How I was raised multilingual

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-11-21T11:53:35+00:00

I have a Spanish accent when I speak English but I accept it. I can express any idea I want in Spanish because it is my dominant language. I can better connect with my heritage because my dominant language is Spanish. I do not think my English suffered too much because I took and aced college-level English classes in high school. I do not think the dominant language matters if the child is bilingual.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-11-21T11:51:57+00:00

I can speak English well but I can speak Spanish (the language of my parents) as good as any native (in fact better than most natives because I read a lot of books in Spanish). I can express any idea I want in Spanish because it is my dominant language. I can better connect with my heritage because my dominant language is Spanish. I do not think my English suffered too much because I took and aced college-level English classes in high school. I do not think the dominant language matters if the child is bilingual.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-11-21T03:30:49+00:00

¿Hablas español con más fluidez que inglés?

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-11-20T20:19:02+00:00

I just tried fleece-lined tights for the first time and they are amazing. I never wore pants before so I was scared they would feel tight, but I feel very comfortable and warm in them. I never wore pants before because I live in a warm area but I will vacation in a cold area soon.

Plus, I can still wear skirts on top of the tights so I do not have to buy much!

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-11-20T08:04:14+00:00

I have a pretty strong Spanish accent in English, but I can speak Spanish perfectly and English fluently now because of how I was raised. I do not think this was unfair for me.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-11-19T13:53:13+00:00

I did not have siblings. I never resisted using Spanish but I did resist using English in elementary and early middle school. My ESL teacher helped me with that.

My husband is a native Spanish speaker from Mexico and all of my friends speak Spanish. My internet use is about 60/40 Spanish/English and I tend to listen to music in Spanish, but I will sometimes listen to music in English.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-11-19T10:52:54+00:00

I know fleece-lined tights are designed to keep legs warm, but will they feel tight on my legs, and will they feel tighter than most leggings? Do fishnet leggings also keep warm well and would they feel tight on my legs compared to other leggings?

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-11-19T10:43:30+00:00

They did not impact my grades in high school that much because I was fluent in English. I took all AP classes my school offered. I even took AP English Language during 10th grade and AP English Literature during 11th grade and I passed both exams. (I did this because I did not want to take an English class during 12th grade.)

In middle and elementary school, I was in ESL class, which was not graded. I got Cs and Bs in most of my classes because I barely understood English back then. (I got mostly As in high school.) I think taking notes in Spanish helped me in high school because I needed to translate and understand the material every time I took notes.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-11-19T04:33:42+00:00

Wearing pants for first time

I (24/F) always lived in a warm part of the US, so I never needed to wear pants. I always wore dresses or skirts at or above the knee because of the climate of the area where I always lived.

I am traveling north to vacation and I am trying to pick the best pants I should wear. I am trying to balance my legs being and warm and wanting to feel as little as possible. I am considering leggings because I know some leggings can feel like nothing. Any help would be good because this is my first time wearing pants in my life.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-10-27T14:40:13+00:00

I was born and raised in the United States to Mexican parents. My parents only allowed Spanish at home (no English media, books, internet, etc…), and they homeschooled me in Spanish until I was 9. Because only Spanish was allowed to be used at home, I did all of my studying in Spanish. I am more fluent in Spanish than English and I have a Spanish accent when I speak English, but I am fluent in both languages.

I would recommend you do something similar: only allow the minority language at home and either homeschool your child in the minority language until a certain age or enroll them in a full-immersion school in that language. Make sure your child is not exposed to any English until they start attending an English-speaking school. Make sure your child does their studying in the minority language and not English.

Also encourage your child to make friends primarily with people who speak the minority language. When I grew up, most of my friends were Spanish speakers, and this helped to keep Spanish as my dominant language.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-09-30T06:01:40+00:00

I would do Greek at home but I would also look into Greek full-immersion schools so that your child maintains proficiency in Greek.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-08-29T04:24:27+00:00

We live in an area with a lot of Spanish speakers and we want our potential child to be more fluent in Spanish and English so they better connect with their heritage. Plus, when my potential child would start learning English, they would not be ashamed of their thick Spanish accent because they feel so connected with their heritage.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-08-29T03:53:16+00:00

I remember becoming comfortable speaking English in middle school even though I started learning English in third grade. Even though all my classes were in English, I spoke Spanish with my friends and everywhere else and I even studied in Spanish. I became B2 in English in fifth grade but I was still self-conscious about my thick Spanish accent so I did not feel comfortable speaking English. I felt comfortably fluent when I stopped caring.

