[Aunt Clara]

Hi Rosany,

I am glad to hear from somebody that went through it. Not only is speaking two languages a great advantage culturally, it also helps professionally.

[Rafarroyos]

My mother and her sisters emigrated from Santo Domingo to the U.S. in the 1940s and 1950s. Kind of a How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents story, although I haven't read that book. All except one married men who didn't speak Spanish. None of their children ended up learning Spanish at home--not even the kids of my aunt who married a native Spanish speaker. I think I am the only one who has really learned Spanish. I did that by going on a high school exchange program to Colombia for a year.

My mom was not allowed to study Spanish in school in New York City, and she eventually settled in a part of the U.S. with few Spanish speakers. She was only five when she came to the U.S., and her mother (who spoke no English) died in the early 70s. As a result, my mom has gradually forgotten her Spanish, and at this point I speak it better than she does, although my Spanish is far from native level. She says things like "avocado" in Spanish and I have to tell her that it's "aguacate." Or she'll say "safrón" and I'll say "azafrán." And her Spanish grammar is kind of messed up. She'll say "idioto" when she's talking about a guy; she doesn't believe me when I say it has to be "idiota."

My advice to anyone who wants their kids to be bilingual would be to make sure the kids learn how to read and write (and of course to speak) in both languages. If you are not literate in one of your languages there is a good chance that you will lose it as your life goes on, and it is almost guaranteed that you will not pass it on to your children.

I don't think you can underestimate the importance of language EDUCATION. Let's hit the books, kids!

[Aunt Clara]

Well, now I feel compelled to post an update.

My daughter speaks English as her main language, her Danish caught up after a trip to Denmark not long ago and, although she had a little trouble for a while after she seemed to have forgotten, her Spanish is back to normal. At this stage she is as fluent in all three languages as it's expected of a 3 year old.

[Rafarroyos]

It sounds like your daughter is well on her way to trilingualism, and I'm sure she'll thank you when she's older. Any effort that she makes (or that you make her make!) when she's a child will pale in comparison to the effort she'd have to make to become trilingual as an adult.

In case I sounded ungrateful to my mom in my previous post, I should add that even though we weren't able to speak Spanish on a daily basis in our home, she inspired a love of the Spanish language and other countries in me and it was thanks to her that I decided to study overseas as an exchange student. Ultimately, it is also thanks to her that I googled "Dominican cooking" and found this site.

P.S. Your daughter will also thank you if you teach her all about cooking. My grandmother apparently did all the cooking for my mom but never passed on her recipes and secrets.

[nezperce]

Hi all,
I grow up whit dutch and german, but like most dutch verry soon came englisch.
My children speak dutch , german, and englisch,my youghest also speak some words of spanisch becouse she danced salsa.
My oldest(19) can speak some turkisch .
I am just having a family that loves languages lolzzz

[Chennifer]

Hi! I'. swedish/argentinian and raised in Sweden, where I am currently living (and it's cold...). My dad is a musician, started speaking spanish to me as a kid but then found it too hard since he was on the road most of the time. I, of course, spoke swedish at home and with my friends, and then my parents put me in a english-speaking school. I thought that my spanish was lost forever, and my entire life (even though a have a grabdmother here who ONLY speaks spanish) I only spoke some basic spanish and had to think a lot before speaking. The year I turned 24 I went to visit my family in Buenos Aires for a month, and my spanish came back! If I don't keep practicing I forget, but as soon as I start speaking again it comes back.

What I'm trying to say is that the spanish language was still inside of me, I just had to practice, even if so many years had passed. I think that if parents are just consistent when speaking to their kids in 1 language, and are patient, they willlearn. For some kids it comes quicker than others, but everyone can learn 2-3 languages from the start

[kween]

The Hubby and I are both native Hispanics and we kinda started to do the one parent, one language thing with the kidlets. His English is not so great so he speaks to the kids in English to practice. I'm totally fluent in both languages (came to the US at 12) so I speak to them in Spanish. When The Kid talks to me in English I will repeat what he said in Spanish without acknowledging him. Until he says what he wants in Spanish I "ignore" him. He's gotten quite good at knowing what to say or do.