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!

Los Peruanos

Do all Peruanos wear Llamas on their shirts?

Just Like.....

You may all INSIST that Sofía looks just like Papi…..but her personalidad is allllllll MINE!

Language Profiling

Yesterday , we were driving down the road and bright yellow SUV was not driving appropriately.  I made  some kind of comentario under my breath.  Sofía asked me what the car was doing and I explained it to her. 

We drove by them; I glanced over and saw that there were two Latinas in the car and the driver was TALKING ON HER CELULAR!  Gggrrrr.  Two seconds after passing the car, Sofía said, “Esas señoras hablan Español, cierto, Mami?” I was SHOCKED of course.  I answered her that they indeed spoke Español and asked her how she KNEW that they spoke Español.  Her response?  “No sé.”

 I suppose I have handed down the Language-Profiling gene to Sofía. (I really like to call it Racial Profiling, but that has a WHOLE different meaning.) Maybe it is a good skill that she will need if she becomes a CIA agent instead of the Veterinaria that I’m sure is her destino.   I suppose I Language Profile because I'm a Language Nerdo. But it is also easy to do in our area. The majority of non-gringos are either off the boat or first generation immigrants, so it is easy and rather accurate. Here, at least, if someone looks like a foreigner, they generally are a foreigner, but I realize this isn’t the case in other regions of the country.  But I love to check out people's factions, shoes and socks, gait, skin and hair color, and  language rhythm to determine what language they speak and if they are immigrants or children of immigrants. If I sense a hint of being a Spanish-Speaker, I immediately transition into Español.  I’m more comfortable with it and I want Sofía to be exposed as much as possible.  But who am I kidding?  I switch to Español even when Sofía ISN’T around!  іJa ja jee jee! I just find it fascinante to look at a person’s appearance and culturally dissect him or her to discover from where he or she is or what language he or she speaks.  Do YOU Language Profile?

іFeliz Día de San Valentín!

іWow…Papi sent us some flores…..unas rosas preciosas! (From Colombia of course!) Later all three of us went out to dinner at a restaurante called, La Rosa Mexicana.  We got home so late that night that we had to give Sofía her regalitos the next day!  No one wants a three year old eating chocolates at las Nueve at night!  We also gave her this great little tea set made by Green Toys Inc.  The tea set is made from 100% recycled materials, can be used to really eat from, and can be put in the dishwasher!  This means we can eat REAL food during our tea parties! 

іFeliz Día de San Valentín!