Friday, January 9, 2009
here's what you say, Mommy
Yesterday a neighbor who speaks limited English (fluent Spanish) watched Ella and Gabrielle. Michelle asked as we were driving home from work/school if she could stay and play for a little bit when we picked up Ella and Gabrielle. I said it was okay with me but we'd have to ask Jenni's mom. Michelle said, "But Mom, she only speaks Spanish and you don't talk Spanish good." She was quiet for a moment and then said, "Okay, here's what you say, Mommy. Say, "Puede mis ninas jugar con Jenni y Francisco, por favor?" (Can my girls play with Jenni and Francisco, please?) She then made me practice repeating it to her several times. Then she said, "Or if that's too hard, you could ask Jenni in ENGLISH and Jenni can ask her mom." I didn't know whether to laugh (I don't speak Spanish well, but I can say some things.... it's funny that my 5 year old is now so confident that she knows so much more than me...and she probably will soon) or to feel incredibly proud. Mostly, I am so pleased with all that she is learning.
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WOW! What a cutie! I love it! We can all learn a thing or two from our kids!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! Way to go Michelle!
ReplyDeleteBIG WOW! Way to go Michelle. If I ever have any Spanish questions I know who to call!
ReplyDeletePretty good! She will be able to translate soon! :)
ReplyDeleteThe great thing is that this is just one small example. She talks in Spanish a lot now. She plays school (by herself with imaginary students or with Ella as her student) and is the teacher, teaching Spanish. A friend asked her a couple of days ago if she wanted to go to Hunter Elementary. She said no way, she likes Jackson where she learns Spanish and English. She sings songs, answers questions, asks questions,etc. in Spanish now. We've known she could understand for several years now, but her speaking skills were limited...or perhaps just her confidence and willingness to speak were limited. (I can speak better than most people think, although nothing near fluently, but I'm too lacking in confidence in most situations to do it.) Now, that's not the case at all for Michelle.
ReplyDeleteThat is so AWESOME! Way to go for sticking with the plan of Alfredo always speaking to your kids in Spanish and to top it all off putting her in a school where she can really take off with it! How wonderful to have that school, we have some home school friends that did what you did with the dad always speaking Spanish and then they ended up moving to Costa Rica for a year to really help the kids (and it worked but would've been much easier to just take them to a school to accomplish the same thing)!
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