I grew up in the United States learning Spanish from my parents. I started to learn English when I began Pre-K with such excitement and enthusiasm to grasp a new language. I felt as if I was on my way to learn anything that came my way. I was unstoppable. My mind absorbed everything that was taught happily. With this perpetual learning experience though, I think I lost a part of what ties me to Central America when I learned my first English word.
My parents encouraged me to practice English, so that I wouldn’t have an accent. If I didn’t have an accent, then that would be one less thing people would discriminate me for.
I didn’t realize how important speaking Spanish was. I was lucky enough to be put ahead of Americans who live their lives speaking one language while I grew up as a bilingual speaker. In my teenage years, I’ve blown off speaking Spanish because I’ve gotten so used to English.
I still understand Spanish, but I feel guilty because I can’t think or dream in Spanish like my parents continue to. I need to work on losing my Spanish accent soon so that I could be helpful to those people who need translations on the streets and to teach my children Spanish as their first language.
Teaching Spanish to my children, if I have children, is the most important thing that I’d want to accomplish because if I don’t they wouldn’t appreciate their ethnicity, their history, the hardships their grandparents went through to give them the lives they live, and they wouldn’t have the heart to show their gratitude to their grandparents or the U.S. by taking school seriously.
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You know, one of the best things in America is foreign language departments in schools. As immigrants, we have to learn English in order to be able to communicate with each other. Now, almost everyone has to take a foreign language such as Spanish, French, Chinese and Japanese. Throughout my school years, I've learned Spanish, French and Japanese in addition to English. I'm Thai so of course I used to have weird English accent. My friends make fun of it all the time. Sometimes I feel proud of it, but some other times kids were making fun of the way I talk. I didn't like that at all. Now, I think I speak and write English better than half of them.
wow you should be so proud of yourself for developing your skills to speak and write English well. I THINK sometimes it does take a little harsh criticism to get you motivated to excel.
It's true, people with accents are discriminated against so much less which is silly. As long as someone can be understood it should not matter if they have an accent or not. In fact, the accent makes that person who they are. I think it is neat that you want to teach your future children Spanish though. Even if you don't have an accent, it doesn't take your past or heritage away. That is still a part of you, and I think it is important that you pass that onto future generations.
in fifth grade and the teacher asked me to read a paragraph in the english literature book and I remember until today that people laughed at me---
I did not talk at all during 5th grade and I didn't even eat lunch at the lunch table, basically my mouth was closed, peolpe thought i couldn't talk
i kept quite throughout most of my middle school, i found my voice in 7th-8th grade and after 9/11, i again went back into my quiet corner. Now in college, thank god, i've found a place where i don't feel threatened or discriminated against because of what i have to say (i've lost my accent but thank god i still remember how to read and write my native language)
"Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right."
http://www.progressiveu.org/231615-this-is-a-muslim-girls-plight
" "love em all,trust a few,and fear none"....thats wassup.one love. peace." mos def
i'm glad you're confident about the American voice you have now and haven't forgotten your native language.
Teaching them Spanish and using it as a primary language home is the single best thing you can do for your children.
A Spanish-speaking preschooler or first-grader with only a cursory knowledge of English can quickly catch up with the rest of the class, if the teacher is smart and/or has the most elementary training on how to handle foreign students.
I am telling this to you through experience. My daughter, a native Spanish speaker, came to the US at the age of 5 knowing very little English, and started 1st grade here.
At that time, there weren't bilingual education classes in California (where we first lived in the US), but teachers did have a special training in English "immersion".
She was speaking English in no time, with that nasal female California twang and all.
At home it has always been unthinkable to communicate in a language other than Spanish, but that won't detract (or, more properly, didn't detract in our case), from our ability to communicate in English when necessary.
I am sure your parents had their reasons to do what they did with you, but don't worry, if your children are reasonably smart they will absorb a second language (English) with incredible plasticity. They will be correcting your English accent within the first 2 months. If anything, my advice is: use the home environment to preserve Spanish, which it is tougher than it would seem.
Good luck.
Mongo
www.itsnofun.com