When I first arrived in Atlanta, I realized that many Hispanics could not communicate in Spanish. I found it alarming that community leaders, executives, entrepreneurs and high-achieving students whom I had to interview as part of my reporting preferred doing interviews in English, because they either didn’t know Spanish or else didn’t “feel comfortable” speaking it.
I often found myself wondering: How can you have a Latino last name and not speak any Spanish? How is it possible that these people’s parents didn’t force them learn another language?
Now that I am a mother and I have three school-aged children, I understand the challenges faced by parents who have children born here in the United States and want them to learn Spanish. It isn’t easy to hear your child say, “I don’t like Spanish,” or see them give up and say, “Never mind” when you ask them to say a phrase in Spanish.
There are several scientifically proven models to cultivate multilingual speakers at home. In those homes where both parents’ native tongue is Spanish, the suggested strategy is that both parents speak that language in the home, and the child speaks English outside the home.
For Priscila Rivere, whose three daughters are perfectly fluent in both Spanish and English, this strategy was successful. “In my home there was no discussion. When my girls were little, we never gave the alternative to speak English at home, even the movies and television shows we watched were completely in Spanish.”
In other families where one parent speaks English and the other speaks both English and Spanish, experts recommend following the same model: Spanish at home, English elsewhere.
But in multiracial households, where one of the parents is Latino and the other is American, the obvious strategy is “one parent, one language.”
That’s the type of household in which my cousin, Roberto Bastidas, who is now a politician, grew up. As a bilingual adult, he says: “It’s very hard for me to speak to my mother in Spanish and speak to my father in English. I simply talk to each one in the language that they each spoke to me and my sister.”
“Agree on who speaks what language to whom and then stick to it,” recommends Christina Bosemark, founder of the Multilingual Children’s Association, via the group’s website. “Raising multilingual children requires patience, and there are going to be times when doubt sneaks in. As with most aspects of parenting, it’s a long term commitment and there will be ups and downs,” she adds.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, Spanish use at home is more widespread — and has been more stable — among immigrant Hispanics than it has been among U.S.-born Hispanics. Fully 95 percent of foreign-born Hispanics spoke Spanish at home in 2013, a share little changed since 1980, when 93 percent of foreign-born Hispanics spoke Spanish at home.
However, while 67 percent of Hispanic families born in the United States spoke Spanish at home in 1980, in 2013 this number dropped to 60 percent, reported the Pew Hispanic Center.
But some families have resisted this temptation. Such is the case of Linda Perez, whose two children, are bilingual. Perez admits that raising bilingual children is a task that requires patience and that parents must avoid succumbing to the pressure of their children. “Since they know that you speak English, they can lack discipline in making the effort to speak Spanish.”
“For me the key is to take this challenge seriously and be very dedicated. Raising bilingual children is hard work. You have to be willing to require them to speak Spanish as much of the time as possible, and that they speak it well. I think it’s also key to make them see why being bilingual is important,” said Perez.
For many parents, myself included, we will have to be patient, consistent and creative in order to help our little ones become fluent in our native tongue. A technique that is working for me now is that of “memory loss,” thanks to the new film Finding Dory. I simply tell my children that I forgot my English and that I don’t understand anything they’re saying unless they speak in Spanish. “Mami, you understand…. You are tricking me,” my 4 year old daughter will say to me. I will then respond to her (in Spanish), “What did you say? I don’t understand you.” Then she will try to find the words and make the effort to speak in Spanish.
My hope is to give my children that amazing gift of becoming completely bilingual and enjoy all the benefits that learning a second language can have in their lives.
TAGLINE: Maria A. Bastidas is editor of Mundo Hispánico, a Spanish-language publication that, like the AJC, is owned by Cox Enterprises. She is from Venezuela and has been living in Georgia for 15 years. Email her at Mbastidas@mundohispanico.com.
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