Mummy and Papá
The Spanish have an obsession with learning English. English is seen as the language everyone needs to get ahead, to get a better job, to get a better education, the one thing that will bring someone a better life. As if reading Shakespeare in the original will make one a genius here, when even native English speakers don't understand the Bard or are unable to read those atemporal plays without a translation.
Part of that obsession stems from a decidedly ineffectual education. Even though English is now taught to three year olds when they start school, it's treated as simply another subject, like learning the colors or the numbers. Small kids tend to have only an hour of English every week, in blocks of fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes immersion four days a week will not an English speaker make. It also doesn't help that everything on television is dubbed because Franco was scared someone might understand a subversive message in the heavily censored films way back when. No government since his death has wanted to raise a ruckus among the voters by putting everything in original version, like other, more enlightened European countries.
So, it is becoming the habit to try to expose very young children to English. If there isn't enough money for a British au pair, the parent who has the better grasp of English will speak it to their baby. Once upon a time that was seen as a hindrance to the child's development. I remember when I started kindergarten in 1970's Boston, that the teacher was adamant my parents not teach me to read in Castilian Spanish until I had properly learned English. That, despite the fact that my maternal language at the time was Galician Spanish, and quite similar to Castilian. I quickly learned English, though, so much so that it eventually threw out Galician as my native tongue.
When my daughter was born, I decided to speak to her in English. In Boston I had always considered it a shame that parents who spoke other languages would not speak them to their children, and therefore have those children lose out on part of their cultural heritage. I knew English, so it would be the language I would speak with her.
At first it was difficult. I had fallen into the habit of speaking Galician, and had to remember to speak English with her. But I did so, even with opposition from some of my relatives and in-laws. Those mostly objected because I spoke with her in English in front of them, and they found it impolite. When she started school, some mothers also thought it impolite and the complaints got back to me. Yet, years later, they admitted that they were envious of my daughter's trilinguism (Galician Spanish, Castilian Spanish, and English). The teacher she had when she was three years old interviewed all the mothers, so she could better understand her charges. I mentioned I spoke English with my daughter, and she told me I should hold off on any formal English teaching until my daughter started learning Spanish grammar later.
Yet, I tried to teach her to read in English. I don't know if I succeeded or not, because she was stubborn and didn't want to learn with me back then. She always spoke in Galician with me because that is her maternal language, and she has always heard me speak it with everyone else. She has no problem speaking in English, though, and will do so when necessary. She also grew accustomed to reading in English thanks to a teacher she had one year in high school. That teacher realized my daughter was not challenged by the coursework, so she decided to give her a different class from all the others. My daughter became exempt from everything the class did. She got books to read in normal English, and exercises from a workbook called Proficiency in English, which put my own knowledge of English grammar to the test at times. The last book she read that year for school was 1984, in the original version. From that time on she had no problem with reading in regular English. Sometimes familiarity breeds contempt. That saint of a teacher did in a few months what I had been trying to do for years.
There is an erroneous belief that children who learn two or more languages from babyhood will mix them up or make a mish-mash in their brains that will have them talking much later than kids who learn only one language. That is not true. My daughter learned to talk at the usual age, and though she always spoke in Galician, she understood my English. I remember asking her one day when she was around two years old, if she wanted a strawberry. She said no. Curious, I asked her if she knew what a strawberry was. She replied without a doubt, "Fresa." Yet she didn't really know that I spoke a different language to her, because she didn't know what a language was. One day, a friend, amazed that she understood everything I said to her, asked her in Galician, "Dime hola en inglés." (Say hello to me in English.) My daughter promptly replied, "Hola en inglés." (Hello in English.)
Of course, the parents who decide to speak English to their babies need to understand that it's not just a few words, it's daily life that has to be lived in the language. While it's admirable that they try to give their children different knowledge, they should know what they teach. The problem in this country, is that it's only in the parents hands. There is no outside help to learn another language. There is no television in original version, no one who might speak English daily as a matter of fact, no real immersion in the language without paying many euros for a truly bilingual daycare or a live-in au pair. Speaking English well is still a sign of the upper middle class in this country, and a sign that you've "arrived" in society. There are people who have the ability to learn languages easily that leave school speaking English, but those are rare. In the majority of cases, it's the constant exposure since babyhood that makes an English speaker. When the powers-that-be in the Ministry of Education decide that everyone has the right to learn another language well, that's when substantial changes might begin to be wrought. Until then, it's still a question of luck, natural ability, or money.
