Hello from Colombia
Apr 2, 2019 10:22:14 GMT 9
Post by Caro C. on Apr 2, 2019 10:22:14 GMT 9
Hello everyone, my name is Carolina and I am from and live in Bogota, Colombia. My case is a bit similar to Alan's, the guy from Brasil, actually I'm here by his referral, met him on a Fb group for bilingual families and then became Instagram friends and now also on whatsapp. So my first language as well as the one from the community is Spanish, I'm married, we have a baby girl 2 months old and plan to do OPOL, me being her source of English, my husband doesn't speak the language.
Today I bought Adam's book on Amazon but it will be delivered at my place like in a month or so...maybe a bit less. I bought it because the website that brings me stuff from Amazon is on hotsales promotions and they were having discounts on the shipment price. So after taking a look at the book that I had saved on my wish list, I read the part of raising the odds, felt related to it and decided to buy it. Then I realized you are the guy from that (this) Bilingual Zoo Alan had told me about.
I'm on this bilingual journey/project because a TED talk got me into the idea of raising our future (now present, at least one so far) kids bilingual and then I bought and read the book Raising a Bilingual Child by Barbara Zurer-Pearson, which later I discovered is also available in Spanish and ordered it also for my husband to be able to read it. Then I bought and read -actually at the same time- the book Born Reading: Bringing Up Bookworms in a Digital Age, it was at a really good price on the website of a bookstore from my country. The author refers to Beatrix Potter children's books - the Peter Rabbit collection - and I was happy to find that these books were also available at the previously mentioned bookstore, so I bought each of them except for those two that are just like poetry and rhymes. I read not all of them but almost to my baby in the womb. However the reading to her wasn't very consistent.
On the day my daughter was born I did start to talk to her in English but it didn't feel natural and also I felt a bit weird when my grandma was close since I knew she didn't understand. Now I address my baby in English occasionally. Usually I tell her things like "I love you, my beautiful girl, I love you Salome" and other sentences like that may come along the way but the daily speech flows in Spanish like "give me a couples of minutes, I'll take a bath and then I'll feed you" (said in Spanish). I've ordered some others children's books for this baby stage and I've been reading to my girl over and over again -like once a week or less- the book Zoom, Zoom Baby! by Karen Katz. In addition to this I bought some personalized finger puppets and sometimes I use them to talk to my daughter in English, they are just animals: cow, tiger, bear, pig and the dog is just resembling Tobby, our Westie dog who is also a key member of the family. The thing is that the books and the puppets are something I do when I find the time and remember to do it so I feel the consistency is not enough.
Today I started to talk to Alan on whatsapp and I will follow his suggestion to address my girl in English most of (or should I say all) the time no matter what.
Oh, one more thing: although talking to my baby girl in English doesn’t happen spontaneously very often, it has happened a couple of times like last Saturday morning when I looked to her and talked as if she were the one speaking: “say my name is Salomé, I am 2 months, I have a Westie dog named Tobby” and from there on a couple more sentences related to our family. And also, when she was a week old or less I came up with a little song, just two verses: “🎶You are my baby and I love you. You are the greatest gift of God🎶”.
Today I bought Adam's book on Amazon but it will be delivered at my place like in a month or so...maybe a bit less. I bought it because the website that brings me stuff from Amazon is on hotsales promotions and they were having discounts on the shipment price. So after taking a look at the book that I had saved on my wish list, I read the part of raising the odds, felt related to it and decided to buy it. Then I realized you are the guy from that (this) Bilingual Zoo Alan had told me about.
I'm on this bilingual journey/project because a TED talk got me into the idea of raising our future (now present, at least one so far) kids bilingual and then I bought and read the book Raising a Bilingual Child by Barbara Zurer-Pearson, which later I discovered is also available in Spanish and ordered it also for my husband to be able to read it. Then I bought and read -actually at the same time- the book Born Reading: Bringing Up Bookworms in a Digital Age, it was at a really good price on the website of a bookstore from my country. The author refers to Beatrix Potter children's books - the Peter Rabbit collection - and I was happy to find that these books were also available at the previously mentioned bookstore, so I bought each of them except for those two that are just like poetry and rhymes. I read not all of them but almost to my baby in the womb. However the reading to her wasn't very consistent.
On the day my daughter was born I did start to talk to her in English but it didn't feel natural and also I felt a bit weird when my grandma was close since I knew she didn't understand. Now I address my baby in English occasionally. Usually I tell her things like "I love you, my beautiful girl, I love you Salome" and other sentences like that may come along the way but the daily speech flows in Spanish like "give me a couples of minutes, I'll take a bath and then I'll feed you" (said in Spanish). I've ordered some others children's books for this baby stage and I've been reading to my girl over and over again -like once a week or less- the book Zoom, Zoom Baby! by Karen Katz. In addition to this I bought some personalized finger puppets and sometimes I use them to talk to my daughter in English, they are just animals: cow, tiger, bear, pig and the dog is just resembling Tobby, our Westie dog who is also a key member of the family. The thing is that the books and the puppets are something I do when I find the time and remember to do it so I feel the consistency is not enough.
Today I started to talk to Alan on whatsapp and I will follow his suggestion to address my girl in English most of (or should I say all) the time no matter what.
Oh, one more thing: although talking to my baby girl in English doesn’t happen spontaneously very often, it has happened a couple of times like last Saturday morning when I looked to her and talked as if she were the one speaking: “say my name is Salomé, I am 2 months, I have a Westie dog named Tobby” and from there on a couple more sentences related to our family. And also, when she was a week old or less I came up with a little song, just two verses: “🎶You are my baby and I love you. You are the greatest gift of God🎶”.
Yes, I am being a bit dramatic there but if you want your child to become an active bilingual you must send her the right subliminal message straight away from the earliest age possible (nothing harder than breaking bad habits once you or her have them!): with Mummy it is English and no other language will do.
Enough reading, and just get talking with your daughter. If I can give you a tip to get talking in your ml, start changing your own lifestyle too: only read in ml, only listen to ml music, ml radio, movies, telly (at least when your husband is away). Turn your home into a ml@home when your husband is out. It will help you get down to it. Just "living" your language and bathing in it will help you in using it with your child (or at least, that's what I think).
