language. Even when you have the support of your partner and family, you tend to feel like a little boat lost in the middle of the ocean.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">If you are not a native speaker like in our case, you are normally too busy with worries and insecurities about your skills and the whole approach, fearing that eventually you´ll fall short and so on… So looking for similar families is out of the picture for a while. Despite the loneliness your guts tell you to keep going and believe that somehow in the end all the puzzle pieces will match. I love Steve Jobs´ quote in that famous speech that has become a classic already: “You can only connect the dots looking backwards…” well, after 3,5 years of adventure, pieces are matching pretty well here and there, and it turns out that we weren´t so alone after all… Bilingualism has become part of our life as a family and our older kid speaks both English and Spanish with an astonishing level of accuracy (not “proud Papi” speaking now, as this was said by some unbiased native observers). I give most of the credit to the strategy of providing the kid with as many English experiences as possible, and this was in part thanks to other heroes we´ve met along the way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Native friends visiting were a huge trigger as we saw in a previous <a href="http://applesandmanzanas.blogspot.com.es/2013/08/the-power-of-relatives.html" target="_blank">post</a>. Apart from that we have found a nice English playgroup here in Madrid, and once a month we join together to share activities and encourage the language, making the bilingual thing “less weird” for our kids. Also there are lots of activities organized by different associations and communities, even closer than we expected, like the English group we found right next to grandpa´s place. Apparently these things are like gnomes; you just have to look carefully to find them…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">We have also bumped into similar peers in the school, which is even better so our boy finds more natural what we do. It happened the other day as we were playing in the lake near the school after class. Our kid was enjoying his juice and playing with his mates when his radar detected a mum talking to her son in English. He looked at me immediately like he had found the Holy Grail and said “PAPI!!! They are speaking English!!!”, then played together in English for a while. Now if we are good at scheduling things, we can practically have a bilingual activity every other weekend, and most important of all: the boy is enjoying every part of it so far.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I loved to read <strike>searched obsessively</strike> recommendations from others 3-4 years ahead of us when we started, so here is our contribution (it´s cheap self-motivation stuff but it works fine for the case):</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">- </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Most important in my opinion: Make sure that all that involves the targeted language is FUN for the kid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">- </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Being consistent is one of the gold keys.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">- </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Try things and be flexible to adapt yourself to the kid´s natural evolution. Don´t force things or your kid will rebel him/herself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">- </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Whatever happens don´t let anyone tell you that it´s not going to work just because they think they wouldn’t be capable of doing it. Actually if they tried seriously, they´d most probably be capable too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">- </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">This is not mine, but I like it: “Stay hungry”, and yes you guessed it... “stay foolish”.</span><br />
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Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-41170304485591659682013-08-13T00:27:00.000+02:002013-08-13T00:27:50.458+02:00The power of relatives<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="en-US">In most
of the books that I´ve read about raising children bilingually or
growing up with several languages, there´s a </span><span lang="en-US"><b>common
topic</b></span><span lang="en-US"> that is considered crucial or at
least very important when it comes to fostering the acquisition of
the targeted language. It´s said that having </span><span lang="en-US"><b>relatives/caregivers</b></span><span lang="en-US">
(native speakers of the language) spending some time at home or </span><span lang="en-US"><b>a
visit to the country</b></span><span lang="en-US"> where they live is
a great way to make the little ones </span><span lang="en-US"><b>improve
their skills</b></span><span lang="en-US"> (speaking, mostly). </span>
</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US">I
always saw the value in this idea, but thought that the
effect would be </span><span lang="en-US"><b>temporary</b></span><span lang="en-US">
and it would fade away when the kid is back to his/her usual
environment. Plus, I tried not to give it that much importance, since we
are a family of Spaniards with no native English relatives or the
like, so we convinced ourselves that we´d just be ok without this.
What we have experience recently </span><span lang="en-US"><b>has
made me change my vision</b></span><span lang="en-US"> of the effect
of having a </span><span lang="en-US"><b>native speaker in permanent
contact </b></span><span lang="en-US">with the kiddo.</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">Last
month, a good friend of ours (She is American, God bless u L), came
to Spain to take a Spanish course, and she spent 2 weekends at home
with us. What I´ve seen and experienced with our boy these days and after has
been incredible. It´s been like some short of spell that </span><span lang="en-US"><b>triggered
a</b></span><span lang="en-US"> </span><span lang="en-US"><b>brain
switch</b></span><span lang="en-US"> in him. I started noticing
the impact on the kid´s speech after only 2 days. After the second
weekend it was even stronger, and what has been more puzzling for me
is that </span><span lang="en-US"><b>it hasn´t gone</b></span><span lang="en-US">
after our friend left. The main changes that we noticed are:</span></div>
<ul>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">He
initiates ALL the </span><span lang="en-US"><b>conversations</b></span><span lang="en-US">
with me in English and </span><span lang="en-US"><b>answers</b></span><span lang="en-US">
me in English when I ask him something, so the OPOL model has been
reinforced. Even in crossed conversations he talks to his grandpa in
Spanish and then in English to me, much more often than before.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">He
</span><span lang="en-US"><b>plays</b></span><span lang="en-US">
alone and </span><span lang="en-US"><b>sings</b></span><span lang="en-US">
to himself in English much more often. </span>
</div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">He
has </span><span lang="en-US"><b>corrected naturally</b></span><span lang="en-US">
the structure of the WHY questions (i.e. “Papi, Why DO WE HAVE to
go to sleep?”, “How DO WE GET to that bridge over there?”. He
barely fails these ones now, and I haven´t insisted at all (like
<a href="http://applesandmanzanas.blogspot.com.es/2013/05/correcting-why-questions-directly.html" target="_blank">before</a>) It just happened. </span>
</div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">He
uses </span><span lang="en-US"><b>past sentences </b></span><span lang="en-US">much
better, -ed forms and irregular verbs are used correctly and more
fluently than before. He gets stuck less and knows how to go round
things to express his mind. I see he feels much more confident with
the language now.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">He
gets things from </span><span lang="en-US"><b>TV shows</b></span><span lang="en-US">
or </span><span lang="en-US"><b>movies</b></span><span lang="en-US">
and </span><span lang="en-US"><b>applies</b></span><span lang="en-US">
</span><span lang="en-US"><b>them</b></span><span lang="en-US"> in
regular situations, like: </span>
</div>
<ul>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span lang="en-US">Papi,
this car is blocking the track of the train” </span>
</div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span lang="en-US">I
see… And what are you going to do about it?”</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span lang="en-US"><u>Never
mind</u></span><span lang="en-US">, I´ll take the other way,
Papi…”</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><i>To
myself: wait a minute, I never use “NEVER MIND”, I normally use
”IT DOESN´T MATTER”, Where did he get that from?, </i></span><span lang="en-US">“Dani,
