Location: USA
Dad: Spanish (L1), English (L2)
Son: English, Spanish
Ismael is from Caguas, Puerto Rico. Now he is a professor of Physical Education and lives in New Jersey. He is also the father of a 10-year old son who is growing up in New Jersey with English and Spanish. Ismael shared how he goes about keeping up Spanish as the minority language—even though his son spends 50% of the time with his mother who does not speak Spanish. It’s an interesting balance of self-reflection, encouragement, and being proactive.
VERONIKA: First of all, many thanks for doing this interview today and sharing your experiences!
ISMAEL: You’re welcome.
VERONIKA: I think my first question for you would be: what languages do you speak at home and what is the situation at home, that is, the language situation?
ISMAEL: The languages are English and Spanish. In regards to the situation, perhaps I want to talk about the frequency. I find that—I go to Puerto Rico and visit family twice a year. So I find that when my son comes with me, we tend to speak Spanish more in the house right after we came back from the trip. I don’t know exactly for how long, but I want to say perhaps about a month after we came back. But then I see that he kind of switches to be more English given that not only myself having to speak English throughout the day, but also himself. In the area where we live, even though we have some friends that do speak Spanish, I don’t think he’s practiced that much. So since he’s surrounded by the English language, then that’s why. As a professor, I divide it by semesters. So every semester, closer to mid-semester, we are talking more in English than we are in Spanish.
VERONIKA: Okay. So how old is your son now?
ISMAEL: My son is 10 years old. He is in 5th grade.
VERONIKA: Okay. And have you been primarily talking to him in Spanish since he was born?
Reminding yourself to speak the minority language
ISMAEL: Since he was born, I—in the process, in many occasions, I saw myself or forcing myself to speak in Spanish, especially when he was 1 year old, 2 years old because I knew it was important for him to get accustomed to the language, to hear what I was saying. But I recall I’ve never like forced anything on him language-wise.
But if he says something incorrectly in Spanish, then I immediately corrected it and I ask—multiple times I do ask for him to say it correctly. It is a nice way for him to understand that there was a mistake and to see what the correct way of saying it is. In the process I’ve always seen myself, forcing myself actually to speak the language because the same dynamic happened when coming from Puerto Rico mid-semester. We always talked in English during the day; so at night it was easy for me to continue speaking English. And for him just to hear me speaking Spanish was very important; so I forced myself.
VERONIKA: I recently spoke to a co-worker of mine who is from Mexico. She said, “I sometimes forget to speak Spanish”. She speaks English all day long at work and then her husband is from the United States; so they speak mostly English with one another. So she said that at times she needed to remind herself to speak Spanish with their child.
Making the the minority language a natural part of children’s lives
ISMAEL: That’s the same thing with me for the most part. And still sometimes I catch myself—and I even say to him now that he is in his 10th year of life—I catch myself—I say something along the lines of—we’re speaking too much English but he refuses to speak Spanish and says no to it. When we face his situation, then, I do not force him, but I speak in Spanish. I want Spanish to flow when we retake it in a conversation (even when it is just me using it) I think related to getting accustomed, when it comes to the second language, if you speak it for a long period of time during the entire day, I guess you get accustomed to it and it comes very easy for you just to continue speaking it. I don’t know if there’re some efforts in making the switch in your mind, but yeah.
VERONIKA: That’s right. So you’re saying you sometimes encourage him to use Spanish. What other ways do you try to expose him to the language? You talked about traveling to Puerto Rico?
Traveling to see family in Puerto Rico
ISMAEL: Yeah. By now, he already knows. He knows that—in our case, when he’s with me, he knows that every summer, we go for about two weeks. He knows that every summer—that became like a standard. Now that he’s more conscientious of what he does time-wise, he expects it. He waits for it. He wants to go to Puerto Rico.
It is a little bit of a blur for him. When I have him every other winter break, when he sees that he’s going to go. So pretty much if he knows that he is with me, he kind of questions. But that’s one way for him to understand that Spanish is going to be spoken.
VERONIKA: That’s a good way. So you are basically making it the language in your house when he is with you. It’s the minority language at home (ML@H) model.
TV shows and other ways to tie language to interesting contents
ISMAEL: The other thing I also do is that I have some channels on TV that are in Spanish. I kind of make him get interested in them. There are some shows, for example, this next Monday, there is this show about physical competition. It’s very famous in Puerto Rico—I don’t know if Latin America overall, but he likes that.
VERONIKA: What is it called?
ISMAEL: It is called Exatlon. Exatlon Estados Unidos is what it’s called. He loves that. He saw that for the first time in Puerto Rico—and it was the first time that they aired it this last summer and the new season is starting now this Monday. So he is looking forward to that. So if there is some type of show that I like, I always try to expose him to it. Movies, there’s not many that he has seen, but he has seen some movies in Spanish.
A challenge: From bilingual to bi-literate
One thing that I need to work more on is his reading. I want him to read more in Spanish and write in Spanish. That is something that, since his time is occupied in reading and writing in English, I find it very hard to get to that point where he gets to do that. I’m still figuring out how to make it work that he not only speaks it, but now he sees Spanish in his reading and also in his writing.
VERONIKA: Yeah. So he would eventually become bi-literate.
ISMAEL: Yeah.
VERONIKA: Does he have Spanish at school?
ISMAEL: In grammar school, he did. One class. But for something reason now, when he was done with 4th grade, he switched to a different building. So the 5th grade all the way to the 8th grade is housed in a different building. That’s where he is right now and obviously he just started. And I’ve just learned—recently I learned that Spanish is going to be taught during marking period number 4—I think. So he gets a class, but it is only one marking period and it is at the end of the school year. I don’t know how that’s going to be for the 6th grade all the way to 8th grade. In this building it’s up to 8th grade so for middle school.
