My Bilingual Kid

One of my favorite Spanish language musicians, Juana Molina, just released a new album called Un Dia earlier this week. For those not familiar with Juana Molina, she is a popular comedic actress from Argentina turned one-woman-band (if you have watched The Incredibles in Spanish, Juana is the voice of Elastigirl). Molina plays all the instruments and sings herself. Using a looping pedal she records short sections of her music and then plays and records other short sections over the top, creating multilayered and very full sounding songs. Listening to her songs you would think she had a full band supporting her, but when you watch her perform live you will see that it is all her. It is amazing to watch as she layers guitar, vocals, keyboards and other instruments to create beautiful music.

Here is a really good short documentary about Juana:

I am consistently amazed at what is available on the internet these days. It seems that there are more and more sites that make it easy for you to customize and make your own products. If you are not already familiar with Lulu.com, you should be. Lulu is a website that makes it easy for anyone to publish their book without the hassle of finding and working with a publisher, editor, etc. Lulu is based on the increasingly popular “print on demand” model. What this means to self publishing authors is that you do not have commit to buying a large amount of books up front. Lulu has an online community where you can sell your book and find books on virtually any topic you are interested in. You can make your own photo books, children’s books, posters, calendars and even comic books.

So what does all of this have to do with teaching Spanish to your children? Lulu has a great selection of Spanish and bilingual books for children written by people like you and I. For teachers, it’s an awesome resource for making your own books and learning materials.

I was happy to find that someone had made a book called Ten Elephants and a Spider’s Web based on a traditional song that we sing to Harrison.

I am currently working on the illustrations for a book I hope to have available on Lulu within the next couple months. The book is called My Pet Jellyfish and is geared towards younger readers. I am hoping to have it available in English, Spanish, and as a bilingual version.

There has been a lot of buzz lately on Karen’s blog about adults who want to learn Spanish. I thought I would try to add to the conversation by reviewing a couple products I have come across that are designed for parents and their children to learn Spanish together. The great thing about both of these products is that they come with audio CD’s that you listen to (with native Spanish-speakers) as you do the activities in the book with your children.

The first is a book and CD called Play and Learn Spanish by Ana Lomba and Marcela Summerville. This is a great book and CD combination that has over 50 songs, games, and everyday activities to help you and your children learn Spanish together. The book and CD are split up into 28 sections that cover basic, everyday activities. Some of these activities are listed below:

Good Morning!
Ready for the Day
Let’s Go Outside!
Let’s Cook!
Lunchtime
Dinnertime
In the Kitchen
Bath Time!

One thing that I really like about this book is that the CD is completely in Spanish and makes it easy to create “immersion” activities where only Spanish is spoken. The book and CD teach you basic phrases and vocabulary related to each of the activities, as well as fun songs, games, and rhymes. It tries to create a natural learning environment by having you do things that you normally do, only in Spanish. I think this is the best way to learn for kids because it doesn’t feel like Spanish lessons. Since you do these things everyday, the repetition makes the phrases and vocabulary easy to remember.
The second product, Learn Spanish Together, is more like a Spanish learning kit than a book. It comes with three workbooks and CDs: Learn Spanish Anywhere, Learn Spanish in the Car, and Learn Spanish in the Kitchen. Each book and CD has 16 games and activities that have you doing things like making lunch, making musical instruments, playing games, coloring, and much more. The kit also includes crayons, stickers, and a Parent’s and Teacher’s Guide that explains how to use everything. The activities are geared towards children 4 to 8 and involve a lot of participation. Like Play and Learn Spanish, you put in the CD and listen to the native Spanish-speakers guide you through the activities. Unlike Play and Learn Spanish, the CDs are in both Spanish and English.

For those of you trying to teach your child a language other that Spanish, both of these products are available in other languages (French and Italian).

If you have used or heard about any other similar products, please let us know!

Thanks to Karen, I am now a huge Pocoyo fan. After watching my first episode online, I immediately thought “where can I get this on DVD?” As it turns out it was harder than I thought it would be to track down. You would think that a show that was produced in Spain in Spanish would be available on DVD in Spanish. My wife finally emailed someone affiliated with Pocoyo in the U.S. and was told that the DVD Pocoyo: Fun and Dance with Pocoyo had a Spanish track as well as English. I ordered the DVD from Amazon and, much to my surprise, the Spanish track is different that the episodes I have been watching online! It has been re-recorded with a much more generic Spanish that the original. Even some of the character’s names are different (Pajaroto is now Pajadormilon). One of the reasons that I loved watching the episodes online was that I really liked the accents from Spain. I think it is still worth buying if you are looking for an entertaining and educational Spanish program to show your young kids. I just wish they had kept the original Spanish track…

As a continuation of my last post about how reading translations can bring new meaning to the text, translations can also make you laugh. Here are a few (mis)translations that I found to be pretty funny:

When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was
apparently unaware that “no va” means “it won’t go.” After the company figured
out why it wasn’t selling any cars, it renamed the car in its Spanish markets to
the Caribe.

*UPDATE* Thanks to Janine Libbey for pointing out that this story is actually an urban myth and never really happened.

Ford had a similar problem in Brazil when the Pinto flopped. The company
found out that Pinto was Brazilian slang for “tiny male genitals”. Ford pried all
the nameplates off and substituted Corcel, which means horse.

When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to
say “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” However, the company’s
mistakenly thought the Spanish word “embarazar” meant embarrass. Instead the
ads said that “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”

An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market
which promoted the Pope’s visit. Instead of the desired “I Saw the Pope” in
Spanish, the shirts proclaimed “I Saw the Potato.”

