As a fully bilingual Latina raising multicultural children, I have always envisioned introducing Spanish to my children. From the time they were young, I made an effort to buy them bilingual books, expose them to Latin music, and teach them Spanish sight words. Despite this, my two children, ages 4 and 8, still primarily speak English.
I’ve felt guilty about this because the “one person, one language” approach never worked for us. Teaching children to be bilingual is hard and I have to remind myself that although I grew up in a Spanish-dominant household, our family now communicates primarily in English.
“One person, one language” approach
A language learning method in which each caregiver speaks to the child in a different language, using the language they are most comfortable with.
I had to think of more creative ways to get my kids interested in learning a language. Earlier this year, we decided to take a Spanish immersion trip to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. To make the trip and family activities much easier, we stayed at the 5-star all-inclusive hotel, Lopesan Costa Bavaro.
We really enjoyed the hotel’s facilities, including a splash park, kiddie pool, indoor playground, arcade, and of course the beach. The hotel also has five restaurants, one of which serves traditional Dominican cuisine.
To me, language is more than just words. I want to teach my children to appreciate the world and its diverse cultures. So the purpose of this trip was to speak primarily to my children in Spanish and provide them with a rich travel experience. I set aside 2-3 hours each day to speak only Spanish with my children. I found that they were interested in the language and kept asking me how to translate words even when they were not in practice mode.
One of the kids’ favorite places in the hotel was the ice cream shop. They learned what a sweet treat (helado) is called in Spanish and also asked what different ice cream flavors are called in Spanish. The most important thing about this immersion trip was to have fun and set realistic expectations for the children’s language development journey.
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While my children were not bilingual by the time they returned from the trip, the goal was to spark their interest and provide a positive learning experience. For me, it was also a chance to let go of the constant pressure I was putting on myself to raise bilingual children. Language inheritance requires planning and consistency, which can be hard to maintain, but that’s okay.
When we got home, my son wanted to continue practicing his Spanish so he asked me to download the Duolingo app onto his device, and I still switch to Spanish every now and then to slowly, little by little, introduce him to new words.