Who says “NEVER MIND?”</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span lang="en-US">Daddy
Pig (from Peppa Pig) says it, Papi…”</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span lang="en-US">Ok…”
in awe…</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">He
tells me (in English) </span><span lang="en-US"><b>invented stories</b></span><span lang="en-US">,
things that have happened in Spanish or things that someone
explained to him in Spanish (like how the brakes of his bike work),
adapting the vocabulary and asking the words that he doesn´t know
how to translate, sometimes getting me into trouble because I don´t know them either...</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">He
seems to </span><span lang="en-US"><b>remember words</b></span><span lang="en-US">
that we haven´t used for a long time, so I expected him to have
forgotten them, but apparently he hasn´t. </span>
</div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">He
talks to his </span><span lang="en-US"><b>baby sister</b></span><span lang="en-US">
in English when I´m around. She only drools back for the moment
though…</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0.64cm;">
<span lang="en-US">I´m
not saying that any kid spending 2 weekends in contact with a native
speaker is supposed to experience this. Every kid is different, and
in fact I think that in our case it has been due to a </span><span lang="en-US"><b>combination
of factors</b></span><span lang="en-US">, like my friend being
awesome with kids, (an expert at storytelling), my boy getting on
well with her since the first 2 hours (it was love at first sight, he
even shouted “Papi! Don´t drive her home!!” When I was taking
her back to her place. He didn´t want her to leave at all), me
spending more time with him lately, holidays, English playtime… </span>
</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0.64cm;">
<span lang="en-US">What
I say is that this short period of time has made a </span><span lang="en-US"><b>gigantic
difference</b></span><span lang="en-US">, it has occurred in the most
</span><span lang="en-US"><b>natural way</b></span><span lang="en-US">,
and </span><span lang="en-US"><b>the effect hasn´t gone away</b></span><span lang="en-US">
after my friend left. I mean, my boy is reacting as if he had taken a
step forward (short of magically) and has not stepped back after the
trigger disappeared. </span>
</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0.64cm;">
<span lang="en-US">And
most important of all, we see </span><span lang="en-US"><b>he is
happy and enjoying it</b></span><span lang="en-US"> so much, he loves
everything that has to do with different languages, he perceives it
as a normal thing and loves playing with it.</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0.64cm;">
<span lang="en-US">I
assume that kids with relatives/caregivers who are </span><span lang="en-US"><b>native
speakers</b></span><span lang="en-US"> may have a huge advantage when
acquiring several languages at the same time, and now I see the
impact of it. In 2 weeks time my boy will be back to school, starting
this year the dual immersion program (half of the day in each
language Spanish-English), so let´s see how things go. </span>
</div>
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<span lang="en-US"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US"><br /></span></div>
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Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-35859883503073959462013-05-27T22:27:00.001+02:002013-05-27T22:27:19.116+02:00Papi got backfired when trying the “tooth fairy encouragement”:<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I found myself between puzzled, amused and
proudly surprised the other night when I got tricked by my own little cheeky
monkey!!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We saw the episode of “Peppa Pig and the Tooth
Fairy” before bedtime, and he brought up the subject during our storytelling
session. He wanted me to talk about what happens when one´s teeth fall out. I had
the idea of taking advantage of the situation and use an encouraging strategy:
In Spain when a child’s tooth falls out, “el ratoncito Pérez” (Mr. Pérez the Mouse)
comes during the night and leaves a coin or a little present under the pillow (same
as tooth fairy). Therefore the encouragement was like “…as you speak 2
languages my dear boy, when your tooth falls out you´ll have a fairy AND a
mouse visiting you! Double prize! Isn´t this cool?”. So he listens to my
speech… silence… mulls things over for a while… I can hear his brain working… Then
he goes like: “Papi, check this out: Comme stai? Grazie, uno, due, tre…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and Papi check this out too! Hallo, Wie
geht´s dir? Eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf… I speak 4 languages (it´s not true,
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presents… Papi, who comes in the night in Italian? How do you say Ratoncito in
Italian? Can we go to Germany… on a plain?”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">There you have it Papi, in your face…</span></div>
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<br /></div>
Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-16004807114914992132013-05-27T22:26:00.002+02:002013-05-27T22:26:15.124+02:00Correcting WHY questions directly: Mission aborted…<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As an addendum to the last post, I must say
that the direct correction strategy is not working very well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I was immersed in one of these WHY question
rounds the other day and he was constantly using the Spanish order of words
instead of the English one. I was trying not to be intrusive so I asked him
some WHY questions in the right order but he wouldn´t get back on track, so I
started repeating the phrases after him in the right order to see what
happened… One try, he repeats the question in the right way, goes back to
Spanish order, second try, he amends the phrase again but looks at me annoyed,
third try he stops the conversation, hesitates a bit and then says “Papi, por
qué?”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I didn’t need to read between lines too much.
The clear message is: If you want me to keep going with your English circus,
don´t be too much of a pain in the ass or I´ll switch into Spanish…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Alright dude, I got it for now, no pressure man...</span></div>
Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-9582278121570741142013-05-19T00:29:00.003+02:002013-05-19T00:29:49.820+02:00Transferences and other milestones<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I read
some time ago about transferences from one language to the other as
bilingual children grow to 3-4 years old, and now that we are
experiencing it I can say they are both fascinating and also really
fun. In our case transferences usually take place in Spanish, when our boy
refers to a word that he is normally using more in English (i.e.
speaking with “Papi”), here are some examples:</span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Blanca” instead
of “manta” because of “blanket”: “Papi no se moja en la
moto cuando llueve porque lleva una BLANCA”.
</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“<span lang="en-US">Lanchar”
instead of “lanzar” because of “to launch”: and he
conjugates the verb in Spanish “Voy a LANCHAR estos coches con el
LAUNCHER”.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“<span lang="en-US">No
me DESCUBRAS!”instead of “no me DESTAPES”, as a direct
translation of “uncover”. He said that while playing in bed,
although it should be “don´t take my covers off” or something
similar…</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“<span lang="en-US">Carpeta”
instead of “alfombra” because of “carpet”. This is an old
one, and he is still stuck here, but we don´t put any pressure on
correcting him directly so far.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Ella ES 0 años”
instead of “ella TIENE…” <span lang="en-US">. Direct
translation for “she is 0 years old”. In Spanish we use the verb to
HAVE X yo. </span>
</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“… y voy a GIRAR
en un monstruo!!” instead of “…y me voy a convertir en un
monstruo!!”. <span lang="en-US">In fact he is translating directly
from “I´m going to TURN into a monster!!”. He always translates
TURN as GIRAR in Spanish, and he does the same with words that are
used for different purposes. I guess this must be confusing for him,
but once he hears me use TURN again he goes with the flow without
questioning, so I guess it´s ok. </span>
</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">I´ve
been more at home lately, therefore his daily exposure has increased,
and I think this is one of the main reasons for these events. We also
see that he switches into English and initiates conversations in
English from scratch more often, and also more easily every time.
