r/multilingualparenting • u/Actual-Landscape1430 • 5d ago
Celebration! first word wins
I’ve been following this sub for awhile and wanted to post a win. I’m a non-native Spanish speaker (my proficiency is probably somewhere around a B2 maybe in the C’s idk). My mom is a native speaker from PR but didn’t really teach us. I connected super hard to the language since I was in elementary school and really just kept at it forcing her to talk to me whenever she could, ended up studying it in college and going abroad to Spain. I lost A LOT of it in my 20s. Fast forward to having my first kid and I really wanted to do one thing: teach him Spanish. Since the day he was born I’ve been speaking to him in Spanish. It started off just vocab but now I’m fully having convos with him. It’s a lot of work but I’m extremely proud of myself. And it’s clear this definitely unlocked something in my brain.
He’s 18 months now and also going to a Spanish immersion daycare twice a week. Most of his vocab right now is all Spanish words: agua, gorro, parque, etc. He understands me when I speak to him in Spanish too and understands my mom when she speaks to him.
It’s a really cool experience and I’m glad I could give him this gift. So to any “non-native” speakers looking for a reason to keep trying - here it is! I felt super insecure about my abilities but after 18 months of only speaking to him in Spanish I know I’m doing something right!
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u/alpacaenergia 4d ago
Same exact situation. Puerto Rican mom who is fluent but I learned all my B1/ weak B2 from studying (with immersion time in Spain a big help). I have a 4.5 year old daughter and we have had an au pair or full time Spanish nanny since she was born and she’s starting year 4 of a 2 day / week Spanish immersion day care.
My daughter is fully bilingual with an accent that is very native and natural. We love to teach each other words and phrases. If we don’t know something we look it up quick on the app together. It’s a very cool and fun experience that’s going great.
For me I still do 1-2 hours/week of a virtual class plus the daily convo with daughter and nanny so I’m getting better also.