Photo by Nada_que_decir/Flickr (Creative Commons)
Surrounding yourself (and your child) with books in your native language can help
Parents who are trying to raise bilingual children might be familiar with SpanglishBaby, a website dedicated to that goal.
And let’s face it, for those of us who have lived in the United States all or most of our lives, it can seem like an elusive goal at times. As fluent as we may be in the language of our parents, it’s easiest to fall back on English. More so if our partner is a monolingual English speaker, or someone who grew up speaking a language different from ours.
At the same time, research has shown how much a child can gain from speaking a second language. Aside from the obvious – communicating with grandparents, future job prospects – being bilingual can boost brain development and provide benefits for life.
What to do? Roxana Soto, co-founder and editorial director of SpanglishBaby, is here to help with a few tips for overcoming the temptation to give up. More tips from SpanglishBaby will be included in a forthcoming book due out in fall 2012.
M-A: If you’re second-generation or 1.5, it’s likely that you speak English at home, even if you are bilingual. You want to speak Spanish/Mandarin/Tagalog/etc. around your child, but it’s easy to slip into English. How to overcome this temptation – or perhaps, this laziness factor – in order to teach your child your native language?
Soto: This is definitely a common issue among those trying to raise bilingual children and probably the most popular reason why many of them eventually give up. Regardless of what languages we speak, the reality is that we are surrounded by English everywhere we go. My suggestions are to start speaking to your child in your native tongue in utero, that way it comes much natural when she is born. However, it is never too late to start. Just be prepared to face some resistance depending on your child’s age.
Surround yourself (as opposed to just your children) with your native tongue. So, if Spanish is your native language, listen to music, watch movies and read books, magazines, blogs in Spanish. Along the same lines, try to hang out with native speakers or join a meetup for those who speak your native language, so you are forced to practice it on a regular basis.
M-A: Are there ways you can train yourself not to slip into what’s easiest for you, i.e. English?
Soto: If you do not feel comfortable speaking your native language because you do not use it a lot, then English will probably come out easiest. Following some of the tips above should help you avoid this issue.
You could also make a pact with your partner – regardless of whether he/she is monolingual or multilingual – to remind each other to only use your native language when the kids are around. In addition, whenever it feels like English would be easiest, think about how easy it actually is for you to pass along the wonderful and powerful gift of bilingualism to your children. Think about how you are doing them a huge favor and how much you might regret not making the effort now, especially if they are still little sponges.
Also, think about the grief they might give you when they get older and find out you speak more than one language but never passed it along!
