Adrian y Camila – Tan lindos, no hay palabras!
Adrian and Camila – So cute! No words!
Que cómo va el español de Adrian? Bueno, la verdad muy pero muy bien. El es completamente bilingue y pronuncia perfectamente sus palabras, puede hablar fluido en los dos idiomas sin problemas pero…
…Ahora tenemos que trabajar en cómo construir las oraciones mejor y no usar tanto Spanglish. Así es. Desde que empezé con esto de ayudarle a ser bilingue la verdad nos ha ido maravillosamente bien, el hasta sabe perfectamente que a mi me habla español aunque todos los que estén en el lugar hablen inglés, el a mi me habla en español (tan bello!).
Pero si mete muchas palabras en inglés y se las he dejado pasar poco a poco hasta que ya me di cuenta que son muchas y le he vuelto a decir, cómo? no te entiendo? Y a veces me la dice en español pero a veces se hace el loco y me la repite en inglés porque sabe que le entiendo por dentro y a veces hasta se enoja y no me dice nada.
Jugar en Español es divertido! Playing in Spanish is fun!
Además lo que me deja impresionada es la manera de construir sus oraciones de acuerdo al inglés, cómo que si supiera cuales son los verbos y los sujetos y estuviera traduciendo palabra por palabra. Me da muchísima risa cuando los escucho hablar así:
Mami, estoy jambre!
Quién le dijo que la ache se pronunciaba como jota en inglés???
Y que Yo estoy es igual a I am?? –A lo mejor es que lo traduce de “hungry” directamente ;)–
Tía, quieres a jugar?
Quien le dijo que to is igual a “a”??
Quieres jugar con mi?
La palabra “conmigo” le cuesta bastante.
Mami, me sopas?
Este si es verdad que no lo entendí sino después de unos minutos… Estábamos en el baño y quería que lo enjabonara!! osea sopas de Soap en inglés! Que bárbaro! Ahí es cuando dije, no, esto no hay que dejarlo correr! Su spanglish va creciendo, jajaja! Como este hay millones, el acostumbra mucho a agarrar una palabra en inglés y convertirla en verbo en español, por ejemplo: Mami, me combas? Mami, me peinas?)
Que sirve eso para?
Que tal este! Completamente traducido palabra por palabra del inglés: What is this for? Como este hay muchos, por ejemplo: Donde esto se vino por?
The balloon got desinfloated
Este es en Inglés a Español, me impresiona como agarró la palabra del español “desinflado” y la dijo el solito así en inglés!!
Una de las cosas que disfrutamos mucho son nuestros días que nos vemos con amigos en donde hablamos puro español, a mi me impresiona que el se hable español con su amiga Camila por ejemplo, porque con otros niños la mayoría de las veces aunque sepan los dos hablar Español el principal idioma elejido es el Inglés.
Incluso, a raiz de uno de los días en que nos vimos con Ana y Camila, Ana de Spanglishbaby sacó un post acerca de otras maneras de ayudar cuando se mezclan los idiomas, muy útiles! Y porsupuesto que ahora estoy usando otras estrategias en vez de la de “no entiendo”, y todo va mejorando poquito a poco!
How is Adrian’s Spanish? Well, it’s really good. He is completely bilingual and he pronounces the words very well, he can make sentences and speak fluently y both languages, but…
…We now have to work in how to build better sentences and to try and not use so much Spanglish. Since I started this about helping him being bilingual it has given marvelous results, he perfectly knows that he speaks Spanish to me even when there is a room full of English speaking people, he know I do only Spanish (love this!).
But he does include lots of English words and I had started to let it be and not worry but I have realized that there are too many, so I started to say again: What? I don’t understand? And sometimes he says the words in Spanish and sometimes he just acts like he didn’t hear me or sometimes he even gets upset about it and repeats it in English again, he’s able to know now that mami speaks both too, so why make the effort right?
I am also amazed at how he started building sentences the way they are made in English, as if he knew which are the verbs and the subjects and translates word for word. It makes me laugh when I hear him talk like this: (Note: If you are reading this and don’t know much Spanish, it’s kind of hard to grasp what he is doing but I tried to explain briefly in all of them)
Mami, estoy jambre
He wants to say: Mami, I’m hungry, in Spanish he should say Mami, tengo hambre –the “h” is silent and the verb should change.
Tía, quieres a jugar?
He wants to say: Aunt, do you want to play? But he adds an extra word, the “to” doesn’t need to be added in Spanish.
Quieres jugar con mi?
Do you want to play with me? He’s just using the “me” from English but it should be “conmigo” instead which is still hard for him.
Mami, me sopas?
