Hello from Mexico!
Sept 21, 2016 1:19:34 GMT 9
Post by Alice on Sept 21, 2016 1:19:34 GMT 9
Hi everyone! I've been reading Adam's weekly newsletter for about a year now and found his book encouraging, so am excited to join the forum and meet others having similar experiences in this journey!
I'm British, and have lived in Mexico City with my half Mexican/half Japanese husband for the past 13 years. Our 2 children are our daughter (5) and son (6 months). When my husband and I met I was learning Spanish, so we got into the habit of speaking that to each other. When our daughter was born we decided to go the one parent, one language route, but we carried on speaking to each other in Spanish, something I am starting to regret, as we had assumed the minority language acquisition would be a more automatic process. Our daughter understands everything in English, but is very reluctant to speak it to me, and her speaking ability in Spanish is far superior to her English. I am surprised how much this affects me as it genuinely makes me feel sad that I can't have a proper conversation with her in my own language. We visit the UK about once a year and when there she will switch into English as soon as she realises nobody can understand her, so at least occasionally I am reminded that she is doing ok! Although it is harder for her and she does tend to translate in her head from Spanish rather than just speak English naturally.
Her school is mostly in Spanish with an hour a day of English and some Japanese (we chose it because of our family's Japanese heritage). By the time she gets home from school there isn't much of the day left and I find myself worrying that she simply doesn't have enough exposure to English. TV, apps, music etc. are all in English and we read every night, but she does spend quite a bit of time with her Mexican grandmother and other Spanish speaking family. Friends who are teachers cannot understand why I worry about this so much as they say children are amazing at adapting and they have seen first-hand how kids can pick up other languages. I'm feeling a bit frustrated and keen to learn what things I can do better with our daughter and differently with our baby son. I guess I would love for them both to identify completely with both cultures and languages but not sure if this is possible with the limited time I have with them after school.
Looking forward to browsing the forum and learning from you all!
I'm British, and have lived in Mexico City with my half Mexican/half Japanese husband for the past 13 years. Our 2 children are our daughter (5) and son (6 months). When my husband and I met I was learning Spanish, so we got into the habit of speaking that to each other. When our daughter was born we decided to go the one parent, one language route, but we carried on speaking to each other in Spanish, something I am starting to regret, as we had assumed the minority language acquisition would be a more automatic process. Our daughter understands everything in English, but is very reluctant to speak it to me, and her speaking ability in Spanish is far superior to her English. I am surprised how much this affects me as it genuinely makes me feel sad that I can't have a proper conversation with her in my own language. We visit the UK about once a year and when there she will switch into English as soon as she realises nobody can understand her, so at least occasionally I am reminded that she is doing ok! Although it is harder for her and she does tend to translate in her head from Spanish rather than just speak English naturally.
Her school is mostly in Spanish with an hour a day of English and some Japanese (we chose it because of our family's Japanese heritage). By the time she gets home from school there isn't much of the day left and I find myself worrying that she simply doesn't have enough exposure to English. TV, apps, music etc. are all in English and we read every night, but she does spend quite a bit of time with her Mexican grandmother and other Spanish speaking family. Friends who are teachers cannot understand why I worry about this so much as they say children are amazing at adapting and they have seen first-hand how kids can pick up other languages. I'm feeling a bit frustrated and keen to learn what things I can do better with our daughter and differently with our baby son. I guess I would love for them both to identify completely with both cultures and languages but not sure if this is possible with the limited time I have with them after school.
Looking forward to browsing the forum and learning from you all!
