Show Notes
We have a 10 month old son, Jack. He has been the light of our life since he’s joined us here on planet Earth. Naturally, since we want everyone to gain a greater compassion for others by learning a new language, we decided to raise him bilingual.
We have no doubt Jack will grow up being able to better communicate with other kids as a result of these efforts. In this episode we share the steps we’re taking to help our son learn both Spanish and English at the same time. Enjoy!
Tips (Consejos)
- We decided while pregnant since we were already learning Spanish
- Bilingual Types: Coordinate vs Compound
- Our son will have no dividing line between English and Spanish in his brain since he’s learning them both at the same time
- Our goal is to help our son have compassion for other cultures
- Through our research we’ve found very little downsides to teaching him two languages at once
- Don’t worry about using Spanglish, but try to separate your languages as much as possible
- If a noun ends in “a” it is generally feminine, which you would use “la” as the pronoun
- Having a nanny has been incredibly helpful in teaching our son Spanish and us!
- Asking for Spanish books for our baby shower has helped us a lot
- Seek out places to speak Spanish
- Host a Spanish night with friends
Spanish Words (Palabras Españolas)
- Quires = You form of Want = Do you want?
- Cansado = Tired
- Casado = Married
- Estoy Cansado/a = I am tired
- La mesa = The table
- El programa = The program
- Arriba = Up
- Abajo = Down
- Zapeta = Diaper
- El Sofa = The sofa / couch
Resources
- care.com
- Cri Cri Radio on Pandora.com (Spanish children’s music)
- Bob Zoom en Español (children’s nursery rhymes in Spanish)