Part of that obsession stems from a decidedly ineffectual education. Even though English is now taught to three year olds when they start school, it's treated as simply another subject, like learning the colors or the numbers. Small kids tend to have only an hour of English every week, in blocks of fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes immersion four days a week will not an English speaker make. It also doesn't help that everything on television is dubbed because Franco was scared someone might understand a subversive message in the heavily censored films way back when. No government since his death has wanted to raise a ruckus among the voters by putting everything in original version, like other, more enlightened European countries.
So, it is becoming the habit to try to expose very young children to English. If there isn't enough money for a British au pair, the parent who has the better grasp of English will speak it to their baby. Once upon a time that was seen as a hindrance to the child's development. I remember when I started kindergarten in 1970's Boston, that the teacher was adamant my parents not teach me to read in Castilian Spanish until I had properly learned English. That, despite the fact that my maternal language at the time was Galician Spanish, and quite similar to Castilian. I quickly learned English, though, so much so that it eventually threw out Galician as my native tongue.
When my daughter was born, I decided to speak to her in English. In Boston I had always considered it a shame that parents who spoke other languages would not speak them to their children, and therefore have those children lose out on part of their cultural heritage. I knew English, so it would be the language I would speak with her.
At first it was difficult. I had fallen into the habit of speaking Galician, and had to remember to speak English with her. But I did so, even with opposition from some of my relatives and in-laws. Those mostly objected because I spoke with her in English in front of them, and they found it impolite. When she started school, some mothers also thought it impolite and the complaints got back to me. Yet, years later, they admitted that they were envious of my daughter's trilinguism (Galician Spanish, Castilian Spanish, and English). The teacher she had when she was three years old interviewed all the mothers, so she could better understand her charges. I mentioned I spoke English with my daughter, and she told me I should hold off on any formal English teaching until my daughter started learning Spanish grammar later.
Yet, I tried to teach her to read in English. I don't know if I succeeded or not, because she was stubborn and didn't want to learn with me back then. She always spoke in Galician with me because that is her maternal language, and she has always heard me speak it with everyone else. She has no problem speaking in English, though, and will do so when necessary. She also grew accustomed to reading in English thanks to a teacher she had one year in high school. That teacher realized my daughter was not challenged by the coursework, so she decided to give her a different class from all the others. My daughter became exempt from everything the class did. She got books to read in normal English, and exercises from a workbook called Proficiency in English, which put my own knowledge of English grammar to the test at times. The last book she read that year for school was 1984, in the original version. From that time on she had no problem with reading in regular English. Sometimes familiarity breeds contempt. That saint of a teacher did in a few months what I had been trying to do for years.
There is an erroneous belief that children who learn two or more languages from babyhood will mix them up or make a mish-mash in their brains that will have them talking much later than kids who learn only one language. That is not true. My daughter learned to talk at the usual age, and though she always spoke in Galician, she understood my English. I remember asking her one day when she was around two years old, if she wanted a strawberry. She said no. Curious, I asked her if she knew what a strawberry was. She replied without a doubt, "Fresa." Yet she didn't really know that I spoke a different language to her, because she didn't know what a language was. One day, a friend, amazed that she understood everything I said to her, asked her in Galician, "Dime hola en inglés." (Say hello to me in English.) My daughter promptly replied, "Hola en inglés." (Hello in English.)
Of course, the parents who decide to speak English to their babies need to understand that it's not just a few words, it's daily life that has to be lived in the language. While it's admirable that they try to give their children different knowledge, they should know what they teach. The problem in this country, is that it's only in the parents hands. There is no outside help to learn another language. There is no television in original version, no one who might speak English daily as a matter of fact, no real immersion in the language without paying many euros for a truly bilingual daycare or a live-in au pair. Speaking English well is still a sign of the upper middle class in this country, and a sign that you've "arrived" in society. There are people who have the ability to learn languages easily that leave school speaking English, but those are rare. In the majority of cases, it's the constant exposure since babyhood that makes an English speaker. When the powers-that-be in the Ministry of Education decide that everyone has the right to learn another language well, that's when substantial changes might begin to be wrought. Until then, it's still a question of luck, natural ability, or money.
You gave her a wonderful gift. Studies show different languages are in different places in the brain. I often see children on the bus speaking a different language to their parent but both understand each other fully. Wish my grandparents had spoke French to me.
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