[rsfenn]

Hey Everyone...I am looking for some words of wisdom. My husband and I would like to be able to speak at least a little bit of Spanish to our baby when he/she gets here. We both can speak a tiny bit through our jobs (my dh more than I). We would like to be supportive of the culture. However, is this a good idea or too confusing for the baby? If it is a good idea do any of you have any ideas on how best to learn it for ourselves? We realize we will never be fluent but would like to bring the Spanish language into our family.

Thanks for your help!

[Mia's Daddy]

Our little Mia is being exposed to both as my wife is in Guatemala and has been for the last year with her. She recognizes both languages somewhat. We have been told that this will probably be very good for her development and her ability to comprehend multiple languages.

AS far as learning, it all depends on your level of commitment to it. I would suggest a local community college. If not that then get some tapes and a young child's spanish textbook. I try and watch spanish programming from time to time. i identify words I know and ones I don't. I look up the words I did not know to see how they went with the words I did know.

It can do nothing but enrich your lives.

[luvubella]

I think you should speak both to your baby. Whatever you can say to her/him in spanish go ahead, and then in English. Kids learn so fast they can speak two languanges with no problem. My spanish teacher says that her children are fluent in both languages and didn't even know that spanish and english were two different languages until someone else pointed that out.
I am currently taking spanish at the local college so that I may communicate easier with my 3 year old when she comes home. Also, I want her to be able to keep as much of her Spanish language as she can. The few visits I have had with her, show me how quickly she will pick up English. Also, my bio sons who only speak english were starting to speak spanish words by the end of the trip and her english. We always laugh and say that our children will speak Spanglish!

[Kesti]

Hi,

I think it is an excellent idea. One of my daughter's Godmothers is from Puerto Rico and only speaks to her in Spanish. I have also bought the Muzzy children's Spanish languate set on DVD and my girls love them and will repeat the words even when we are out and about.

[Princesa's Mama]

I posed the same question to a woman in my cell group who teaches Spanish and lived in Argentina for awhile. She said that Sarah recognizes some Spanish words now, but if she does not hear it spoken, she will probably lose that by around age 2. She suggested that we buy music tapes or other audio tapes for her to listen to. Also have people who speak Spanish speak to her if you have that resource at hand. I intend to learn more Spanish than I know now (almost nothing!). I have been intending to get a computer course but have been so busy hanging around this forum that I have not gotten it done
I saw some books that are written in both Spanish and English. I can read Spanish, without comprehending what I am reading, with pretty good pronunciation, so I am planing to get some bilingual books.

[Hope2BeMom2]

This thread gives me fond memories of the hours I spent with a tape of Mandarin Chinese before my daughter's pickup trip in 1998. I learned enough to kind of get around Nanjing and speak to cab drivers and flea market sellers (probably due to gesturing as much as anything), but when I met my daughter for the first time I held out my arms to her and tearfully said, "I am your Mama." She stared blankly at me and kept munching her cracker. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the "nanny" rolling on the floor laughing at my fractured pronunciation. Luckily we have the whole touching scene preserved on videotape, and we never tire of revisiting it!

[IG1995]

I think is a good idea to speak Spanish to her maybe more than English. With my son I didn't do that and I'm regreating it. He doesn't want to speak Spanish but he understand a lot.

My husband is a Spanish Teacher in High school and he always told me to speak to our son in Spanish. For our daughter we intent to speak just Spanish at the house. She would learn English at school and from other kids.

Another way to learn Spanish is reading news or books and watching Spanish TV will help you with pronuntiation (sp). Their some audio tapes that will help too.

Hope this help

Myrna

[buckeye1]

I am not fluent in Spanish by any stretch, but I did learn some key phrases to use when our daughter came home at nearly 9 months old. It definitely seemed to work when I needed to comfort her--she responded to it better than English. There are some words and phrases in the travel/etiquette guide that is available on guatadopt.com

Currently I'm enrolled in Spanish 2 offered thru our local university's continuing education department. At home, we watch Dora daily and also have several bilingual books for our daughter, who is now almost 2. I really want to help her learn the language as best I can, and hope to enroll her in a class when she's 3. Right now she can count to 15 in Spanish and knows a few words like luna, estrella, abre, agua, hola, adios, gracias and de nada. She also knows a few colors. And this weekend my heart turned to mush when I told her I loved her and she responded to me with "ummmm... te amo."

