A multilingual journey

You don't use it you lose it.

2008-09-26T22:09:00Z

Lana Privitera is the proud Mom of a fun-loving, bilingual "chatterboy" that likes to spice his speeches in English with long-winded Spanish words. Her goal for 2008 is to pack also some French and Italian in his very expandable 3.5 year old brain. Lana still qualifies as a SAHM but uses her "spare" time working as a watercolor artist and Spanish/art teacher

Nickey started school last month and I went back to College. Major changes in our

lives, obviously. Is our Spanish interaction suffering? Definitely YES. Big time.

After packing 80 pages of General PSY (in English) inside my old brain and writing

an average of 3,000 words in English a week, my Spanish doesn’t come out

spontaneously and I keep forgetting to switch languages when addressing Nickey.

I’ve already noticed a subtle decline in his fluency. He doesn’t speak Spanish to me

now unless I prompt him. His grammar is getting all messed up too.

So I guess I’m going to have to make more of an effort from now on. I don’t want him

to end up losing it all.

Are bilingual teaching materials helpful.. or not?

2008-08-29T18:09:00Z

I’ve heard some bilingual parents saying that using bilingual materials such as CDs

and DVD in dual language setting is “Bad”, that the kids “tune out” the target

language and listen only to the “Majority language”.

In my opinion, that’s not true to all kids and circumstances. If you use materials in

the Target Language only, some kids can deduce the meaning of words by context

alone, yes, but many others cannot manage that and so they need some additional

support. I’m talking about children that are exposed to a new language after they

can somewhat understand and/or communicate in the “Mother” language, of course.

If they have no clue of what a song or dialogue is about, these kids might get

frustrated and lose interest in the target language completely.

My son, who is almost 4 years old and has been exposed to Spanish for 2 years, is

now asking every day for the meaning of some words that pop in our conversations

or the TV, words that I’d assumed he knew the meaning of! There are many words

in every language that cannot be figured out just by the context and need an

explanation or translation.

My brightest student is 11 years old She’s very smart and can guess word meanings

by context and root similarity, but what sparked her interest in learning Spanish

was a bilingual CD full of cute songs and so I’ve been encouraging her Mom to buy a

few more bilingual materials.

Whatever technique works to get your kid speaking the target language…. is the

right one!

If you think that materials in bilingual format can be of interest to your child, the

following are a good start:

“Hop, Skip and Sing, Spanish” by Ana Lomba (accent from Spain) CDBook

combo

Is full of fun, catchy little songs and finger‐plays. It’ pretty entertaining for little

ones.

“Professor Parrot speaks Spanish” (DVD)

My son, at age 2, loved the "bird" videotape! This video touches the basics in an

entertaining way so it's engaging for kids. The acting and singing isn't top notch but

it serves the purpose: my son used to belt out the "colores" song while visiting the

supermarket!

“Lyric Language, Spanish” (Audio –cassette or DVD + CD)

Lots and lots of songs to learn vocabulary

The "pros" of raising a child Multilingual

2008-08-16T00:22:00Z

The information below is an excerpt taken from The Multilingual Children's

Association webpage. If you want more valuable info about Bilingualism, please,

take a look at their website.

http://www.multilingualchildren.org/index.html

"Growing up with multiple languages is the easiest, fastest, and most effortless way

to learn a foreign language. For your baby, it will be as natural as learning one

language is to all babies.

* It is easier to learn another language from birth than it is during any other time

in life ‐‐ baby simply has two first languages.

* Your child will have a head start in school. In most countries, a foreign language

is mandatory.

* If your child wants to study more languages later in life, she will have a leg up.

The differences in sounds, word order, stress, rhythm, intonation and grammatical

structures will be easier to learn. For related languages, such as Spanish and French,

the similar vocabulary will make learning especially fast.

* Multilingualism has been proven to help your child develop superior reading

and writing skills.

* Multilingual children also tend to have over all better analytical, social, and

academic skills than their monolingual peers.

* Knowing more than one language helps your child feel at ease in different

environments. It creates a natural flexibility and adaptability, and it increases her

self‐esteem and self confidence.

* Your child will develop an appreciation for other cultures and an innate

acceptance of cultural differences.

* Career prospects are multiplied many times over for people who know more

than one language. Helen Riley‐Collins, president of Aunt Ann's In‐House Staffing in

San Francisco, said more than half her clients request nannies who speak another

language. "Families who are involved in international business are thinking ahead,"

she said of her clients, many of whom work in high tech, investment banking or

finance. "They want to give their children a head start in business in 20 years."

* If your native language is different from the community language, you probably

will feel emotionally closer to your baby when speaking your native language to her.

Mother Language, Majority Language.... what's the difference?

2008-08-10T23:12:00Z

When talking about multilingualism there is such an abundance of terms used to

describe a family linguistic status that is quite normal for the un‐initiated to become

confused.

Today I wanted to try to clarify some of those terms for you.

Mother language: the language you learn from birth –be it the local language or not.

Majority/Local/Native language: the language spoken in the country you live in.