Another thing that has progressively changed is that he doesn´t take
very well when mummy speaks English, so we could say he is becoming
stricter when it comes to sticking to OPOL. Either I read one story
in English or Mum does it in Spanish, but he rarely accepts Mum
reading the same story in English. When he asks about something in
English and Mummy answers he sometimes goes like “No Mummy, not you! I´m
speaking English with Papi!!”, meaning that if the question is in
English, it´s me who must answer. </span>
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reverse
story telling:</span></b></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">I´m
very glad to see that another milestone has been accomplished in
terms of speech production!! Our little punk has started to be the
</span><span lang="en-US"><b>story teller</b></span><span lang="en-US">
in our daily storytelling session at bedtime… I had to hold myself
back for not to crack up laughing. </span>
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">Last
night as I was tucking him in bed, we were going through what we had
done during the weekend, and he came up with “Papi, I´m going to
tell you a story: This time it is about a shinny car, and he was
going very fast along the road, and suddenly he got a flat tire, and
then he called the tow truck, and it came and it hooked him up and
took him to the repair shop…” and he went on and on, using
different plots and situations recently played with his cars. He had
done this before but only with random sentences, not building a whole
story by himself and never at this speed. </span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">I thought it was very
remarkable as he was keeping a very good fluency. Something
interesting as an observation is that he has started stressing the
–ed words (in past) and polishing his pronunciation, as he speaks
more clearly now in English, getting closer to the level of clarity
that he has in Spanish, which everybody says is really good. His
accent is somehow strange, and the poor thing is not obviously the
one to blame. I trust in his future exposure to native speakers at
school and some reinforcement that we will provide with summer camps
and other resources. </span>
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">Another
observation is that he is also figuring out the grammar rules, for
instance “…and then the plane run along the runway and TAKED
off!” I read on a book about bilingualism, that this type of
constructions reveals a step forward in language awareness. Even
though he normally said “the plane took off” in a sentence, this
“correctness” was a result of memorizing the set of words, and
now he is building the language by reasoning the structures and
figuring out the grammatical rules. As always I don´t correct him
directly, but I use the same structure in the correct way one or two
sentences after. </span>
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US"><b>Correcting
“WHY” questions: </b></span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US"><b></b></span><span lang="en-US">As I mentioned
<a href="http://applesandmanzanas.blogspot.com.es/2013/04/3-years-recap.html" target="_blank">before</a>, our boy is constantly asking “WHY… everything
imaginable”, and he connects every answer to one further question.
So far so good, only that he uses the Spanish structures (order of
words) for English questions. He is having some difficulties
integrating the auxiliary verbs here; and he uses them right in other
cases, but apparently not in this one. A typical conversation goes
like:</span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Papi
why is that car going so fast? (he is 100% into cars now…)</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Maybe
the driver is in a hurry.</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Why
HE IS in a hurry? (instead of “is he”.</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Maybe
because he wants to pick up his children from school and he is late.</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Why
HE WANTS to pick up his children from school? (instead of “why
does he want...”)</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And
it goes on and on… Seriously, it can last 12 rounds! I think this
routine is a great field to promote the right use, since he
reformulates naturally everything one says. What I do here is that after
some “wrong” sentences, I ask him a question with the right
structure, and if he insists on the Spanish pattern then I explain
him briefly that we have to say it differently in English. I think he
appreciates these explanations because immediately after he stumbles
a bit but tries to follow the right path, at least for 2 or 3 questions after
coming back to the Spanish structure (sigh)…</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have your children gone through a phase of transferences between their languages?</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What patterns does your family use to "correct/redirect" wrong grammar, and h</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ow strict are you applying them?</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-90214820558419170412013-04-10T23:53:00.001+02:002013-04-28T01:17:34.099+02:003 years recap<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">Almost
3 years have passed since our boy came to our lives and with him the
bilingual project that we promote in our family. </span>
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can still remember how I </span><a href="http://applesandmanzanas.blogspot.com.es/2011/11/hi-everyone-ive-just-decided-to-start.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">felt</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> when we decided to raise our child/children bilingually. Now
as his 3rd birthday is almost here, and with his little sister just arrived, I think it´s a good
time for a recap.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
way I´ll do this is by starting with the positive things collected
along the way, and then go through the weak points where I think we
need some kind of improvement.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Great
outcome from this bilingual adventure:</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">My
boy is about to turn 3 years old and he speaks Spanish and English!!! (Yet his
English lags logically behind Spanish, but he´s grasped it in an
awesome way).</span><span lang="en-US"> </span>
</span></div>
</li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I´ve
proved that I´m able to do this. I never thought I´d get this far
but I´ve done it, and that feels pretty good and encourages us to keep going. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
have the wonderful support of my extraordinary wife who jumps into
the English side from time to time joining our world of English fun.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">The
family has not only respected but supported the project from scratch
and they see the effort and the value in it. </span>
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My
boy has accepted our family language approach without questioning
the model so far. He could have rebelled himself against it or just
refuse to speak the way only his father does, but he´s gone with
the flow extremely well.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">I´ve
been able to keep track of the process on this blog. I barely have
time to re-read old posts (I´d say even to write new ones…), but
when I do it brings me lovely memories that I´m sure I´ll enjoy
more with time. </span>
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">Despite
the lack of exposure, since I work long hours, he has got </span>gramar, structure of English, and fluency, not only vocabulary. This morning on our way to school he came up with "Papi, why is it foggy this morning?", and IT WAS a foggy morning indeed, and we had just talked about what "foggy" means once!!</span></div>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now I´ve come this far I feel much more confident about replicating the model with our baby princess, and of course involving her old brother in the process.<br />
</span></div>
</li>
</li>
</li>
</li>
</li>
</li>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Things to be improved:</span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
see my own mistakes and inaccuracies in the way he speaks:</span></span></div>
</li>
<ul>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"></span><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Prepositions:
Many times when I feel insecure about which preposition I should use
(in/on/at???) I just go for one and move one, but I´m concern with my lack of consistency on this. When I face the same structure againg I know I might use a different preposition, so it´s confusing for him and he hesitates when he wants to use the same sentence. </span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"></span><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Phrasal
verbs: I try to stay in the confort area and use only those that I´m sure of, but this makes my speech limited, and clearly less rich than the one of a native speaker. </span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"></span><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Movement/action
verbs/expressions: What seems natural for a native is really not natural for me, so I try to nurture this kind of stuff through movies, Peppa Pig-s and the like, but again I see a weak leg here...</span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I still have to work on how to react consistently when I´m in the need of saying something in Spanish in his presence, so I don´t go against my own rules. </span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">Now
my boy is in the WHY phase, he fires me thousands of questions per
