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