Our journey!
Nov 3, 2018 6:41:10 GMT 9
Post by Alba jimenez on Nov 3, 2018 6:41:10 GMT 9
Hi everyone,
Your threads are so interesting, I'm going to take advantage and start writing about our experience so that I can have our progress tracked, which is a great idea!
My little boy is 14 months. I have been speaking Spanish to him since birth (or before!), and his father speaks Hindi to him. English is our majority language.
Spanish started as the strongest language and still is for the time being. It has helped that my parents have come to visit several times (like every couple months until now) for a few days, and we also visited Spain last Christmas and this summer where my big family gave him a good exposure even if for limited time. My little one says several words in Spanish already: hola (hello), agua (water), guagua (doggy), pan (bread), galleta "lleta" (biscuit), muñeco "queco" (toy), Sí "Zii", No, mama.
He also has said two English words so far (ML!) and I realise it's because of exposure to ML with friends around here. He says Bubbles "babo", and I remember the specific time playing with bubbles with the other children and mums calling the name in English. He also says cupcake "cakei". He imitates a lot, and after a playdate with an English mum who is raising bilingual English-Spanish children (but she's an English speaker, although I speak Spanish to the children when with her, I speak English to her) he imitated some of the words he heard, like "purple" when he was colouring with a crayon. I realised how English is going to start becoming stronger! It felt weird, and I kind of became aware of the English exposure he's having through playdates, nursery and play groups at this young age! I realise I need to be careful and protective of mls (no more singing the Wheels on the Bus at home I'm afraid...).
Now, no sign of Hindi (ml2) for the moment.
After many discussions, I think his father now got a bit scared that he's speaking more Spanish and not Hindi. I've seen him trying a bit more to speak in full sentences to him, read to him before bed, and trying to be more consistent. His father is not very talkative by nature, and was a bit inconsistent speaking sometimes English (ML) to him, and also, surprisingly, speaking Spanish (ml1) words to him that he had learnt along the way with my son, as Spanish is stronger for him and he understands actions in Spanish normally better. He now understands that this will not be positive for the development of ml2. He started being more repetitive with some vocabulary in Hindi, and wanting to spend more time with him to improve things which is great.
Moving forward:
- I've discussed with my husband that we should try and limit the amount of English spoken in front of our boy (although we don't speak each other's language), and speak the two mls as much as possible. We will try to wait until the boy is in bed for full English mode.
- I need Spanish speakers friends! I did meet someone I'll try to reach. We're quite social and there's quite a lot of exposure to ML as I communicate in English with all mums I know right now.
- We need more Skype calls to our families in mls (I'm asking specially for my husband to call his brother and speak Hindi more with the boy).
- Reading more in the two languages, but we need to boost Hindi.
- Learning Hindi for me, and learning Spanish for my husband.
Et voilà, just our starting point and a few actions we'll try to keep. I will try to commit to updating our thread here when there will be anything new to report!
Many thanks all for sharing your experiences.
Alba
Your threads are so interesting, I'm going to take advantage and start writing about our experience so that I can have our progress tracked, which is a great idea!
My little boy is 14 months. I have been speaking Spanish to him since birth (or before!), and his father speaks Hindi to him. English is our majority language.
Spanish started as the strongest language and still is for the time being. It has helped that my parents have come to visit several times (like every couple months until now) for a few days, and we also visited Spain last Christmas and this summer where my big family gave him a good exposure even if for limited time. My little one says several words in Spanish already: hola (hello), agua (water), guagua (doggy), pan (bread), galleta "lleta" (biscuit), muñeco "queco" (toy), Sí "Zii", No, mama
.He also has said two English words so far (ML!) and I realise it's because of exposure to ML with friends around here. He says Bubbles "babo", and I remember the specific time playing with bubbles with the other children and mums calling the name in English. He also says cupcake "cakei". He imitates a lot, and after a playdate with an English mum who is raising bilingual English-Spanish children (but she's an English speaker, although I speak Spanish to the children when with her, I speak English to her) he imitated some of the words he heard, like "purple" when he was colouring with a crayon. I realised how English is going to start becoming stronger! It felt weird, and I kind of became aware of the English exposure he's having through playdates, nursery and play groups at this young age! I realise I need to be careful and protective of mls (no more singing the Wheels on the Bus at home I'm afraid...).
Now, no sign of Hindi (ml2) for the moment.
After many discussions, I think his father now got a bit scared that he's speaking more Spanish and not Hindi. I've seen him trying a bit more to speak in full sentences to him, read to him before bed, and trying to be more consistent. His father is not very talkative by nature, and was a bit inconsistent speaking sometimes English (ML) to him, and also, surprisingly, speaking Spanish (ml1) words to him that he had learnt along the way with my son, as Spanish is stronger for him and he understands actions in Spanish normally better. He now understands that this will not be positive for the development of ml2. He started being more repetitive with some vocabulary in Hindi, and wanting to spend more time with him to improve things which is great.Moving forward:
- I've discussed with my husband that we should try and limit the amount of English spoken in front of our boy (although we don't speak each other's language), and speak the two mls as much as possible. We will try to wait until the boy is in bed for full English mode.
- I need Spanish speakers friends! I did meet someone I'll try to reach.
We're quite social and there's quite a lot of exposure to ML as I communicate in English with all mums I know right now.- We need more Skype calls to our families in mls (I'm asking specially for my husband to call his brother and speak Hindi more with the boy).
- Reading more in the two languages, but we need to boost Hindi.
- Learning Hindi for me, and learning Spanish for my husband.
Et voilà, just our starting point and a few actions we'll try to keep. I will try to commit to updating our thread here when there will be anything new to report!
Many thanks all for sharing your experiences.
Alba