I guess what I'm saying is, yes, I think it's great to speak Spanish to our kids.

[munser]

I think it is great to speak both languages whenever you can. The spanish teachers at my middle school got my daughter some great gifts! Green Eggs and Ham, Goodnight Moon, and Diego in spanish and english. We also have some spanish counting books and "board" books identifying body parts in both languages. I read yesterday that the PBS show "Dragon Tales" is expanding the cast of cartoon characters to include a spanish speaking neighbor and that they are placing more emphasis on the hispanic culture. I also enjoy "Maya and Miguel", also on PBS that is great for a few spanish words each episode.I often wonder if I am pronouncing correctly but figure in the long run a bit of mispronunciation is better than no spanish at all. I used a CD set called "The Pimsleur Approach" before going to Guatemala. The introductory set is only $19.99 and is great for teaching you some key phrases. I liked the approach so much that I plan to get the rest of the audio CDs. They are 30 minutes long and my daughter and I can listen and learn together when we ride in the car. Good luck fostering those bi-lingual tendencies that our kids are sure to have!!!!

[BebitosMama]

I'm in favor of as going for bilingual as much as possible. I'm almost fluent in Spanish, but not a native speaker, and my 7 year bio daughter is very conversant. We've had a babysitter/nanny who speaks Spanish to her since she was 2, and she now has Spanish in school, etc. On our recent visit trip to Guatemala, she was going around translating for her Spanish-impaired Dad! Our baby's foster mother was thrilled and amazed that the baby's big sister and mother would speak Spanish. I talked to the baby about 80% of the time in Spanish, and he loved it. He's 8 months, and could already say Hola, and a few other words, so we just kept going! My husband spoke to him in English, which didn't seem to phase the baby at all, he just loved Dada too, and in fact, he said Dada all the time to my husband, but not Mama! ;-) My daughter spoke to him in Spanish too.

When he comes home, he'll have both Spanish and English in the home, with me and the babysitter -- who is preparing for his arrival like an expectant grandma, not to mention her entire extended family who are all thrilled too, they are Salvadoran and are really part of our family. Like my daughter, as a toddler and child he won't be truly bilingual, but he'll be fully conversant. Frankly, I'd still go for the Spanish even if I were adopting from China or Russia, because that's the 2nd language we have in our home, and it's also practical in the U.S. these days! ;-)

[AdoptAmiga]

It's so wonderful to read about languages and interest in learning more than one language. My husband is a native Spanish speaker and I'm fluent in it (w/ an American accent). We are using the one language- one parent approach. My husband only speaks Spanish to the kids, I only speak English (which pains me at times!) IT TAKES ALOT OF COMMITMENT TO BE CONSISTENT. The kids are doing beautifully. There will always be a time when one of the languages wil be more dominant than the other. But the end result will produce accent-free true bilinguals. At times, my DH and I speak Spanish w/ each other and my son will say "Momma, you say that funny." (!!!) Or vice versa when Daddy speaks English. We have many friends who were raised bilingually in various languages. All of them said that keeping up w/ VOCABULARY in both languages is the key.

My advice is if you are not fluent in Spanish, expose your child to fluent speakers on a regular basis. Kids will only advance to a level that they are exposed to.
Good luck and thank you for helping stamp out monolingualism!

[ahnasmom]

I think it's a great idea. We adopted from Russia but live in South Florida where many people speak Spanish....unfortunately we do not.

At our request, our son's daycare teachers (all native Spanish speakers) speak to him in primarily Spanish. He appears to completely understand both languages equally at 19 months. He will even comply with Mommy's awful non-native Spanish request to 'blow-kisses!'

[rsfenn]

You guys are wonderful!! Thanks for the support. I am off to buy books, CD's, DVD,s and go to school