A Mother's Dream

At home, my husband and I usually do a lot of code-switching. We mainly use English when we talk about professional issues. We use Spanish when we talk about sports like soccer or Hispanic soaps.

Over the last 16 years, since I came to live in the US, I have found myself using more and more English. There is nothing uncommon about this pattern. It's been documented in the literature on language loss and language attrition.

However, when Hannah, our daughter, was born, we had already decided that we would bring her up bilingually. Why? My home languge is Spanish. Although professionally I use English all the time, I associate Spanish with the language of children. I grew up in Argentina where one of the few children's songs I learned in English was Old McDonald's has a farm.... I grew up listening to Maria Elena Walsh, Gabi, Fofo, y Miliki, and watching Piluso y Coquito... Then why would I resort to English, when my reservoire of sources in children's English is soooo limited?

More importantly, why would I speak English to her when everytime that I see a child in LA, regardless of whether the child's home language is English or Spanish, I will communicate with the child in Spanish. The reality is that I can't speak English to a child. So I need to rely on my SPanish resources to help my daughter develop her language skills.

At the same time, my husband speaks English to Hannah. We are very consistent about our roles: I am the source of input in Spanish and Alan is the source of input in English. And we do this naturally, not because we force ourselves to do this.