A good teaching strategy: Utilizing the strength of bilingual children
In grammar school, he used to have one Spanish class. I believe it was twice per week. It was the case in 3rd grade and 4th grade used to get Spanish—I believe it was twice per week. But it was funny because his Spanish especially in the 4th grade, it was interesting because he used to come home and—he had some type of an experience in the Spanish class, for example, I heard multiple times that the teacher had a question about a word and the teacher always went to him to ask if the word was pronounced correctly or if the word was correct. So to him, it was funny that he was helping the teacher teach Spanish. But that is not happening anymore in 5th grade because he is still in marking period number 3. So the Spanish class is not here yet.
VERONIKA: Okay. So how that unfolds will be interesting. He seems to be ahead of his classmates then if he becomes the teacher’s helper. That’s good. Why did you want your son to grow up bilingually with Spanish and English? What was the rationale?
Keeping up family ties with family abroad
ISMAEL: The first reason is so he can communicate with my side of the family. That was a primary reason. As I said, I cannot have my son not be able to speak to my mother, his grandmother. She doesn’t know English at all. So to me, it would have been frustrating. It would have been so many things. It would have been even embarrassing for me not to instill that in him and teach him, expose him to the language so he can communicate with my mother and my father, both with his grandparents in Puerto Rico. But also because this is a lifetime connection with my side of the family; so it is important when we go there, it’s important for him to be able to communicate and for people to understand him.
Providing children with better opportunities in life
The second major reason is because of opportunity. I think that to know more than one language opened doors. In my case, I know where, I am I am pretty much set, but knowing English opened the door for me to leave Puerto Rico and go study. In his case—it was also a very difficult time for me because my English was more about translating words. It was not conversational. So even at that age when I studied that and I left the island, it was somewhat problematic because it was broken English. In his case, I think it’s going to be way better because I think he is—I’m hoping he is going to be fluent in Spanish.
Right now, his Spanish is—I still call it kind of “broken Spanish”. But I’m hoping that he’s going to speak fluent Spanish later. I’m hoping he is also going to be literate about it, with his reading and his writing when that comes. But also professionally for him to have at least that other option that he wants to study—I don’t know—go to Latin America, go to Spain; that he would have language voice, he would have that option available for him and I think that will open doors for him based on whatever he decides and based on whatever he chooses as his options.
VERONIKA: That’s a good point. Spanish covers a large percentage of the globe. That’s right. So yeah, you already kind of touched upon the challenges when it comes to being bi-literate. Have you encountered any other challenges with regard to keeping up Spanish as the minority language?
Another challenge: Finding time
ISMAEL: I want to say it is mostly my time spent on the writing and the reading. Besides that and me catching myself speaking too much English—whatever that means; not too much English, but doing so continuously. Besides those, I think time will be—I don’t know because since I haven’t explored that, sitting down with him and reading a book in Spanish or writing some paragraphs in Spanish. I don’t know if the challenge will be motivating enough to do so. That can be a can be because… The time would be a challenge currently, but I don’t know if motivation is going to change. That’s like foreseeing that as a potential problem, but right now, those two are pretty much the main challenges: (a) having the time for him to work on his reading and writing and (b) practicing more Spanish as the semester progresses.
VERONIKA: That point about motivation is a good one! I hear that a lot from parents with older children in their teens. Priorities change and sports take over; so all of a sudden, it’s a balancing act to keep the language up while the kids are also getting into other hobbies.
ISMAEL: And the older he is, it seems that puberty might be very nearby. I can already see changes. So I’m wondering. It’s essentially fascinating the way that I see it. I’m not dreading the time. I always hear stories about the adolescent years. To me, it is something that I’m looking forward to. I think that it is going to be fascinating to see what kind of a teenager he’s going to be.
VERONIKA: Yeah, definitely. Okay, as a final question, what advice would you give to other parents who are either raising their children bilingually or are thinking about doing it?
Watching plays in Spanish and traveling to Spain
ISMAEL: If they’re raising them, I would say just to always think how else they can help with the language. I’m just repeating myself now, but in my case right now where I stand, it’s about time for the reading of the writing. But I’m thinking in the near future it could be taking him on a trip to—I don’t know—Mexico or go to Spain and take him with me; and then for him to practice the language. Not even to go outside the United States, but also maybe to expose him to—I don’t know—shows, plays maybe in Spanish and just to keep exposing him to use the language and apply the language.
To parents who are on the fence: What is holding you back?
Those that are thinking about it, I’d suggest to strongly consider it, to analyze why it is not happening because I think if they have that option of exposing the child to the language, then to question themselves why not. I think about that quite often; I don’t know what it is; I don’t want to call it laziness. I’m sure the laziness is somewhere in there. But in some families, you see that they just don’t practice it; and to me, that’s a little bit sad to see it because if it is there; why not use it? So it is just a matter of suggesting to them to consider and maybe explore why they’re not going, to see what is in them, perhaps they have assumptions and misconceptions. And if they have assumptions, what are those and what is the benefit and if there is any benefit of not doing so. That’s what I would suggest.
VERONIKA: That’s a very good point; keeping up the self reflection as a parent. For example, asking yourself questions like these: ‘What are my goals in terms of the language?’ ‘How can I create the need or situations in which my child has to use the language’? ‘How can I keep up that need?’ ‘How can I continuously create environments of exposure and interaction in the minority language?’ Well, thank you very much. I think that was really insightful and interesting.
ISMAEL: Thank you.