minute, WHY..."everything imaginable”? and WHAT is…
“everything”?. So this is kind of a stress test for a
non-bilingual father like me. Added to this, I´ve been ultra-loaded
with tons of work lately, and therefore the exposure time has dropped
a bit affecting also my dedication to my own improvement in those areas
where I find my English weak.</span>
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> </div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next big challenge ahead of us is including our baby girl into this adventure, and hopefully with the same results (fingers crossed).</span> </div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-71038204261475515632013-03-11T23:32:00.001+01:002013-03-11T23:32:59.176+01:00Counting in German and Italian<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It turns out that he loves counting now and especially in Italian!!!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/gI5HDLSxqT4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
He likes also German<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/XGln2m6lyRY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
</div>
Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-54699029415846307252013-02-18T22:37:00.000+01:002013-02-18T22:37:07.358+01:00Multilingual - Multinumbers
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">In
relation with our previous <a href="http://applesandmanzanas.blogspot.com.es/2013/01/christmas-boost-and-useful-tools.html" target="_blank">post</a> about useful tools to promote
bilingualism among children, I´d like to share what´s going on in
our home lately. We have started improvising mind games that have
turned out to be a great way to encourage awareness as well as
enjoyment towards languages, always trying to keep it fun!!!</span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Last
week we started a really fun game that I call “Multinumbers”. As
I have mentioned in previous posts, my son finds really fun when I speak some German, and although I don´t have a great
knowledge (let´s say my German is at an intermediate level) I
sometimes drop German words or expressions here and there, just to
talk about languages with him and reinforce the idea that there are
different ways to speak in the world, and that it´s enjoyable, fun
and useful knowing different languages to be able to communicate with
other people. </span></span>
</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">The
fact is that after hearing me count from 1 to 10 in German several
times, he has not only learnt how to reproduce it, but he´s
established the match between the numbers in the languages he knows
(Spanish/English/German numbers so far…), so now he is able to say
there are “cuatro coches”/”four cars”/”vier” (4 in
German). </span></span>
</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Having
said that, the rules of the game we have made up are as follow:</span></span></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">It
works in turns; Player 1 says a number in one of the languages in
scope (Spanish/English/German).</span></span></div>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Player
2 says the following number in the language that Player 1 has used.</span></span></div>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Player
1 says the following number but then he/she has the option to
continue with the same language or switch into a different one,
which Player 2 will have to follow again.</span></span></div>
</li>
</li>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">A
typical round would go like: </span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">P1:
“uno”</span></span></div>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">P2:
“dos”</span></span></div>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">P1:
“three”</span></span></div>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">P2:
“four”</span></span></div>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">P1
“fünf”</span></span></div>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">P2
“sechs”</span></span></div>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">P1
“seven”</span></span></div>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">P2
“eight”… and on and on… </span></span>
</div>
</li>
</li>
</li>
</li>
</li>
</li>
</li>
</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">You
can add players with the same scheme so Mami joins the fun at times. </span></span>
</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Now
he looks at me sometimes, and out of the blue he goes like “Papi,
FÜNF!!” and starts smiling to get the game started.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">He
has also began to play the game of inventing words and then ask people what that means just to pull
their leg, which I attribute to this new language awareness. There
are other interesting things related to this new awareness:</span></span></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">He
pays a lot of attention at the mouth of the people when they say
something and he doesn´t know how to pronounce it, as if he wanted to
learn how to move his tongue and lips to reproduce it. He is
intrigued by German words as he activates his "pronunciation radar"
when we play <em>Multinumbers</em>. </span></span>
</div>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Although
he positively knows now that I understand and speak Spanish he has
never requested me to speak Spanish so far. On the contrary, he
prefers English storytelling rather than Spanish, and he gives me
Spanish words, songs and expressions, even Spanish names for me to
translate them into English, which is really fun – Papi, How do
you say “Leticia” in English?</span></span></div>
</li>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Here´s
the boy warning the piggies because there might be some wolves
prowling around…</span></span></div>
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/rtV26V55seo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">I
think these kind of games and routines are resulting very beneficial,
in terms of creativity, fun, and mainly for the positive attitude
towards the whole idea of learning languages and using them on a
regular basis. </span></span>
</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Have
you come up with any games or other similar strategies to keep your
family languages up and growing? Which ones have caught on best?</span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-48672237076811588102013-01-24T22:26:00.003+01:002013-01-24T22:36:31.353+01:00Christmas boost and useful tools<span lang="en-US">Christmas
time has left us a great step forward in English. I took almost 2
weeks off from work and Junior hasn´t gone to school all these days.
As a result, the huge increase in exposure has made a great
difference in the way he speaks. At the end of these 2 weeks he
initiated many more conversations directly in English with me, and he
reported many more things in English, even though they occurred in
Spanish. After everyone´s back to real post-Christmas life he has
clearly lost some of the ground gained, but I´m glad to see that
some dregs are left, and now the difference between Friday afternoon
(lowest English skills) and Sunday night (highest peak after all
weekend of extra exposure) is smaller. </span><br />
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">It´s
been also really fun to observe how he gets sometimes puzzled when his
granny doesn´t understand something he says in English, (like “muddy
puddles”, as he prefers this expression rather than the Spanish
“charcos”, even when he speaks Spanish), or she is not able to
reproduce the names of his toys (“Frightening Mc Mean” is way too
difficult for a Spanish granny!!). I think he is every time more
aware of the fact that he possesses an ability that not everyone has.
I try to explain him that there are others in the world who speak
other languages, and then I try with some German and Italian, and he
finds it very amusing. </span>
</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">Tools
to increase/retain English: Some of the tools that we are using are
working extremely well!!!</span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">Peppa
Pig: I try to limit the passive exposure as much as possible, but we
have found a very good and enjoyable middle term with our beloved
friend Peppa Pig!! We watch episodes and then comment afterwards
about the stories and his favorite parts. Then I also use the
episodes as bedtime stories. He is acquiring lots of new words and
expressions and Papi finds many references to use afterwards in daily
life. Peppa, I owe you a big one!! </span><br />
<br />
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</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">Storytelling:
He is absolutely mad about stories now. And the best part of it is
that he clearly prefers stories in English!! The only thing that I
have noticed is that he prefers to see the pictures and follow my
descriptions rather than listening to some elaborated prose. I think
it´s a matter of age, but I´ve noticed that he hardly keeps the
interest if I read the prose literally, even if I try to emphasize
and use different voices for the characters. Anyway the classics are
working super fine (3 little pigs, Snow White, Cinderella…) </span>
</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">Theatre:
We act the stories that he likes assigning characters to everyone,
and then switching, so we all can have all the fun and use different
registers, and yes… Papi has been Cinderella, and yes again, Papi
had to scrub the floor on my knees weeping because I hadn´t been
invited to the ball (which I found totally unfair being the prettiest
girl in town</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings, serif;"><span lang="en-US"></span></span><span lang="en-US">!!!).
