Me mano se duerme, can you please wake it up?
“The words! I collected them in all shapes and sizes and hung them like bangels in my mind.” - Hortense Calisher
I think it’s cute and even entertaining when little ones are learning two languages. Babies who come from bilingual homes are bombarded with twice as many new words and meanings than those from one-language homes. My favorite part of bilingual (or even multilingual, nowadays) children is that time in their young years where they don’t realize that they are speaking two different languages and that not everyone understand everything they say. Sir’s daughter is 1 ½ and just beginning to put words together and she is being taught Spanish and English. Sir only knows a little Spanish, so it’s fun that sometime his daughter says things to him and he needs his wife to translate rather than saying “What?” and discouraging her. I got to say hello to the mini MexiPol this morning and boy-oh-boy is she too freakin’ cute. She said hello and then I asked her in Spanish about her day. Being only 1 ½ she didn’t have too much to say, but what she did say was in Spanglish. Adorable. (Have I mentioned that I want to keep this kid? Steve’s met her and we want to kidnap her. Too. Damn. Perfect.) Anywho, it’s fun watching kids figure out language.
I was one of those bilingual, Spanglish kids. Spend just 10 minutes with my extended family and you’ll see how crazy two languages at the same time can sound. I love Spanish. It’s beautiful and it comes in handy and I wish I knew how to read and write it rather than just use it conversationally. And, honestly, not living with my grandparents anymore, not hearing Ma speak it all the time, and having a white husband, really has made me forget a lot of my Spanish. (I should start watching Telemundo. Let it come back to me…) My rollin’ RRRssss and Y-sounding Ls do find time to make appearances-during work events, chatting with Gramma, when I’m yelling at Sully, or calming babies to sleep. Like most things, they say if you don’t use it, you loose it. I hope I don’t loose my Spanish. I want my kids to be those lil adorable bilingual ones, confusing their daddy with Spanish phrases.
One thing I’ll never forget is the lullaby my grandfather used to sing to me. I’ve heard the melody so many times, that it’s printed in my memories. Sometimes, I catch myself humming it. Sometimes I sing it to myself at bedtime. It’s my favorite song.
Words in any language are powerful. Little kids with accents are just cuter.
I think it’s cute and even entertaining when little ones are learning two languages. Babies who come from bilingual homes are bombarded with twice as many new words and meanings than those from one-language homes. My favorite part of bilingual (or even multilingual, nowadays) children is that time in their young years where they don’t realize that they are speaking two different languages and that not everyone understand everything they say. Sir’s daughter is 1 ½ and just beginning to put words together and she is being taught Spanish and English. Sir only knows a little Spanish, so it’s fun that sometime his daughter says things to him and he needs his wife to translate rather than saying “What?” and discouraging her. I got to say hello to the mini MexiPol this morning and boy-oh-boy is she too freakin’ cute. She said hello and then I asked her in Spanish about her day. Being only 1 ½ she didn’t have too much to say, but what she did say was in Spanglish. Adorable. (Have I mentioned that I want to keep this kid? Steve’s met her and we want to kidnap her. Too. Damn. Perfect.) Anywho, it’s fun watching kids figure out language.
I was one of those bilingual, Spanglish kids. Spend just 10 minutes with my extended family and you’ll see how crazy two languages at the same time can sound. I love Spanish. It’s beautiful and it comes in handy and I wish I knew how to read and write it rather than just use it conversationally. And, honestly, not living with my grandparents anymore, not hearing Ma speak it all the time, and having a white husband, really has made me forget a lot of my Spanish. (I should start watching Telemundo. Let it come back to me…) My rollin’ RRRssss and Y-sounding Ls do find time to make appearances-during work events, chatting with Gramma, when I’m yelling at Sully, or calming babies to sleep. Like most things, they say if you don’t use it, you loose it. I hope I don’t loose my Spanish. I want my kids to be those lil adorable bilingual ones, confusing their daddy with Spanish phrases.
One thing I’ll never forget is the lullaby my grandfather used to sing to me. I’ve heard the melody so many times, that it’s printed in my memories. Sometimes, I catch myself humming it. Sometimes I sing it to myself at bedtime. It’s my favorite song.
Words in any language are powerful. Little kids with accents are just cuter.