I only chose to list some of the Spanish translations since that is my second language, but other languages are not immune. For more click here.

I came across an interesting quote in the book that I am reading, Raising A Bilingual Child, about reading in more than one language.

Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, a bilingual Irish-English poet, suggested that different translations each “underline different facets of the original, like differing cuts of a diamond can bring out different lights in a stone.”

The author states that “poetry, of all the arts, demands to be read in the original language. No translation can capture the entire sense of words in another language, especially the precisely chosen words of a poem.”

Here is an interesting analysis of a translation of a poem by Pablo Neruda that I found on this site:

AQUÍ
Me vine aquí a contar las campanas
que viven en el mar,
que suenan en el mar,
dentro del mar.

Por eso vivo aquí.

HERE
I came here to count the bells
that live upon the surface of the sea,
that sound over the sea,
within the sea.

So, here I live.

Based on the following reasons, here is an alternate translation of the same poem. Notice the difference in imagery and meaning.

• “Contar” can mean “to count” — but it also can be translated as “tell” or “tell about” or “relate.”
• “En el mar” most often means “in the sea.” It says nothing about “the surface.”
• “Suenan” can mean “sound” or “ring,” but if it has a tilde over the “ñ” — it also can mean “dream of.” This is what poets think of as a “word shadow.”

Thus we could translate the poem,

HERE
I came here to tell of the bells
that live in the sea
that dream of the sea —
Within the sea.

Thus I live here.

Since I started learning Spanish I have been fascinated by how one word can mean so many different things. The same is true in English of course, but I had never paid much attention to it until learning Spanish. In the example above “contar” has two distinct meanings that make a significant difference in the two translations.

I am interested to hear what your experience has been with reading translations.

I have a really bad habit of reading too many books at once. The latest addition to my current reading pile is Raising a Bilingual Child by Barbara Zurer Pearson. It just came in the mail yesterday so I have only had time to read part of the introduction.

The books claims to be a sort of step-by-step guide to raising a bilingual child with encouragement, advice, and real life examples from other families.

I’m excited to get more into the book. I will try to post anything interesting or helpful that I come across as I read it.

Do you have any other good books about raising bilingual children?

Karen at the Teaching and Learning Spanish blog got me hooked on Pocoyo. It’s an animated children’s program for preschool aged kids that was originally produced in Spain. Not having seen many children’s programs (other than Sesame Street growing up), I think this could be the best program ever! It certainly blows the socks off of Barney.

The animation is very lively and entertaining. and there are no backgrounds so viewers really focus on the characters (which are all great). The episodes are short and very funny. I watched about 6 episodes last night and loved every one. Each episode teaches basic things and invites participation from the viewers. I have been looking online to see if they are available on DVD in Spanish. If anyone has found them please let me know. I like that the Spanish is very basic and easy to understand and I also like listening to the narrator with his accent from Spain. Below is a full episode called “Super Pocoyo”

I have had dreams about Harrison since before he was born. Most of them have made me laugh at the things he was doing but if he turns out to be anything like what I have seen in my dreams, he is going to be a real handful!

Last night I had another dream about Harrison, only this time he was speaking Spanish! Maybe it was because I had just read this post yesterday. Anyway, Harrison was a little older and was sitting on my lap and we were playing a game in Spanish where I was asking him where different body parts were on himself and on me. I asked him “¿Dónde está el cabello de papi?” He touched the top of my head and said “cabello…papi“. It made me so happy in my dream when I realized that he was speaking Spanish.

Hopefully this will be more that just a dream!

Can you really have a bilingual kid in 15 hours a week? Here is another excerpt from my father-in-law’s book about duolingual parenting that I found both interesting and encouraging:

Our experience is that it takes about 15 to 20 hours a week talking to our children in the target language in play episodes to produce a functional bilingual child. How should the fifteen hours be distributed over the week? During the preschool years, from ages 2 to 6, our children needed a reasonable period oftime, preferably each day, where the only language they heard was Spanish. It was not good enough that the total time of say two hours a day be spread out in little segments of a few sentences here and there. Such a pattern lacked focus and did little tohelp the children generate the rules about the language.

Our girls need exposure in Spanish in long enough blocks of time to be caught up and engrossed in the linguistic environment. This usually required a minimum of 20 minutes of engrossing activity to produce a meaningful immersion experience. A chain of activities about 20 minutes long, one building upon the other, for one or two hours at a time produced the best results for us. During this extended period of time, the girls were able to think and describe and communicate aboutthe activity in the target language. It was during this type of experience that observable progress in generating Spanish usage and grammar could be detected.Two or three play episodes linked together gave them enough time to fix some useful usage firmly in their minds.

Will fifteen hours each week give a child enough time to learn a second language? Our experience is that it is not necessary to immerse the child in the target language the entire day to create enough exposure time in the target language. One to three play episodes a day (depending on how long it takes to finish an episode) is usually sufficient. This means that as few as fifteen hours a week in the home, preferably immersed in the target language one to two hours at a time each day, will produce satisfactory results. (p 38-39)

Wow! Fifteen hours a week doesn’t seem like a long time. I am trying to speak to Harrison 100% of the time in Spanish, but I am not home all day for him to hear me. Luckily I work close to home and I can come home for lunch every day and get some extra time with him. It is encouraging to know that is as little as 15 to 20 hours a week I can have a bilingual kid! I think the quality of the 15 hours a week is very important and each episode should be long enough for the child to be completely immersed in and focused on the second language.