This is one of his favorite things to do now as he enjoys so much
dressing up and representing what he sees in the storybooks. </span>
</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">Language
awareness: Other milestones regarding language:</span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">Pronunciation:
He asks for correction and he is starting to correct people. He is
more likely to mispronounce English words than Spanish one, as
expected. But every time he perceives that he sounds differently he
stops and says:”Papi, I said…”, and then shuts up waiting for
an answer, then when I repeat the word he says it again and if he
doesn´t get it right he moves on, but I know he takes some short of
mental note. My only concern is that he takes ME as the reference in
pronunciation, and even though I do try to sound as close as I can to a
native speaker, I´ll never be one. I guess this is something that we
non-natives have to deal with and although it doesn´t keep me up at
night it´s still there…</span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">Vocabulary:
He asks for the name of things in English, i.e. last night:</span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">D:
“Papi, what´s for dinner?”</span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Mami: “Lombarda”</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
D: “Papi, cómo es
lombarda en inglés?” <span lang="en-US">P:”Cabbage my boy”. </span>
</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-US">Now
like always, I´ll be glad to hear what tools you all use to
increase/retain the minority language of your children.</span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-79835305501784452712012-12-31T02:06:00.001+01:002013-01-23T06:53:30.947+01:00Spanglish and others<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The last Spanglish incidents during Christmash holidays have been really fun, and I just didn´t want to miss the oportunity to post them, as these are the kind of things that go with the wind when the kids start growing up so quickly. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- CARPETA: "Mami, estoy jugando con los coches en la CARPETA". Carpet in Spanish is "alfombra", but he didn´t find the word and came up with this, which by the way is a typical false friend among Spanish learners of English!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- COOKANDO?: He comes in the kitchen and stares at me while I prepare lunch. "Papi, qué estás cookando?". Most of his transfers are Spanish sentences with some English adaptation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- SMALLAR: He couldn´t make a toy fit in another toy... "Papi! it doesn´t fit! SMALLATE! Papi lo quiero SMALLAR!" It took us some time to get this one. He meant "make yourself smaller!" but using the imperative form in Spanish.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Things like these are starting to blossom from time to time and we can´t stop laughing secretly when he doesn´t see us.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Do you have any funny transfers from one language into the other along your kid´s development?</div>
</div>
Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-27137181300463900422012-12-20T00:31:00.003+01:002012-12-20T00:46:11.929+01:00The singing boy, bilingual school and return on investment<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">I´ve
many times wondered myself (<a href="http://applesandmanzanas.blogspot.com.es/2012/08/and-when-are-you-going-to-stop.html" target="_blank">here</a>, for instance) what impact the
bilingual school would have on my boy. Well, yesterday afternoon we
had the first clear outcome when he taught us the song he had learnt
from his native English teacher. As I mentioned before in some older
posts, this year he spends only one session of 2 hours a week with
her on Mondays, then some reinforcement session (games, songs and
routines) with a non-bilingual teacher on Wednesdays. Yet the
exposure is limited, thanks to the OPOL approach that we follow at
home, for him it´s just like some other Spanish song, and I think
here is where the main difference lies compared to monolingual
families. </span></span>
</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">After
observing my nieces and other kids, I know that at this age, kids
from monolingual homes attending bilingual schools/day care are
facing English words for the very first time at 2-3 years old, so
they repeat the sounds they hear, as accurate as they can, but most
of the times not realizing the meaning. A popular song like “This
is the way we brush our teeth…” sounds like “di iz wea way be
bo bo biiii”, and it´s all fine cause the objective at this point
is getting them familiarized only with the sounds, tone of voice and
melody of the language. In our case the bilingual environment that we
have created since the boy was born has made possible that he
actually recognizes in the song that they are talking about what we
do every night, when we all brush our teeth. He is also showing signs
of understanding the whole story in series and movies we watch like
Peppa Pig or simple Disney movies, everyday more and more.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">So
he enjoyed this so much that after singing the new song at home a
couple of times, our punk started making his own lines using the
structure of the song. We were playing with the cars before bedtime
and we accidentally bumped our heads, and I said “Hey man, watch
out! You just bumped your head into mine!” and there he went…
“Papi! This is the way we bump our heads, we bump our heads…”
We were absolutely puzzled. And every day more he is coming up with
this kind of things, like “XXX doesn´t like this, NEITHER DOES
YYY”. And I´m like “neither does yyy???” I find this structure
difficult most of the times because it´s very different from
Spanish, and he just got it damn right from scratch. He doesn´t even
have to think about it!!! This is also applicable to the order of
words when he switches back and forth. He is starting to place
everything correctly in each language. I´d say his understanding
skills are pretty much at the same level in both languages, and
regarding speech, English is walking uphill almost parallel to
Spanish, maybe just one little step below.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Going
a little bit deeper into the bilingual schools issue, some years ago
the chances were scarce, private and therefore extremely expensive.
Now that we are starting to count on public and semi-granted ones,
with different qualities but improving I believe, bilingualism and
opportunities have been popularized. Although this is absolutely
fabulous for our new generations, I think many families in Spain
deposit all the responsibility of the “bilingual plus” only in
the school. I think that if you want to make the most of the system,
you have to look at it as a reinforcement to your bilingual approach
in your family. Of course this will depend always on the language
skills of the parents, but even if they are not competent users it´s
also possible to create a positive environment towards the minority
language through videos, songs... And if you start from scratch it´s
a great opportunity to learn side by side with your children. Kids
with no minority language reference outside the school tend to take
the second language like an extra subject (sometimes an annoying one
if I may say it). Creating an environment where speaking another
language is fun and useful makes bilingual things much more enjoyable
and likely to happen. With some effort, support and consistency they
can achieve great things all by themselves.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">So
as a summary of this post and a milestone along the way, I can gladly
say, with evidence in my ears that bilingualism definitely pays off,
the effort is absolutely worth it, and one can see/hear the huge
benefits of it as early as 2,5 years. It´s definitely the best
investment I´ll ever make in my whole life.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">I´d
be glad to hear about others´ experiences. Do you have any bilingual
options in your school system? What´s your opinion about them? Do
they complete your family bilingual strategy? Have you made this
“stop and think” exercise about what your families´ return on
investment is?</span></span></div>
Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-62467878339445011162012-11-25T01:26:00.001+01:002012-11-25T01:26:09.529+01:00Funny glitches
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Time does fly! There
has been a new boost in our little punk´s vocabulary and construction of sentences in
the last 2 months. He uses appropriate terms in the appropriate
occasion much more often and he has started to integrate corrections very quickly.
