A Language Nerdo Mamá’s Bad Parenting Habits

If we were any other parents, my husband and I would be jumping for joy to hear our daughter Sofía speaking the new language that she is learning.  But we, or the me of the “we”, is a Language Nerdo Mamá and I find myself not really rejoicing when Sofía shows off her newly learned Inglés.  Instead, I deliberately try to make it seem normal and trite so that she won’t continue to do it with me!  What horrible parenting!  But a Language Nerdo Mamá must do what a Minority Language Rearing Parent must do and STICK TO and foster THE TARGET LANGUAGE.  I’m really thrilled and amazed at how much and how quickly Sofía’s little brain picks up language and its uses and how easily she transfers knowledge from one language to the next.  (I suppose when it happened to me at that age, I didn’t really analyze the process-ja ja!) When I took Sofía to a free neighborhood Clown (Payaso) Event, someone said to us that the clown was stuck in traffic and that SHE would be here soon.  I thanked the woman and we walked to the stage area.  When we arrived and Sofía asked me something about the clown, she immediately changed genders of the clown in Español from Payaso to Payasa.  It’s amazing to witness a three-year-old’s brain transferring!  The only recording I have of Sofía speaking Inglés is this (embarrassingly small) smidgen of a clip of her singing her gato Paco to sleep. I may just win the Bad Bilingual-Parenting Award!

This post is part of the August Bilingual Carnival.  Check it out here at Best 4 Future:  Bringing Up Baby Bilingual!