Greetings from Argentina
Feb 19, 2017 20:33:49 GMT 9
Post by Lydia on Feb 19, 2017 20:33:49 GMT 9
Hi all,
Greetings from Argentina! My husband and I are Brits who have been living in Buenos Aires for 2 years. Our first child, Florence, was born 3 months ago and I'm inching my way towards a decision to speak only in Spanish to her. Initially an instinct whilst I was pregnant given my love of languages and relative confidence that I could have a good go at raising her in Spanish, which I've spoken for many years, it's now a decision which I increasingly realise would require a huge amount of commitment and effort over the years, as well as all of the creativity I can muster!
It's clear to me that having a community around me would be super important to keep this up. I've been mainly speaking Spanish to Florence in the last few weeks, and on and off since she was born, but reading Adam's book made me realise how serious the need to de-emphasize my own English with her will be if I want to encourage active use of Spanish. This will be slightly easier in the next 2 years--we will remain in Argentina and Florence will have a Spanish-speaking nanny for our final 12 months here. Thereafter we will likely move back to London and things will become a lot trickier!
My main concern is about isolating family and friends when speaking to Florence in front of them in Spanish. Less of a concern whilst we are here but once we move back I intend to spend a lot of time with my two sisters and their children, all of whom I have a lovely (English) relationship with. I've found the thread on speaking the minority language in public, which was a great read, and the various posts which stem from it.
Anyway, looking forward to being part of the community! I'm lucky to have some great Argentine and other Latino friends here also with babies, so my journey of learning 'baby Spanish' has already begun (and isn't it great that the diminutive in Spanish 'ito'/'ita' if applied liberally makes most words very easy to rhyme for spontaneous songs?!), but if anyone has any great resource tips for Spanish I would love to hear them, or if anyone else is trying out non-native Spanish it would be great to be in touch! I've found a bookstore in Argentina www.bimbam.com.ar/ which has very nice looking kids books.
Happy Sunday, all!
Lydia
Greetings from Argentina! My husband and I are Brits who have been living in Buenos Aires for 2 years. Our first child, Florence, was born 3 months ago and I'm inching my way towards a decision to speak only in Spanish to her. Initially an instinct whilst I was pregnant given my love of languages and relative confidence that I could have a good go at raising her in Spanish, which I've spoken for many years, it's now a decision which I increasingly realise would require a huge amount of commitment and effort over the years, as well as all of the creativity I can muster!
It's clear to me that having a community around me would be super important to keep this up. I've been mainly speaking Spanish to Florence in the last few weeks, and on and off since she was born, but reading Adam's book made me realise how serious the need to de-emphasize my own English with her will be if I want to encourage active use of Spanish. This will be slightly easier in the next 2 years--we will remain in Argentina and Florence will have a Spanish-speaking nanny for our final 12 months here. Thereafter we will likely move back to London and things will become a lot trickier!
My main concern is about isolating family and friends when speaking to Florence in front of them in Spanish. Less of a concern whilst we are here but once we move back I intend to spend a lot of time with my two sisters and their children, all of whom I have a lovely (English) relationship with. I've found the thread on speaking the minority language in public, which was a great read, and the various posts which stem from it.
Anyway, looking forward to being part of the community! I'm lucky to have some great Argentine and other Latino friends here also with babies, so my journey of learning 'baby Spanish' has already begun (and isn't it great that the diminutive in Spanish 'ito'/'ita' if applied liberally makes most words very easy to rhyme for spontaneous songs?!), but if anyone has any great resource tips for Spanish I would love to hear them, or if anyone else is trying out non-native Spanish it would be great to be in touch! I've found a bookstore in Argentina www.bimbam.com.ar/ which has very nice looking kids books.
Happy Sunday, all!
Lydia