He also relates one thing to another, based on previous events, which
was less frequent before. Example: “Papi I just fell down LIKE THE
MONKEYS” (we sing the song “5 little monkeys jumping on the
bed”). He uses this “PAPI/MAMI! -something something-, LIKE
-something related-…” structure very often. This occurs in
Spanish more frequently than in English, as it´s expected, but
transference and parallelisms between the two languages do occur a
lot. He also tries to adapt English words into Spanish when he can´t
find a Spanish word. The outcome is most of the time hilarious. </span></span>
</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">He
also demands translations of Spanish songs into English and he finds
this very amusing, which is a real mind cracker for Papi, who tries
his best improvising direct translation that rhyme if possible…
Then I have to remember what I just made up because he records it by
heart and I know he´ll ask for the exact lyrics in English some
other day (big challenge!).</span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">He
is more aware of what languages are. He identifies English and
Spanish by its name, and we talk about speaking 2 languages and what
people do and don´t speak them. I also play with him counting or
saying different things in German (I´m far from proficient, just low
intermediate), and he finds it really fun too. </span></span>
</div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Regarding
correction strategy, we haven´t changed it along these 2 years. We
continue to use a soft approach, that is to say we don´t stop him
and say that he is wrong and the right way to say this is XXX…
Instead of this we just let him speak and then use the word or
expression after him reformulating the same structure or a similar
one in the right way, and he understands most of the times
immediately what needs to be corrected. Then next time that he uses
the same structure he usually gets it right. I think this is because
we instinctively use a different tone of voice and pace when we want
to focus on something that needs to be corrected. </span></span>
</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">There
are some persistent and very funny bugs that are being really hard to
redirect though. For instance, he uses the verb “to give” / “dar”
in Spanish in a really strange way. For some unknown reason he adds
“TA” before it and then constructs all the grammatical structures
placing that particle perfectly. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;">“Te
voy a TA dar este coche” / “Mamá me ha TA dado un coche”. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Even
though we use this verb very often, like in every language as I
assume, he stubbornly does this even though we have used it in the right way a
moment ago. It´s really funny because this particle doesn´t exist
neither in Spanish nor in English, and neither we nor anybody that he
has contact with, as far as we know, say that. There are some names
also that just don´t go with him. “Víctor” is “Gitor” for
him, and that makes conversations so fun. </span></span>
</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">He
is well aware of contracted forms so the “TA” case doesn´t seem
to be that he is confusing this with a particle. For example I
usually say “I´m gonna give you…” and the like (wanna, gonna,
etc, I just can´t help it) and he replies many times with “Papi IS
GOING TO give me…”, so it´s clearly not the case. The particle
thing happens more in Spanish than English, just as a curiosity. </span></span>
</div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">I
take these glitches as part of his development and maybe as a way to
reaffirm his personality rather than a speech pathology, but just in
case I´ll keep a close eye on this…</span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span lang="en-US">What
funny glitches have your kids had along the early years? Do you try
to correct them or you just go with the flow?</span></span></div>
Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-70502738862301339162012-11-06T09:46:00.002+01:002012-11-06T09:46:40.125+01:00Cognitive skills, development and bilingualism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We have had a meeting with our boy´s teacher (kindergarten) to have an in-depth chat about the first months in school. There are 2 main messages that she wanted to share with us:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Things we should work on with him:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Motor skills: He is slightly behind the average in terms of motor skills, meaning he bumps into things, trips over and falls down more than other same aged kids. There´s nothing to worry about because not all the children develop all their skills at the very same time. That means he is a little bit clumsier than the average, so it´s just a matter of time that he improves these skills, we only have to make sure that he continues to have activities that imply movement, and that´s easy as he doesn´t stand still… ever!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Please: He demands things in a very dictatorial style. We need to work on this together with Grandpas. I´m sure though his baby sister will help on this as soon as she arrives. I´m afraid that one way or the other he will perceive that he has to share the center of the universe with another little person. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Cognitive skills: He is apparently way beyond the rest of the class in terms of cognitive skills. She gave us some examples that prove that his skills on this area are equivalent to a much older boy. For example, they use a chart with symbols of the different routines that they follow each day until someone comes to pick them up at 5:00pm, so they can understand what´s coming next and have a reference, and some security about what´s going to happen. The teacher says it normally takes the kids half of the school year or the entire course to have this chart down pat. She says he could tell the rest of the class and the teacher what was coming next after only 2 weeks, in 2 languages, so they say they are really impressed. They are working on colors, one each month, so they understand and integrate which things are (let´s say) red in their environment. I certainly didn´t know that they were going to cover this kind of things at his age. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have by no means trained him on these short of routines, all of the contrary; he has shown a very vivid interest in colors, numbers, and letters since he was as young as 15-16 months old. Now he is 2,5 years old he can easily count up to 20, knows all the colors ,including some that are considered (apparently) tricky, like purple or grey. He also differentiates “dark blue” from “light blue” and all these things he does it in 2 languages. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Actually we have never sat down and thought about it because we didn´t have many references other than cousins, and obviously you don´t conduct an exam every time they get together to compare (so sick!). I don´t believe he is a typical profile of highly gifted individual (Mensa style). Apart from the fact that this is absolutely nothing that we would pursue, I guess that if this were the case he would be doing things like playing the violin and maybe reading faster than us. We just want him to grow happy and healthy, but the fact is that among other 20 same aged little individuals, he´s been reported to be some short of “outlier” in terms of cognitive development. I have also read that sometimes some kids develop earlier in a short period of time but then they slow down the pace and they get balanced within normal parameters according to their age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I don´t support the idea that bringing up your kids in more than one language will make them automatically smarter than others, as sometimes it might even add more complexity to their lives. I just think it is a way to make them more adaptable and have more opportunities in life, but what if there is a real and direct link between one thing and the other? If this were the case, would that make kids from Belgium, Switzerland or many parts of India automatically smarter than others?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I consider this point really interesting, so this question goes to all of you bringing up your offspring in more than one language: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Have your kids been objectively reported to have any short of advantage compared to same-aged monolingual kids? At what age?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Do you think these differences can be attributed to being raised in more than one language or they only respond to nature?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-15043031025324688442012-11-06T09:29:00.000+01:002012-11-06T09:29:08.328+01:00October Halloween Party: English mode "on"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We have fortunately found a playgroup in Madrid, formed mainly by mixed families (one or the two parents are native speakers of English) and Spanish families with a similar language approach, so I have to admit that I´m more than exited to be able to attend activities in the targeted language, and get the boy exposed to native speakers, as well as lots of children of the same age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">There is at least one activity per month, which is organized by a different committee each time, formed by 4 or 5 families who are in charge of arranging all the details and communicating them to the rest of the group.