Moving for a year - ml becomes ML

That's a fantastic opportunity, Tona! I hope we get the chance for an extended stay in ml country one day too. It will make a massive difference. It certainly isn't cheating, though, as you can make sure to think of ways to get the most out of your stay ie making connections with people and stocking up on resources and then sustaining it once you return to ML country again. Hope you can check in again and let us know how it's going.

Thanks for the encouragement. We're excited. The application isn't finalized, but we don't expect that it will be rejected.


Great story. That's may be what I'm most looking forward to. Having kids around will be so much more motivating and so much more natural than dad and his books.

Update time! We've been in Mexico for about four weeks now. The boys both started schools this week: F (4 yr 8 mo) in a preschool-6, C (1 yr 11 mo) in a dedicated preschool. The time before the move was stressful and unpleasant; the time has been somewhat more relaxing. The frayed nerves are starting to cool off as we make our final adjustment to the school year routine.

So far, I've noticed that...

• F is definitely "behind" as compared to native speakers. But my father has noticed that he's already conjugating a lot more. He's an outgoing little kid, so he doesn't mind talking to total strangers in his awkward Spanish. This will serve him well.


• F has had some behavioral challenges - strong feelings, tantrums, etc. It's hard to pinpoint this on the move, since some of it predated the time that he knew our plans to move. I hope we can resolve this sooner rather than later. I think a formal school setting will help him. I wonder how much the stress of a new setting is exacerbating it.


• C is a little sponge, picking up new words every day. I bet he'll leave this year being stronger in Spanish than English.


• My wife started language classes this week too (I feel like a school bus this week!). She's loving the experience so far. Students are from all over, so there's no common language - they have to communicate in Spanish. And being in the country that speaks the language, she's noticed that everyone is very motivated to learn.


• I'm enjoying access to a wider variety of books in Spanish. I haven't realized how much more pleasant it is (for everyone) to just read a book than to do real time translation!

It's an exciting time. I look forward to seeing the changes over this year!!

It's been a while since my last update. This is mostly because my schedule is quite limited; I both drop off and pick up my older son so my work day is limited to 9:00 - 1:30 at best. Lots of family time though. Unrelated to the language aspect, it's been a great opportunity to reconnect.

More on topic, both boys have been making great strides. The younger one just turned two and is just a sponge for Spanish, which seems to become more dominant every day. One cute anecdote is that he calls the color "brown" "coffee" as a direct translation of "café" the beverage. This is a welcome relief for me since in our normal setting as the ml parent I have to put in lots more effort.

The older boy is also making daily improvements. I love hearing phrases that he picks up from his schoolmates. It makes his language much fresher: kid language instead of stuffy adult language. He's also picking up way more conjugations.

He still makes mistakes with gender and is quite confused at times. He'll sometimes say Spanish phrases in English grammar and less frequently vice versa. One example is that he'll say both "el rápido camión" and "the truck fast" showing that he knows both rules but picking the wrong rule for each language. Oddly, his pronunciation has gotten worse! He has much more of an English accent now when speaking in Spanish.

I'm mostly unconcerned by this and assume that it's part of the learning process but I could use a reality check from you all. Does this all seem like it's okay in terms of language acquisition?

Thanks for the reassurance. Like I said, I'm fairly unconcerned. Mostly I find it amazing to watch how these little minds work!

One more encouraging sign, btw, is that the older boy is talking to himself/narrating in Spanish when he's playing on his own.

Yeah, it's so interesting to observe. A couple of days ago I corrected my older boy about his gender usage and he just broke down crying, "I'm doing it the way *I* want to do it!" I dropped the issue and gave him a big long hug. A couple of days later, he started asking me about what article he should be using. God only knows what's going on in that brain of his.