Mama habla dos idiomas!

As you already know, we are speaking two languages to Hannah. However, what I want to describe is how Alan and I communicate with Hannah when we talk to her at the same time. For example, today we had one "conversation" with Hannah, one in which we tried to explain to her that she is teething and this is why she is in pain. So Alan explained the situation to Hannita in English. He used vocabulary that was quite sophisticated. After he said what he said I naturally repeated the same idea in Spanish. Mind you, we were not doing this intentionally, I just started doing things naturally. SO I told Hannah what the problem was. She looked at Alan and looked at me. She did not seem confused. What IS interesting is that when she hears me speak Spanish she communicates with me very naturally, plays, responds by cooing, etc. However, the few times she has heard me speak English, she noticed that I was doing something new, different. So she looked at me with her big eyes, looking surprised. So I think that she does realize that there is a difference between the two languages and she notices when we are speaking one or the other....

Recommended Books

In this entry, I would like to recommend two books on bilingualism. The first book is by Ellen Bialystok, an expert on the topic. The title of the book is "Bilingualism in Development: Language, Literacy, and Cognition." Here is a review of the article that was published in the Bilingual Research Journal (by NABE). However, I found the review on a site titled Find Articles. The review is excellent because it gives you a summary of the different chapters in the book.

For more information on the book, go to the Amazon site, where you can browse through the book.

The second book that I want to recommend is titled "Childhood Bilingualism: Research on Infancy Through School Age," edited by Peggy McCardle and Erika Hoff. This book is by Multilingual Matters, whose books are quite technical. This is not to say that Bialystok's book is not technical. Not at all. The difference is that the Bialystok book is written by one person, one point of view, and the other book is an edited volume and showcases studies. On the other hand, Bialystok's volume showcases her work over the last twenty years. In any case, I would still recommend Childhood Bilingualism since it looks at issues such as processing two languages, learning two languages, literacy in two languages, etc. Very interesting! Here is a picture of the cover.

For those parents who want something easy to read, I would recommend reading a book titled "Child Language: A Resource Book for Students" By Jean Stilwell Peccei, published by Routledge. Easy to read though the focus is NOT on bilingualism...

Enjoy! Cheers, Kuki

Code-switching y otras yerbas

En casa se hablan dos lenguas: Spanish and English.

Up until Hannah was born, Alan and I used a lot more English than Spanish. When we talked about issues related to work, we used English. When we talked about his family and social things in the US, like the economy, political events, etc we used English. In terms of tv, we usually watch all of the soap operas on Telemundo and Univision. I also watch all the gossip shows in Spanish. Mind you! IT's not that I'm glued to the tv, it's that I work with the TV on as background noise. During the day, if there is a good Court TV trial, then I watch this trial in English. As for TV in English, we watch Law and Order, Desperate Housewives (though not regularly during the second season), and Grey's Anatomy....Also sometimes, we watch Without a Trace. With my family, we only used Spanish, and with Alan's family only English.

When Hannah was born, I naturally started speaking to her only in English. It's not that I made a conscious effort, though we knew that we would be raising her bilingually. But for me it was natural to speak to her only in Spanish. All my vocabulary about children and for children is in Spanish. All the poetry, lullabies, etc that I know are in Spanish. All of the input that is usually given to children I know it in Spanish. Therefore, why would I use English, when my language in English is less rich, less complex, and less interesting?

So at home we do a lot of code-switching, meaning that we alternate between languages. However, I could see that we were shifting toward the use of English more frequently than Spanish. This ivent was to be expected since I have lived here for 16 years and though I have opportunities to use Spanish, they are less frequent than the opportunities I have to use English.

Now we Hannah things have changed. I speak to her all in Spanish and Alan speaks to her mostly in English, with some Spanish language use. However, Alan and I speak Spanish and English when we are with Hannah. And Hannah watches TV in Spanish (children's programs in Spanish on Telemundo, Telefutura, etc) and in English, all the Sprout programs, which is PBS (see September 3 entry).

However, when I talk to Hannah I still code-switch. For example, I will say to her:
Hannitah, te escracheaste toda. (you scratched yourself)
Mami, vamos al co-sleeper (for crib)
Como te gusta que te pampereen eh!

O cuando hablo con Alan, nuestros dialogos son asi:
Alan to Lia: Hi! I am here
Lia to Alan (from the bedroom with Hannah): Hi! We are here! Upstairs
(Hannah looks afraid because she does not understand where the voice is coming from) so Lia to Hannah: Mami mami, no te asustes, es papa! Es papa! Hola papi!!

And she is not confused. SHe knows when we are talking to her in one language or the other and she reacts positively to both....
Cheers, Kuki

On Hannah's Character

Hannah is growing a lot every day! Desde que mi papa se volvio a Argentina, estamos viendo como hacer para que Hannah se acostumbre a que ahora las tareas se dividen entre Alan y yo, y Ana.

Cuales fueron los efectos del abuelo Yaco en el desarrollo de Hannah? Primero, Hannah se acostumbro a salir todas la mañanas? Esta claro que a Hannah le gusta la naturaleza. Le encanta comer mirando el verde del jardin. Y le encanta que la saquen a "caminar" por el cul-de-sac. Y por caminar quiero decir que Hannah quiere que el cochecito no pare! Y que pueda ver el cielo y los arboles. Creo que esta claro que a Hannah le gusta la naturaleza. Cuando esta afuera o cuando esta en el family room y puede ver el jardin. Y a Hannah le gustan los ambientes claros!

