Friday, December 10, 2010
Spanish.
I am the Spanish teacher whose kid can barely speak Spanish. How weird, right? Each and everyday, my husband and I struggle to teach this girl the language and it can be sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo frustrating! Of course, I do my best to speak and read to her, but she doesnt show much interest in it. When she was little, we alternated between the two languages, the very same way we alternate when we speak "Spanglish". However over the years, English has become the more dominant. My husband and I discuss sending her to DR for a whole summer, but I'm way too attached for to her and there is no way I can send her there for so long. I feel like we are loosing a our culture and a bit of who we are. I imagine that our grandchildren will have no relation to Dominican culture by the time they are grown. This makes me very sad.
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As a a fellow Spanish teacher and heritage Spanish speaker, I can totally understand the sadness you feel when it comes to your daughter (my sister) learning Spanish. My sister resisted for many years, but she has now come to accept and even seek to learn it more fully. It's different with everyone and having just had a slew of parent-teacher conferences today with some parents expressing concern about their child's acceptance/rejection of Spanish at home, it is fresh on my mind. I would say that you shouldn't push it or she'll start to develop a negative association. I would however try and help her associate Spanish with fun activities - whether it's reading with you or your husband or going out to play in the park that way it's something she can look forward to rather than reject outright.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is inspiring. I appreciate your honesty. I feel like languages other than English are easily looked-over. This is so unfortunate. I hope that your positive attitude will influence your daughter to, as I'm sure it will, embrace her bilingualism because there are many of us who would love to understand/speak Spanish fluently. :)
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