Minority/Target Language: a language that isn’t the Local Language. It could be one

of the parent’s original native language or a Foreign Language introduced at school,

or even a language one or both of the parents speak at home even though it isn’t

their native language.

OPOL: “One Parent One Language”: A household where 2 languages are spoken to

the child. It can be 2 Minority languages or the Local language plus a Minority

language.

Bilingual: A person fluent in 2 languages.

Multilingual: A person fluent in 3 or more languages.

Praise works miracles

2008-07-27T22:16:00Z

PRAISE, praise and more praise. That’s what works with my son. Whenever I see him
forgetting to use Spanish, I teach him a couple new expressions, praise him lavishly for

his efforts and then he’s on a roll again!

Even though he’s still addressing me mostly in English when his Dad is around, I barely

have to remind him to speak in Spanish when we are alone. He seems to enjoy the

challenge of creating sentences all of his own and you can see him thinking hard,

searching for words to add to them. Whenever he’s stumped by a particular word, he

either asks me for it or finds a substitute of sorts. Like the other day, when he couldn’t

find a way to describe “crusty morning-eyes” and asked me: “ Mama. What are esas

bolitas I have en los ojos when me levanto? (What are those little balls I have in the eyes

when I get up?) After I rephrased the whole question again in Spanish, I answered that

they were called “legañas”. He went then on a rambling monologue about what legañas

were for, and used the word 6 or 7 times before I finally steered him out of his bed and I

subtly changed subjects.

That’s one word I won’t praise him for again, otherwise, knowing my son, we’ll have

“legañas” for breakfast, lunch and dinner several days in a row!

Links for today:

For books in any language http://www.languagelizard.com/

For bilingual educational program in any language try “Lyric Language” DVDs.

Successful trip to Spain

2008-06-29T20:45:00Z

Visiting Spain last month was the best move I’ve made since I said yes to my husband’s marriage

proposal: just 2 weeks of mingling with Spaniards turned my son Nickey (who’ll be 4 in August) into

an active speaker of Spanish!

Before we went to Spain he understood everything I said but only dropped a few words here and

there in Spanish mixed in with his English. He could only string 2‐3 easy words in a row in Spanish

before getting stuck and reversing the syllables. He could say a few standard sentences, of course,

and also enjoyed saying long words like "zapatitos” ,“zanahorias” ,“chiquititos” but he would never

speak Spanish in public.

The difference is that now, without any prodding from me, he chooses to talk to me in Spanish,

sometimes stringing together sentences of as many as 7‐8 words and with the right grammatical

structure! Of course, he’s still filling in the blanks in his Spanish vocabulary with English words, but

that’s happening less and less often the last few days. I would say that he’ adding at least 10‐20 new

words/day. We’re now at the stage 70% Spanish‐30% English –but just when we are alone.

Last night at a party he made me so proud when for the first time ever he spoke to me in Spanish in

front of strangers! He came to me with a beautiful calendula –plucked roots and all from my friend’s

beloved garden‐ and said to me with perfect accent and diction: “Mama, esta flor es para ti! Put it en

agua!”(Mom this flower is for you. Put it in water)

Just hope he still brings me flowers and addresses me in Spanish in 10 years time!

Lana

PS: Here there are a few links your children might find interesting.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/hispanic/pinata/game.htm

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QYNXXgwjWgY&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2QFfzI2tJDg&feature=related

http://www.montessorihome.com/ladybug_es_door.htm

Amazing results!

2008-06-13T16:05:00Z

Yesterday our little friends Madigan and O'Malley came over and, to my surprise,

greeted us with a perfectly enunciated: "Buenos dias! Como estas?" Then proceeded

to sing several short songs about body parts, days of the week and numbers, all in

very clear Spanish. Later, while we played some word bingo in that same language,

Madigan, who is only 6, surprised me again by reading the upside‐down words in

my board across the table! Not only she can read already in Spanish but knows

and/or guesses an incredible amount of words in a language her parents don't speak

at home.

By asking the girls I gathered that their teacher was a Non‐ Native speaker of

Spanish and that she only teaches 2 days a week at their school.

Of course these girls are incredibly bright and have an interest in learning whatever

they find in their path, but still illustrates my point that anyone can learn any given

language even with limited exposure to it.

You don't have to be a native speaker of "X" to start introducing your child to that

language. Maybe you are just somewhat familiar with it from your years in College

or your grandparents tried to teach it to you when you were a child. Just think of

what a great family project it would be: you can learn it together and create yet

another bond between you and your children!

There's a wealth of language teaching programs out there. You'll have to pay for

many of them, of course, but you can also get plenty of materials online...for FREE.

It's really easy to find websites that cater to the younger set as well as sites that tend

to focus more in helping skilled readers.

Here there are two of my favorite ones:

http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_es.htm

(Infinite possibilities!)

http://montessorihome.com/readingcards/common.shtml

(Choose subject, then language, then the guy lifting the maximum weight)

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Creative Learning

2008-05-29T02:36:00Z

This morning, while I was in my “Thinking Pod” (aka the shower), I came up with a
great project for the next couple days: making Spanish syllable cubes out of

homemade playdough.