Mami, can you jabon me? It kind of sounds like that in Spanish, sounds weird of course, it was hard to understand him when he first said it, but this is typical, he grabs an English word and turns it into a verb in Spanish (in this case he grabbed the word soap), actually when I heard this it’s when I said what?? This has to stop!! His Spanglish is growing too much! Like this example there is plenty, he also said: Mami, can you peine? (Mami, can you comb me?)
Que sirve eso para?
This one is hard to understand or explain in English, he took word for word in English and said in Spanish which is no good in this sentence.
The balloon got desinfloated
This one is from English to Spanish, he said desinfloated from the word desinflado instead of saying deflated, pretty creative, ha ha!
Ja ja ja! Maya no estaba muy contenta con los cariños de Camila ese día!
Hahaha! Maya wasn’t so happy with Camila’s love that day!
We really enjoy when we get together with friends that speak Spanish, I am always amazed at how he automatically speaks Spanish with his friend Camila for example, because with other kids he goes for English first.
I was talking about this with my friend
Ana (Camila’s mom) at one of our play dates and then she was inspired to write this
post at
SpanglishBaby about it, it’s really helpful, it talks about ways to help when your child mixes both languages! And of course now I am applying different
strategies instead of the “no entiendo”, so it’s getting better!
15 Comments
Sra. Lopez
July 21, 2010 at 7:08 pmIt's great that you're recording these cute errors. When he's older and completely fluent in both, he will be able to laugh about it with you 🙂
Adorable photos, as always. Beautiful children.
Monica
July 21, 2010 at 8:49 pmThis is so wonderful, Dariela! Aren't children so amazing? Thanks for sharing this. I wish my children were so comfortable with Spanish.
Marcela
July 21, 2010 at 9:30 pmYou are doing a great thing! The pictures are beautiful!
I need to find more kids Jeremiah's age that speak spanish for playdates, it seems to be definitely iimportant.
Cecy
July 22, 2010 at 12:15 amThe pictures are beautiful. Y yo tambien tengo jambre!!!!!
L.A. Story
July 22, 2010 at 12:50 amWhat amazing observations and such beautiful pics!
Ruby
July 22, 2010 at 4:56 amThat is too funny but what a smart boy. I just started OPOL with my son and it's a lot harder since I'm the only one he hears Spanish from no friends or family speak Spanish. He is starting to repeat some of the words I say but he clearly understands most of what I say it's amazing
ModernMami
July 22, 2010 at 7:02 pmLove the personal stories Dariela…and of course the pictures! I so wish my girl had a friend her age who didn't speak English so she'd be forced to speak Spanish and actually practice. I love that your son is progressing well. Keep up the good job!
Ana Lilian Flores
July 24, 2010 at 5:41 amI smiled the whole way through, but, of course, I'm prejudiced because I could hear him say the phrases while I read them!
It's amazing how he always, always speaks in Spanish to Camila and me. He already gets it.
Las fotos estan divinas! Te las voy a robar todas!!
Yoly - YNR Live
July 25, 2010 at 8:55 pmGreat story and pictures!
lisarenata
July 26, 2010 at 4:44 amMe encanto este post.
Yo acá sigo sufriendo con el OPOL. Pues mi nene prefiere usar el Ingles mas que el Español, hay veces que me quiero dar por vencida, pero nada, sigo adelante y se que algún día me lo agradecerá. Espero!! =)
Dariela
July 26, 2010 at 4:51 amThanks everybody for the wonderful comments!
@Sra Lopez: I know it's fun to record these errors and come back later, I'm sure we'll forget them so it's nice that they are here 🙂
@Marcela: yes, it is really helpful that kids see other kids speaking Spanish and their parents as well. He does notice that Ana and me always speak Spanish too!
@Ruby: You are doing a great thing though, keep it up!!
@Melanie: Yes, try to find her a Spanish speaking friend, hahaha!
@Lisa: Si, yo te entiendo, pero si te lo agradecerá amiga, hay que practicar mucho la paciencia con esto no!!??
Dariela
July 26, 2010 at 4:54 am@Monica: It's hard but if we keep helping them, they'll do it sometime, no?! 🙂
@Cecy: Ya me imagino, que siempre tienes hambre ahora 😉 jajaja
@Laura @Yoly Thanks for stopping by!
@Ana: Jajaja, róbatelas y si necesitas en high-res me dices.
Aunt Jill
July 26, 2010 at 6:50 pmHe's pretty black and white right now, don't you think? If I try to talk Spanish to him he just looks at me blankly or ignores me. I realize my accent is awful and I don't know enough words, but I think the San Diego aunties are assigned firmly to the "English only" category! 😀
Dariela
July 29, 2010 at 7:19 pmJill: Yes, he knows who to speak English or Spanish to. I think the Spanglish comes in more when he's speaking Spanish though!
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