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Best way to teach daughter Spanish.......

Tiffany - posted on 10/30/2010 ( 2 moms have responded )

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I need some advice on how to go about teaching my 1 year old daughter Spanish. I don't speak/know Spanish, only certain words. I know colors, numbers, hello, goodbye, I love you, etc. My boyfriend is Spanish and he speaks English and Spanish. He only speaks Spanish when talking to his parents or his best friend, other then that he speaks English. The problem I'm having, is I really want my daughter to grow up learning both languages. I think this is such an advantage for her. When she is in high school and needs to take a mandatory language course she can take Italian or French and then she will know 3 languages. I have a bilingual book, we read that a lot. When I say colors to her, I say them in English and Spanish and the same when we count. I also say 'I love you' and sometimes I'll say 'Te Amo' after that, the same with goodbye, hello, grandma, grandpa, etc. to try to teach her to associate the words together. I have told my boyfriend I really would like him to speak to our daughter in Spanish more, and he wants to but he is so accustomed to speaking English that he just doesn't do it. The only time my daughter is spoken to in Spanish is at her grandparents, and even then they mix it up with English and Spanish in every sentence. I don't want to confuse her, and I'm just not sure how to go about teaching her. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

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2 Comments

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Mariel - posted on 11/02/2010

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Well what i recomend you is try to tell your husband's family members to help you out with more spanish words and at the same time let them know how much you would appreciate if they teach your lil girl some spanish, cause that would be awesome for you and would help her in the future. Im pretty sure they will feel happy by you doing that, cause theres anything cooler for a latino to know that someone who doesnt speak our language, have so much interest to learn it and wants their children to learn n speak it, too.
I have a lil boy, who is 3 months old, and his dad is american, he loves spanish and he always told me he will be happy for me to teach our son to speak spanish, so I started doing it, and its really easy for me since everyone in my family speaks spanish, so what he does is teach him English.. and that works really good. Also I would suggest you to watch some cute videos in spanish, which could be founded in youtube. Also If you dont get a positive answer from someone close about helping u w spanish, dont worry cause theres always a lot of songs, tv shows, cartoons and stuff like that on the internet.
Here you have some nice songs, which u could use for help, they are very popular in spanish..
Los pollitos dicen, arroz con leche, la gallina turuleca, los elefantes se balanceaban, mi ranchito. Look for those songs, they are really cute n your lil girl will love them. If you need some help, i could help you, just send me an inbox anytime n ill reply to you.

Good luck. Xoxo

Monique - posted on 11/02/2010

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i have a similar issue in my house hold. My husband doesnt speak spanish and i mainly speak english although my family only speaks spanish and i wasnt actually taught english until pre-k. Now-a-days i speak both languages PERFECTLY and i thank the way my mom did it - we were not allowed to speak english as kids.
For moms like you and i, whom are in english speaking relationships it is VERY HARD.
With mydaughter i started with the stairs. Every step was counted in spanish (uno - dos - tres etc.) within a short time my daughter had 1-10 in spanish down and now she repeats it everytime she uses the stairs. I also found a spanish sesame street for her to watch. Many of my friends tell me that Dora works Miracles but the show just annoys me so i dont watch it.
The most influential part i would have to say is having my girls hang out with my mom. Is there anyway you can become more friendly with your partners family in order to bring your son around the language more. I think it has to do with not only the language but the way it is spoken, the manneurisms and everything else that comes with the culture that really gets the kids to learn to speak spanish. Also i have had my husband only teach her things in spanish. for instance if he wants to give her anything, he first has to ask me how to pronounce it to her. maybe you and your partner and switch roles and you should ask him how to name everything.
Good luck!

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