Nickey and I will spend some time today making a bunch of . inch size cubes and

then, in a couple days ‐when they are dry‐ we’re going to write different Spanish

syllables in each one of their sides. I plan to use them to teach Nickey to pair

syllables to form simple words.

Don’t give me credit for the whole idea, though. Yesterday I saw a somewhat

expensive ‐and small‐ set of foam cubes for sale in the Internet and I simply decided

that it could be more fun ‐and cheaper‐ to make our own at home.

I think it’s going to be a wonderful teaching tool!

And talking about wonderful, please check out one or two of my adorable “Pocoyo”

episodes in YouTube. He’s absolutely adorable! You can also find him in other

languages besides Spanish.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QYNXXgwjWgY&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2QFfzI2tJDg&feature=related

Progress!!!

2008-04-29T20:43:00Z

I’m so, so proud of my son! His Spanish is progressing now at kangaroo jumps as

opposed to the leaping frog pace of past months ‐I’m spending more time teaching him and that’s really shows.

Every sentence he has uttered the last 7 days has one or more Spanish words in it:

“Mama, I like gusanitos. We can buy them una casa grande and they’ll turn into

mariposas.” (That was after watching a commercial where they sell caterpillars that

turn into butterflies) He’s also starting to talk to himself in Spanish when playing alone. He either sings

the alphabet or counts to 20 while jumping on the couch, or makes his cars talk to

each other: “Para, para! You abajo! No, you arriba!” No need to say that I’m totally

thrilled! But the best of all is that he’s actually starting to ask me for new words in Spanish so

he can use them in his sentences. My son thrives in praise so I make sure he gets plenty of it when he uses Spanish

voluntarily. He even gets an occasional Jelly Bean after a specially difficult word

combination (I was able to completely potty‐train him at 30 months because of his

love for Jelly beans). For him they are as priceless as free time is for me.

Not two kids are alike and parents might have to use different techniques with each

of their offspring.

Our Bilingual Family

2008-04-12T01:25:00Z

I’ve always regretted that my Croatian Dad didn’t bother to teach me more of his native

language when I was little. It could have made learning other languages much easier for

me, not to mention the missed job opportunities as a bilingual adult.

But I almost followed my Dad’s example and made the same mistake: I took the easy

road and started speaking to my newborn son in the language I share with my husband

and the community: English….and left Spanish, my native language, waiting in the

sidelines.

My excuses for not starting to speak Spanish to my son from day one were multiple and

similar to those of other misinformed multicultural families: 1 – My husband didn’t know

more than 10 words in Spanish and I was afraid he was going to feel like an outsider in

his own home. 2- I’d been thinking and dreaming in English for about 15 years and my

Spanish came out all choppy. 3– I was afraid of confusing my son and delaying his

speech –and afraid of provoking horrendous tantrums because of that. 4- And, finally,

the one excuse that carried the most weight: my fear of speaking Spanish in public

because of potential ugly looks.

And then, when my son was about 15 months old, I found a couple of great websites

created by and for multilingual parents that helped me to get in gear. These days I firmly

believe in the amazing benefits of bilingualism and the need to start your family’s

Bilingual Journey from Day One –or as soon as you can- so this is my present for you

today, to get you motivated. Better late than never!

http://www.multilingualchildren.org/index.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/multilingualmunchkin/?yguid=228980480

A Multilingual Journey

2008-04-06T21:44:00Z

Lana Privitera is the proud Mom of a fun-loving, bilingual "chatterboy" that likes to spice his speeches in English with long-winded Spanish words. Her goal for 2008 is to pack also some French and Italian in his very expandable 3.5 year old brain.
Lana still qualifies as a SAHM but uses her "spare" time working as a watercolor artist and Spanish/art teacher.

One apple a day keeps the doctor away…and one word a day in a non-local language will

help to make your child multilingual.

I just started exposing my son, Nickey, to his third language. I was lucky to find the

adorable “Trotro, l’ane” on YouTube and that jumpstarted our French adventure.

Originally I had planned to introduce French after he had mastered Spanish but then I

realized that there was no need to wait.

One word a day is all it takes.

When I started teaching him Spanish he was already 21 months old and speaking in

sentences in English. I introduced a new Spanish word every morning and I would use it

repeatedly throughout the day. (ie: “Nickey, please, sientate. Sit down, Nickey.

Sientate.“) In a couple days that word was etched in his brain and it had equal meaning

to the English equivalent. I could then add more Spanish words to the sentence. (ie:

“Please, sientate. Nickey, sientate, por favor”)

I had heard of children rejecting the new language when parents switched suddenly so I

went quite slowly at first.

It really worked for us. For my son “red” and “rojo” mean the same thing today. No

translating in his head. He’s 3.5 now and his Spanish vocabulary is almost par with his

English.

Tip of the day:

Check out these websites on Multilingualism. You’ll learn about all the wonderful pros and

the very few and lame cons in this matter.

http://www.multilingualchildren.org/index.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/multilingualmunchkin/?yguid=228980480