Asi que desde que Yaco se fue, Alan saca a caminar a Hannah todas las mañanas. Primero come un poquito, bien temprano. Despues juega un ratito, y ahi ahi Alan la saca a caminar media hora y Hannah vuelve, come otro ratito y esta chocha!

Para mitigar la falta de mi papa, que se la pasaba hablandole a Hannah en castellano, hacemos que Hannah hable con mi viejo todos los dias. Que quiere decir esto? Que mi papa le dice algunas de las frases que le decia todos los dias a Hannah: Que ruido hace el gatito? miau miau miau... Y el perrito? Guau guau guau... y asi repite los nombres de algunos animales y Hannah se mata de risa cuando lo escucha por telefono. Y se rie y trata de agarrar el telefono y hace como que se lo va a comer de la emocion que le agarra. De esta manera hacemos que Hannah reciba input en castellano y mantenga el contacto con mi papa...

Esto es todo por hoy! Saludos, Kuki

El Libro Preferido de Hannah

Todos tenemos un libro preferido, o un genero que nos gusta leer. Desde que le empezamos a leer a Hannah, tratamos de "exponerla" a distintos autores, distintos generos, y distintos tipos de libros. Esto lo hacemos porque queremos que pueda desarrollar un lenguaje rico. Mi preocupacion en este sentido es que con todo el motherese que le estoy dando, mi lenguaje cuando me comunico con ella es bastante limitado. Entonces uso los libros para exponerla a mucho mas vocabulario del que uso normalmente con ella.

Sin embargo, a pesar de esforzarme en leerle varios autores y distintos libros, todos los dias vuelvo al mismo libro: Nanas para Soñar. Cuales son los motivos por los que creo que a Hannah le gusta tanto este libro?

1. Nanas no es un cuento, Nanas tiene rimas y poesias cortitas, muy cortitas, y todas riman. Cuando leo las rimas, suenan como canciones muy cortitas, y como la entonacion que uso es muy sonora, creo que tiene un efecto notable en Hannah. Cada vez que Hannah escucha una rima o poema, me mira con los ojos bien abiertos y hace sonidos, y los sonidos son bien notorios.

2. El vocabulario es limitado y se repite. El vocabulario de Nanas se repite constantemente. Habla de flores, miembros de la familia, angelitos, animalitos (sobre todo pajaros). Y esto ayuda a exponer a Hannah a un vocabulario mas extenso al que esta expuesta habitualmente, pero al mismo tiempo, mas limitado que el de los libros.

3. Finalmente, Nanas, como libro es mucho mas lindo, divertido, creativo, que los otros libros que tengo para Hannah. Los cuentos no tienen coherencia. Los autores de los libros no le prestaron atencion a la coherencia de los libros. Es que creen que los chicos no se dan cuenta si los libros no tienen sentido? Una lastima....

Ahora mi challenge es encontrar otros libros como Nanas para que Hannah no se aburra.... Saludos, Kuki

Hannah is growing and growing!

Hace 15 dias que no posteo nada. Lo que paso es que mi papa vino a conocer a Hannah, y me dedique a el y a Hannita. Por esto este post va a ser, mas que nada, un resumen de las cosas que pasaron entre el 14 de agosto y hoy.

La semana del 14 de agosto, el 17 mas especificamente, Hannah descubrio la tele. Claro, como para que no... Nosotros prendemos la tele, mas que nada las noticias, en cuanto nos despertamos. Entonces, que hacia Hannah? Movia la cabeza, 180 grados, para quedarse frente a la tele y asi mirar lo que fuera, noticias, futbol, basket, etc.

Al principio, dijimos "Que cute... Hannah descubrio la tele." Entonces decidimos poner Sprout TV. http://www.sproutletsgrow.com/ Este canal, que es de PBS, esta disenado especialmente para chiquititos. El programa que no dejamos que Hannah vea es Teletubbies, no nos gusta. Los que mas nos gustan para Hannah son Barney, a quien Hannah ya reconoce, Pingu , que tiene un diseno muy lindo, es educativo y el pacing es excelente para chiquititos. El otro cartoon que nos gusta es Caillou, un nene de cuatro anyos que esta en el proceso de sociabilizacion. En general, el pacing de todos los programas de Sprout es adecuado para los bebes y toddlers. Tambien las voces no son altisonantes y son muy soothing. Asi que todo esto calma a Hannah. Y para rematarla, los cartoons son educativos, aunque por ahora, esto no tiene importancia desde Hannita's point of view.

Despues de un par de dias de Sprout, decidimos que tenemos que empezara a dosificar la tele para Hannah. Asi que ahora ponemos la tele SOLO cuando queremos que Hannah vea a uno de los cartoons apropriados para ella. Pero no hay mas comer con cartoons or poner la tele enseguida, claro salvo si habia algun partido del mundial de basket, pero esa es otra historia... Que bajon! Hannah espero que dentro de cuatro anyos no perdamos por un punto. Pero igual estamos orgullosas del equipo argentino. Hasta la proxima, Kuki