Are you teaching your kids Spanish?

[RGVgal]

I'm Dominican and my Husband is American and doesn't speak Spanish. I want my son to learn Spanish, but I'm having a hard time teaching him. It just hasn't worked out that I would talk to him in Spanish and his Dad in English. He is 5yrs old and only knows a handful of words in Spanish. I'm enrolling him in Spanish classes during the summer in the hopes that he will pick up enough to understand a little. I want him to be able to communicate with and understand my family in the DR .

I'm wondering what other parents in our situation are doing? Have you been able to teach your kids Spanish?

Thanks

[La Mariposa]

Originally Posted by RGVgal

I'm Dominican and my Husband is American and doesn't speak Spanish. I want my son to learn Spanish, but I'm having a hard time teaching him. It just hasn't worked out that I would talk to him in Spanish and his Dad in English. He is 5yrs old and only knows a handful of words in Spanish. I'm enrolling him in Spanish classes during the summer in the hopes that he will pick up enough to understand a little. I want him to be able to communicate with and understand my family in the DR .

I'm wondering what other parents in our situation are doing? Have you been able to teach your kids Spanish?

Thanks

My sister experience with her 2 kids was French and English. She always talked to the kids in French and their father in English. She said they started talking a few months after other children but when they started speaking it was in both languages and they were switching languages without any problems

[SKing]

Originally Posted by RGVgal

I'm Dominican and my Husband is American and doesn't speak Spanish. I want my son to learn Spanish, but I'm having a hard time teaching him. It just hasn't worked out that I would talk to him in Spanish and his Dad in English. He is 5yrs old and only knows a handful of words in Spanish. I'm enrolling him in Spanish classes during the summer in the hopes that he will pick up enough to understand a little. I want him to be able to communicate with and understand my family in the DR .

I'm wondering what other parents in our situation are doing? Have you been able to teach your kids Spanish?

Thanks

I think that it is good what you are doing. I never understood it when children of Hispanic/Latino descent could not speak Spanish. There is a Dominican guy housekeeper in the hospital where I work and I (assuming he spoke Spanish) was always speaking to him in Spanish. He always smiled at me, and I thought he was shy. Last week a patient assumed also and was speaking to him in Spanish and he grabbed me as I was going down the hall because he didn't understand what she was saying. That is when he told me that he didn't speak Spanish. Que pena!
Anyway, you also need to do little things that will help enforce the Spanish. My kids watch Spanish cartoons and absorb alot. Also maybe take him more around your family and ask that they only speak to him in Spanish but slowly until he picks it up more.
SHALENA

[Chris_NJ]

Send him to DR for the summer - he will be speaking Spanish in no time!

[AlterEgo]

I'm American married to a Dominican for 32 yrs. We have two children, a son who is now 30 and a daughter 27. When our son was born we spoke both languages to him, and he was doing well with it, except that he would mix the languages in a sentence ('Mami, quiero a glass of acqua'). When he started preschool at age 3 the staff told us he was confused and we should only speak English to him. Like dummies we listened to them. NONE of my husband's relatives speak a word of English (well, maybe a word or two - 'thank you' is about it) so when we visited every year our kids couldn't communicate with their grandparents, aunts and uncles - they did ok with their cousins, kids have their own language. Long story short, our son took Spanish his freshman year in high school, and then wanted to spend the summer in DR. He came back from there rattling away like someone who had been born there. Our daughter kind of understands Spanish but doesn't speak it. How sad is that? She's a Probation Officer now and says if she spoke Spanish she could move up much faster. Today our son is a teacher of Spanish and Italian, and he's also a musician who sings only in Spanish. (some of his songs are on his MySpace page if you want to hear it's at Franco on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads)
We have a 2 1/2 yr old grandson now (my daughter's) and my husband talks to him mostly in Spanish because we know we did wrong with our kids. He understand everything that his grandpa "Papa" says, and repeats the Spanish right back at him, and counts in Spanish.
Teach your child NOW, learn from our mistake. My daughter still can't communicate with her now 88 yr. old abuela. Sad, no?