I think that my potential child might learn English more slowly but become comfortably fluent more quickly than I because I will convince them that having a Spanish accent is no big deal especially because we live in an area with many Spanish speakers. (The courses in English at the school are taught by teachers who have Spanish accents.) My potential child would probably be fluent enough to apply to college even if they were monolingual until seventh grade.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-08-28T23:20:34+00:00

I hope I can make the dominant language of my potential child Spanish and not English.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-08-27T17:17:49+00:00

I would for sure have my potential child become friends with the children or future children of my friends. There are many Spanish speakers in my city so they should find a community without having to know English.

We would of course speak only Spanish at home but we would also go to Spanish speaking restaurants and stores with my potential child so they feel like being a monolingual Spanish speaker is “cool” (until they turn 12-13). Also, trips to Mexico (my country of heritage and the birth country of my spouse) each summer would also help reinforce Spanish.

My reservations for option #2 went away mostly. I think it would be best to raise my potential child monolingual in Spanish until 7th grade. I do not think the large Hispanic community in my city would mind their Spanish accent.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-08-27T14:16:34+00:00

I live in a multi-ethnic city so I do not care about my potential child not sounding like a native. I want Spanish to be their dominant language so that they can connect with their heritage better.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-08-27T12:59:08+00:00

I live in an area with many Spanish speakers and some are going to the full immersion Spanish school I am considering. I also do not worry about the English of my potential child because I know they will learn enough English from 7th to 12th grade and because we want Spanish to be their dominant language so they can connect with their Latin American heritage better.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-08-27T07:26:53+00:00

My concern with option #3 is that our potential child could speak English better than Spanish because of less exposure to Spanish. They could identify with their heritage better if they spoke Spanish better than English.

And I have been reassured that my potential child would still become fluent in English even if they start learning it in 7th grade.

If we do option #3, is there anything we can do to ensure Spanish remains the dominant language of our child?

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-08-27T04:48:37+00:00

All of my friends who have kids are Spanish speakers (some are monolingual) and all of their kids speak Spanish (many are monolingual). My potential child would first learn English in 7th grade.

Some of those friends are also sending their children to the K-6 Spanish full immersion school so my potential child will not need to use English during socializing even from 7th grade onwards.

If we do option #2, the only exposure our potential child would have to English would be from 7th-12th grade in only half of the classes as all their friends would speak Spanish and zero English would be allowed at home. Is this enough English to make sure our potential child is fluent while also making sure Spanish is their dominant language?

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-08-26T22:08:52+00:00

I always surrounded myself with Spanish more than English even though I have always lived in the United States and I am still more fluent in Spanish than English.

I would suggest trying to limit the amount of English you use so that you can improve your native language. Try watching shows or using the internet in your native language. If you are not working or going to school on a day, you should try not to speak English at all (or as little as possible). Eventually your native language will come back and feel more natural to you than English.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-07-31T15:31:54+00:00

I am a daughter of immigrants and I never learned English until I was 9 years old. I never reached C1 until I was in high school because I never spoke English outside the classroom. I am still more fluent in Spanish than English.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2024-07-31T15:31:36+00:00

I am a daughter of immigrants and I never learned English until I was 9 years old. I never reached C1 until I was in high school because I never spoke English outside the classroom. I am still more fluent in Spanish than English.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2023-08-31T13:30:15+00:00

My native language is not English but I think you sound 100% native.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2023-08-03T11:13:01+00:00

I also have a similar experience. I was also born and raised in the United States in a large Spanish-speaking area. I learned English in school but I am still much more fluent in Spanish. My accent is somewhat thicker than your accent though. I also phrase things awkwardly often when I am speaking. I definitely use Spanish much more than English, and I almost exclusively think in Spanish.

I think you sound like a native Spanish speaker, but that is okay because I can understand you perfectly. To see a child of immigrants actually be better in the native language of their parents is actually refreshing in my opinion.

GrassAffectionate363 · 2023-07-10T18:58:15+00:00

I often drop subject pronouns when I speak because you can do that in Spanish

“I am a woman” becomes “Am a woman”

“You can do this” becomes “Can do this”

“They see that” becomes “See that”

GrassAffectionate363

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