Simultaneous translation through the phone

In the last 2 weeks Jr. has started to figure out what phones are for. He even asks his grandpas to call mum and dad when they pick him up at daycare. When we can sneak out from work and pick up the phone he tells us about his day or what he is eating or doing using his 2-3 words sentences. Up to this point everything looks just normal, but the other day he surprised me as his grandma was dictating him what he should tell me and the plans that they had for the afternoon. I could hear my in law whispering in his ear, obviously in Spanish, but as he knew that he was talking to Papi, his 2-3 words sentences were in English, and the time between he heard the words in Spanish and he spoke in English was incredibly short. I think it´d take me longer to translate simultaneously the way he was doing it. The conversation was like “Dile a Papi que vamos a comprar globos rojos!” (=”tell Papi that we are going to buy red balloons!”), and he went like “Yaya! (Granny!)-red-balloons!”. Another remarkable milestone is that he is performing quite well at changing the order in adjective+noun combinations, as the order in Spanish and English is the opposite. The 1.BIG 2.ELEPHANT= El 2.ELEFANTE 1.GRANDE. He barely uses this in the wrong order. I can´t help but admitting that I´m absolutely proud and even surprised that he is sticking so well to OPOL. It´s true that he has lots of automatic reactions in Spanish and that you can perceive this every time more, but he also responds quite well when prompted and driven back to English. I think that so far it´s not a matter of preference but an environmental consequence and given the percentage of exposure (I´d say 30% English on a weekly basis as much), I think it´s a very good output.

Tactical thinking

It´s amazing how kids develop their tactical thinking to get what they pursue. It´s said that baby girls are especially good at this. My niece (3,5 years old) is certainly a good example as her teachers have reported a special ability at mediating in conflicts and not getting involved in any kind of violence. She has proven her skills in situations like establishing turns in the playground, who gets the new toy in class, or even finding diplomatic solutions between someone else´s fights.

In our case, our little punk has also started to develop certain “cutest-ever” tactics to get away with things. Sometimes when he´s been naughty and mum or I send him to the “thinking corner” to think about what he´s done, he just looks at mum in the eyes, tips his head over slightly and says “mama guapaaaa…” (Mummy pretty…). Anyone capable of grounding/yelling at this little angel would be practically considered a monster!!

The strategies that he uses with me are more focused on saying things in English like “I´m sorry” or “I love you” or saying things like “papa, thank you!” when I give him something. I think he detects quite well when he does one of these things that make us look at him like he is the most adorable angel (frequent among parents). As we are too busy doting on our cutie, his little mind classifies this moments as “another way to get away with my plans…”

We´ll see how all this progresses, but what I take out from it is that I´m now more sensitive to this kind of strategies and I have found myself to be more indulgent if he uses English, as if responding well to bilingual stimuli was some short of free pass, or at least a way to diminish the impact of bad behavior. I can´t help but thinking that if we want to picture bilingualism as a natural thing for him, we should stick to our rules whatever the language he is using… but he is just soooo cute when he says “Papi, I love you!!!”.