About La Mother Tongue


La Mother Tongue is my medium to share the joys and challenges of being a new parent as well as to share how we make a conscious effort in our daily life to bring baby up bilingual.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Musings of a Language Nerdo Mami

The manzana really doesn’t fall far from the tree.  I think my daughter is a Langauge Nerdo too!!  Yes, at age 3!  I hope I haven’t overdone it….but really, how can I stop being me? Ha ha…whom am I kidding?  I LOVE it! 
We are fortunate enough to live in a very, very diverse area of the country.  So a trip to the supermercado can often replicate the lunch line at The United Nations.  Whenever we are in a store and Sofía passes someone else hablando Español, she will tell me.  “Esa señora habla Español también, Mami.”
One day we were in Target and there were two women speaking Portugués.  Sofía walked up to them, stared, and then looked at me and said, “Las señoras están hablando Portugués, Mami.” (The women are speaking Portuguese, Mami.)  The women, were shocked as well as I was!  They immediately started to speak to us en Español.  I explained that on YouTube, Sofía often watches some of her shows (Mickey Mouse Club House, Pocoyo, Hello Kitty, or Pulgarcita) in Portugués.  CONSTANTLY.  We make a conscious effort to always point out in which language she is watching. Reoccurring languages are Portugués and Ruso.  It is interesting because she watches the same show over again in the same languages.  She’s intense and she knows what’s going on.  As we were walking away, one of the señoras said, “Oh what a good ear she has!”  I beamed!  The Academy Awards of a Language Nerdo Mami’s ears! 

1 comment:

  1. How cut! You are right to be proud. I would be too. My little one is similar. She watches shows over and over without saying anything, then one day she will tell us all about it and we are amazed!

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