[Dragonfly32837]

What I have experienced in my family is talking to the children in Spanish at home and they learn English from talking to their friends and in school.

[SKing]

Originally Posted by AlterEgo

I'm American married to a Dominican for 32 yrs. We have two children, a son who is now 30 and a daughter 27. When our son was born we spoke both languages to him, and he was doing well with it, except that he would mix the languages in a sentence ('Mami, quiero a glass of acqua'). When he started preschool at age 3 the staff told us he was confused and we should only speak English to him. Like dummies we listened to them. NONE of my husband's relatives speak a word of English (well, maybe a word or two - 'thank you' is about it) so when we visited every year our kids couldn't communicate with their grandparents, aunts and uncles - they did ok with their cousins, kids have their own language. Long story short, our son took Spanish his freshman year in high school, and then wanted to spend the summer in DR. He came back from there rattling away like someone who had been born there. Our daughter kind of understands Spanish but doesn't speak it. How sad is that? She's a Probation Officer now and says if she spoke Spanish she could move up much faster. Today our son is a teacher of Spanish and Italian, and he's also a musician who sings only in Spanish. (some of his songs are on his MySpace page if you want to hear it's at Franco on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads)
We have a 2 1/2 yr old grandson now (my daughter's) and my husband talks to him mostly in Spanish because we know we did wrong with our kids. He understand everything that his grandpa "Papa" says, and repeats the Spanish right back at him, and counts in Spanish.
Teach your child NOW, learn from our mistake. My daughter still can't communicate with her now 88 yr. old abuela. Sad, no?

Don't blame yourself too much, you were listening to someone that you thought had more knowledge in that area than you did at that time. Kids pick up things so quickly and especially if they have an affinity for language. Maybe your daughter could take some Spanish classes now, it's never too late although it may be a little harder because she is an adult now.
SHALENA

[Chirimoya]

My situation was similar to your son's in that although a native Spanish speaker, my mother only spoke to us in English and we lived in a mainly English-speaking environment, so while I always had a passive knowledge of Spanish - I could understand almost everything and could communicate on a basic level with Spanish-speaking relatives - I had to re-learn it as a young adult. When people tell me I speak good Spanish I always say "not as good as it should be".

My advice would be to speak to him in Spanish: as he is in an otherwise English-speaking environment it will not undermine his English. Age 5 is not too late, although the ideal would have been to start from the beginning. That combined with holidays in the DR should put him in a better position than I was.

[AlterEgo]

Originally Posted by Dragonfly32837

What I have experienced in my family is talking to the children in Spanish at home and they learn English from talking to their friends and in school.

That works beautifully if both parents speak Spanish at home. My husband's sister lives in Philadelphia, she's been here 20 years or so and still struggles with English. Both of her daughters, and all 3 of her grandchildren, are fluent in both Spanish and English from doing exactly what your family did.

[AlterEgo]

Originally Posted by SKing

Don't blame yourself too much, you were listening to someone that you thought had more knowledge in that area than you did at that time. Kids pick up things so quickly and especially if they have an affinity for language. Maybe your daughter could take some Spanish classes now, it's never too late although it may be a little harder because she is an adult now.
SHALENA

Yes, she could, but she won't. She took Spanish in high school and actually failed one semester, did OK with it in college, but she's afraid to use it. She won't even try, because she's afraid she'll make a mistake and sound silly. I've learned over the years that a lot of Dominicans are the same way with English - they know more than they let on, but their pride keeps them from trying to speak it. I jumped in with both feet, learned by listening and repeating, made a lot of mistakes and just laughed at myself while I was learning. (probably the funniest was when I said 'I have a lot of men' when I wanted to say 'I am hungry' - tengo mucho hombre, jajaja). Now I speak it almost all day with our customers - still making mistakes, I'm sure, but everyone understands me.
Every so often she hits us with a little zinger about how we should have taught her when she was a little girl. Spilt milk and all that. So now she begs us to talk to her son in Spanish, she wants him to be bi-lingual.