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The October Committee has organized a wonderful Halloween party last weekend, so we dressed up for the occasion and attended the event, having a whale of a time! There were lots of activities for kids of varied ages, storytelling and lots of yummy things to chew on. Dani was a little bit shy at the beginning, but as time went by he started to interact with kids and adults. I think he didn´t realized about the whole English thing at the beginning, but I can tell by his comments the following days that it caused a very positive impact on him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We had been talking for weeks about a Halloween party where everyone was going to speak English, and although I think he was a little bit skeptical, he´s been reporting everything that happened, being English an important part of the story. He talks about adults that he met, and kids that he played with in English, even though little communication took place, as he is only 2,5 years old. I think it was a very reaffirming and encouraging experience for all the family. It was also comforting to find other Spanish families (i.e. non-native speakers) with different accents and styles, trying to provide their kids with this wonderful gift which is speaking another language, despite all the mental and non-mental work involved in it. For all this we are really looking forward to attending the next activity. ¿Do you have any playgroups to interact in the targeted language? ¿What impact does it cause in your kids?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-39967935374297996722012-11-06T09:27:00.000+01:002012-11-06T09:27:51.199+01:00Visiting the Fire Department<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I happen to have a fireman friend, so as the kid is flipping out lately with all that has to do with trucks, I asked him if we could visit him and have a guided tour to show our little mechanic the guts of the fire department, with a very special focus on the fire engine of course…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">He´s been talking about this visit for weeks, so since the moment we got off the car his face said it all. He was exited like never before, eyes open wide in awe, and he could barely stop saying “Papi look! A fire engine, Papi look, a helmet, a water hose!!!!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They let him see the kitchen, dorms, the bar, the gym and all the facilities. Then we moved outside to see all the equipment, and the vehicles. They even let him ring the bell!! He was absolutely amazed. After this and for about 1 week his favorite bedtime story has been “The Amazing Story of Dani Visiting the Fire Department”, taking the place of Snow White and also The Big Bad Wolf (super hit until now, overall the part of huffing and puffing)… As I was explaining to him all the things we saw during the visit, he reports the whole story in English then translate it into Spanish for Grandpas, so one of the main objectives of the activity was absolutely accomplished!!! Now every time 2 of his little toy cars crash there is an explosion (very educative, yes!!), and the fire engine has to come and put out the fire. Big LOL.</span></div>
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Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-64578825222455225992012-10-21T02:09:00.002+02:002012-10-21T02:09:29.909+02:00Parts of the carDani explains the parts of the car.<br />
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Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-57646683519807776712012-10-05T14:46:00.001+02:002012-10-17T16:12:01.929+02:00What´s in fashion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We adults know and assume we like certain things and not others in general, and that is mainly because we have gone through different experiences that have an impact on our tastes. But what if you hadn´t had the time to go through experiences yet, because you were born just a couple of years ago? Now we see our kid growing so fast, it amazes us how quickly his taste evolves. Sometime it´s difficult to keep up with what´s in fashion at the moment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This might have an impact when you are trying to foster exposure to the minority language through activities that in your opinion are rich, varied, entertaining, exciting and… and your kid is apparently not much interested in!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">My boy seemed to love me reading stories to him when he was 10 to 16 months old. We would snuggle together on the sofa, grab a book and see the pictures, and I´d talk about the things that we saw. I had then assumed that it would continue to be like this as the months went by, but of course it wasn’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As he grew up, he started to move and explore a lot more, and he´d barely stand sitting on my lap for more than 3 seconds, at least there´s something yummy to chew on...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">He´s gone through phases on which his preferences have varied significantly. First he was so much into animals, so much than at 25 months old his vocabulary on the issue was remarkable, but in the last 2-3 months he´s become what I call a “vehicle-centered freak”, since he is absolutely in love with everything related to trucks, cars, bumps, roads, bridges and things of the like. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I was in fact a little shocked the other day when we went through one of his favorite books about animals and he seemed to have forgotten the names of some of the animals he knew quite well months ago. It´s true that the names he had some trouble remembering were those he paid less attention to at that time, but still I felt kind of altered; because I think I tend to take for granted that they only add up knowledge and it stays there. There´s obviously nothing to worry about because we understand it´s all part of the processes he is supposed to go through, but one can´t help but wondering if it´s one´s fault. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">After some similar situations I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to making the minority language as fun as possible, it´s much more beneficial to go with the flow. After all it turns out that using that old best-seller about animals as a slope for the tow truck, and talking about who´s got a flat tire works much better than forcing him to go through the book and repeat the name of the animals. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">When he is not interested in something he just turns a deaf ear on you and acts like the thing doesn´t go with him, so I´m trying to detect these deafness moments and change the subject to keep the game going. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">One of his favorite games now consists in me playing some short of magic trick and hide his ultra-loved Lightning McQueen in different places, then I give him some leads to get to it. This is working very well since he pays so much attention to the leads and I make them gradually more complex and interactive so he gets more vocabulary and talks more using different expressions. The only thing I fear is if I´m saying things right!!! No kidding…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">What about you guys? Have your children experienced many phases in their tastes? How do you handle their interests to foster exposure and prompt response in the minority language?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-78603059027356075512012-09-14T09:08:00.001+02:002014-02-23T23:01:24.937+01:00The English speakers club<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Last night my kid and I were having one of those bedtime conversations, and right before falling asleep he started tapping my head in the dark and said:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Papi! Papi! Can you hear me?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Yes I hear you, what´s up sweety?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Yaya (granny) doesn´t speak English”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Me in awe: “… you are right, she does not”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Abu (grandpa) doesn´t speak English, Tita (aunty) María yes, she speaks English like you…”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And he went on and on classifying people by language. It´s funny that as he hasn´t met yet anyone who speaks exclusively English, he put those who can speak at least some English in the English speakers club.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In the last 4 weeks, the structure of his sentences and his fluency have experienced a great improvement, and I think that apart from the normal development is due to 3 main reasons:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I´m putting him to sleep almost every night, and he spends around 45min to 1h speaking before he finally falls asleep, that makes an extra hour/day of 1 to 1 exposure talking about what happened during the day (we transfer experiences lived in Spanish into English so he is able to report in English in the future), we sing songs, and I tell him stories on demand. I end up exhaust because this last game requires a good deal of improvisation. It goes like: “Papi, tell me the story of me getting on a train”, and then I go “Once upon a time, there was a boy…”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We went on holidays for 2 weeks, so that means intensive exposure as I turn myself into the OPOL compliance department. We have played long hours together, most of the time in English. We also visited my father and his wife, who speak both English, not at a native or very fluent level, but they can follow our conversations, so this one has been a big trigger for the little man to start interacting in English with more than one people, and to understand that it makes sense to speak other language because there might be other people to communicate with in that language. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Bilingual school: He has started attending preschool classes in a bilingual school. This year will be only 3 hour/week in English, so 3 days a week they spend 1 hour of their daily routines with an English teacher, sometimes native. It´s a pity it´s only this little time and not always a native speakers is guaranteed, but trust me It´s the best you can get in Madrid for an affordable price when it comes to preschool. Next year (3 years old) he´ll start the “official school” and he´ll have 50% English and 50% Spanish, always with native speakers to support conversation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Although this is the established program, we were at the inauguration of the scholar year last week, which is an even mainly to welcome new families and introduce the basics of how the school works. They put all the kids in one big classroom to play during the presentation, and some English teachers (from grades above) heard us speaking, so I asked them to please speak to him in English if there was some interaction. They were quite amused and surprise as the boy could maintain a light conversation in English, and he understood everything they said. They found our case interesting since I´m not native. I´ve been told there are several cases of children with parents of different backgrounds and native languages in the school. They recognize that in these cases things are much easier as the first big steps have been already taken. Every time they bump into my boy in the playground or in a common area they speak in English and so my kid reports when we talk about “people from school that speak like Papi”, so I must say I´m quite comforted, since one of my worries is the lack of exposure due to my long hours at the office. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Bilingual schools and local policies towards bilingualism are subjects to write tones of pages about, so although this is not the purpose of the blog, let me share some funny news I read recently. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I won´t declare myself as a firm supporter of the right party in Spain, but one of the objectives of Mrs. Esperanza Aguirre, President of the local government (Madrid) that I firmly applaud and support is to transform gradually all the public schools into bilingual ones from preschool, and to declare new ones to build as bilingual from the beginning, so they can directly hire native teachers (with public money). I find this idea a huge step forward in Education and a way to improve dramatically the employability of the new generation of Spaniards, as well as a start to finally topple down some horrible topics that we have insisted in nurturing for decades… Yet there have been voices against these measures. For god´s sake, high quality bilingual schools for free! Who can be against that?? Spaniards of course, these voices are coming mainly from teachers unions and parents associations, arguing that this will favor foreign workers over locals and comments like these have been heard: “what if I have a meeting with my kid´s teacher and I don´t understand anything because I don´t speak English?” or “Less English and more employment!!!” (for Spanish monolingual teachers I understand…). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Sometimes I sadly realize that we have the country that we deserve and that it´s very likely that our topics (“Olé torero”, “sangria”, “siesta”, “mi no entender señorita…”) will follow us to the end of times… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3209044287890093034.post-27979521031678992302012-08-24T14:43:00.004+02:002012-08-24T14:45:29.292+02:00Relatives, bilingual schools and some “pearls”<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It´s summertime so we are having many get-togethers with our relatives, in particular with our sisters and cousins with same aged kids. Swimming pool, bbq, lunch, dinner, etc… yeah, I´ve put on 5 kg/11 pounds and I don´t want any comments about it… I´ll try to fix that later… Apart from gobbling and slurping, we have shared lots of time with Dani´s cousins (1 boy and 5 girls) 6 in total aged between 1 month and 4.5 years old, and we are having lots of fun. We´ve been able to compare also Dani´s speech development with the others and we´ve observed that he is on the average or even above the rest of his same aged cousins in Spanish, apart from speaking English at about 60%-70% of the level of Spanish.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">These get-togethers have been a good field test for the speech pattern in our family, as typical doubts in bilingual environments arose as expected: “Should I continue speaking English to my kid, even when other kids are around and don´t understand anything?”, “What about other adults?”, “Should I speak first in English to my kid and then repeat things in Spanish for the rest of the people?”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I have opted for a flexible approach given the fact that our relatives support the idea of speaking both languages to our kid, and sometimes they even confess that they wish they could do the same with their kids. I speak only English with him and I usually go on like this when other adults or 2 of his cousins (girls) aged almost 4 and 4.5 years old are around, as they attend bilingual schools. I positively know that they understand me although they answer questions in Spanish even when prompted in English. I think this is mostly because they feel insecure about the language, maybe as a result of not producing any English words out of school. It seems like this turns summer into an English time-off, as they don´t identify the family environment as a place where they can/should speak English. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons why kids attending bilingual schools don´t seem to be actually bilingual in Spain, as they don´t have family support or anyone encouraging them to use the language out of the class, or just anyone who actually knows the language. They are getting a passive bilingualism, which hopefully will become active if they use the language as they grow older (summer camps, trips, extra activities with natives). It´s soon yet to know how this country is going to improve in languages at a generational level, as all these bilingual state funded programs have been working only 3-4 years in some of our schools. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Although late (they should´ve done this 30 years ago like Norway or Finland) I think It´s a very positive thing, but I know that in many of the schools teachers are far from native-like, exposure is limited, and plans are poorly implemented. I´d hate seeing this done under the Spanish topic of poor performance. It´s sad but it´s true. I´m Spanish and I feel really ashamed when things like this are on TV.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Not even one of the presidents that we had since democracy started in 1975 has been able to attend an international meeting in English or other language than Spanish during their term of office, while others like Greece, Italy or France do it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Going back to the family, the other kids that don´t know any English just look at me frowning at times, so I know they are not catching it but they just go with the flow. When I see it´s imperative to switch into Spanish I do it, but then I feel like I have to keep a low profile so my kid´s radar doesn´t detect me, or he´ll start repeating out loud everything I said in Spanish. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We have also observed some translations from Dani to his cousins, as he identifies them as Spanish speakers: “Dani go and show your cousin the wound on your foot”, and there he goes: “Mira N, tengo una pupa en el pie!”, and here is another “pearl” dropped during our way home: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Papi: “So Dani, I heard that you took the bus this morning?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Dani: “yes”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Papi: “and who were you with when you took the bus?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Dani: “With abu”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Papi: “That´s great, and which color was the bus you took?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Dani: “blue” (the public buses in our area are all green)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Papi: “Are you sure? All the busses that we usually see around are green”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Dani: “It was blue, Papi don´t try to fool me”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Which strategy do you follow when relatives are around and don´t know the language? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Are there any public, semi-public/afordable bilingual programs in the schools where you live? Are these programs truly bilingual?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Any “pearls” from your kids that you want to share?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Danihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17108194020194860925noreply@blogger.com3