chiquita :D
Today I babysat for this one and a half year-old girl for the first time. I didn't know this before but her parents are teaching her English and Spanish, speaking almost all Spanish in the home. (I'm so jealous of that; I'll be working for years to become truly bilingual, and in a few years she'll know Spanish better than me without doing any work. Anyway.)
I started speaking Spanish to her, and it was so much fun! I hadn't realized how long it has been since I had spoken Spanish, so it was kind of difficult to call it up, especially the grammar stuff. But since she's one and can't really speak much in any language, my knowledge of "mono!" "bebe!" "oso!" "silla!" "adonde vamos?" "quieres agua?" and "otra bebe!" was totally good enough. Ahaha. She did understand English though, which was good. This was one of the few times she actually responded to what I said, and it totally made my day:
Her: *puts her doll in the doll stroller, then takes it out, hands it to me, and gestures to the stroller*
Me: Poner ella?
Her: YA!
Ahhh so adorable! I'm assuming "ya" was her saying "yeah" in a Spanish accent, rather than her ordering me to do it. Hopefully. So anyway, I put it in the stroller. Ahahaha. This was exciting for me because now that I think about it, this is the first time I've spoken to a native speaker in Spanish, aside from my teacher. Ever. And this is proof that I actually know this language, at least bits and pieces of it, and I'm really proud of that. Then I went home and I was still thinking in Spanish...if you know more than one language you can understand what that means. (I'm proud of that too, I guess.) :)
I started speaking Spanish to her, and it was so much fun! I hadn't realized how long it has been since I had spoken Spanish, so it was kind of difficult to call it up, especially the grammar stuff. But since she's one and can't really speak much in any language, my knowledge of "mono!" "bebe!" "oso!" "silla!" "adonde vamos?" "quieres agua?" and "otra bebe!" was totally good enough. Ahaha. She did understand English though, which was good. This was one of the few times she actually responded to what I said, and it totally made my day:
Her: *puts her doll in the doll stroller, then takes it out, hands it to me, and gestures to the stroller*
Me: Poner ella?
Her: YA!
Ahhh so adorable! I'm assuming "ya" was her saying "yeah" in a Spanish accent, rather than her ordering me to do it. Hopefully. So anyway, I put it in the stroller. Ahahaha. This was exciting for me because now that I think about it, this is the first time I've spoken to a native speaker in Spanish, aside from my teacher. Ever. And this is proof that I actually know this language, at least bits and pieces of it, and I'm really proud of that. Then I went home and I was still thinking in Spanish...if you know more than one language you can understand what that means. (I'm proud of that too, I guess.) :)