Hello from Marisa, a Spaniard living in the US!
Jul 22, 2017 1:47:34 GMT 9
Post by Marisa on Jul 22, 2017 1:47:34 GMT 9
Hi everyone! My name is Marisa, I was born in Spain (or so I've been told!, ha, ha) a long, long time ago 
and I've been living in the US for the last 21 years. I currently live in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and I'm the very proud mother of a beautiful, amazing, and pretty cute 16-month-old girl that I'm trying to raise bilingual. My main goal is to raise her both bilingual and bi-literate in English and Spanish.
Since she was born, I've been pretty involved in making sure she has enough exposure to Spanish, so to this day, I haven't spoken a single word of English to her (she gets her English input from daycare, where she basically stays from 9 to 5, five days a week). My rule is "my house, my car, my Spanish," so she never gets to hear any English either while we travel, or while we're at home (it's just me and her, so once we get home, it's 100% Spanish). Right now we're spending time with my family in Spain, so I'm not so sure she remembers her English , although before we traveled, I was pretty happy because although she hasn't produced any word in any language yet, she clearly understood commands and recognized body parts both in English and Spanish, so that's a good sign for her bilingual journey!
I'd also like her to learn some German, so as soon as we go back, she'll be spending some 'still-to-be-determined' time with a native German speaker so that she can get used to the new language, new words, etc. I'm not really sure how crazy her 'trilingual' upbringing will be, but I'll never know until I try, right? Unfortunately there aren't any bilingual programs or easy-to-access resources for learning/teaching German (for kids) in Fredericksburg (there are in Washington DC, but we don't live there), so exposure to German from this native speaker is the best I've been able to get so far. It's challenging, and to be honest, I'm a little bit nervous to see how all this works out, but I'm ready for the challenge and for the long (bilingual/trilingual) journey! I'll keep you posted!
and I've been living in the US for the last 21 years. I currently live in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and I'm the very proud mother of a beautiful, amazing, and pretty cute 16-month-old girl that I'm trying to raise bilingual. My main goal is to raise her both bilingual and bi-literate in English and Spanish. Since she was born, I've been pretty involved in making sure she has enough exposure to Spanish, so to this day, I haven't spoken a single word of English to her (she gets her English input from daycare, where she basically stays from 9 to 5, five days a week). My rule is "my house, my car, my Spanish," so she never gets to hear any English either while we travel, or while we're at home (it's just me and her, so once we get home, it's 100% Spanish). Right now we're spending time with my family in Spain, so I'm not so sure she remembers her English
, although before we traveled, I was pretty happy because although she hasn't produced any word in any language yet, she clearly understood commands and recognized body parts both in English and Spanish, so that's a good sign for her bilingual journey! I'd also like her to learn some German, so as soon as we go back, she'll be spending some 'still-to-be-determined' time with a native German speaker so that she can get used to the new language, new words, etc. I'm not really sure how crazy her 'trilingual' upbringing will be, but I'll never know until I try, right?
Unfortunately there aren't any bilingual programs or easy-to-access resources for learning/teaching German (for kids) in Fredericksburg (there are in Washington DC, but we don't live there), so exposure to German from this native speaker is the best I've been able to get so far. It's challenging, and to be honest, I'm a little bit nervous to see how all this works out, but I'm ready for the challenge and for the long (bilingual/trilingual) journey! I'll keep you posted!
