With our blog out there for others to read, I occasionally receive questions from parents who may not speak Spanish, are considering a move like ours and how their kids might fare learning a new language. I cannot say how well or how fast someone else's kids will learn a new language and adapt to everything along the way but I can at least tell the story about what our kids' experience has been so far during our "Adventure".
First off, Ashley and I are not Spanish speakers. Ashley took some college courses and I took German for 7 years but never actually used it. Many expat families we know or have known here have at least one member with strong Spanish language skills. This is not the case in our family. In Kindergarten back in Park City, Alex was enrolled in a half hour after school Spanish program twice a week. There she learned to say "Apple", "Dog", "Blue" and "Hello". Not really a big head start. We had a few DVDs at home as well but they really didn't hold the kids' attention very long and didn't cover much more than perhaps what Alex' Kindergarten level class did.
When we arrived in the fall of 2011, Alex was 6 and Trace 4. We didn't know if we would be here all that long and couldn't justify the cost of tuition at one of the area private schools so the kids were enrolled at one of the local public Kindergarten/pre-schools. The teachers and students there spoke virtually no English so all lessons they received were in Spanish. Any early interactions our kids had there had to be done without the benefit of even being able to say "Hello, my name is.....". Alex and Trace may have been the only north of the border kids to ever go to school there. When you are new to any school, look different and don't know the language kids tend to be less than welcoming. They took their "licks" on the playground for sure but to their credit they kept going every day. Fortunately, after the first semester, the kids really started to be able to understand simple directions and phrases from their teachers and communication from some of the friends they were beginning to make. I think they also realized that people really do speak in other ways. At the beginning of the year it wasn't really something they actually believed or understood. "People speak differently?" A concept that took our kids some time to digest I think. Once they understood that and continued to receive their daily lessons and communications in Spanish then things started to progress though slowly. They began being able to speak in short phrases with their teachers and understand basic instructions. For a kid, being able to understand the friends they were making on the playground was a big step as well. Spanish was not some trick but a way that they would learn and make friends. A beginning.
Alex was the first to catch on by the end of that year and was eager to show off her language skills any chance she got. In just about any situation where Spanish was involved, she was there to try to translate. It became a challenge for her and she loved it. Trace, on the other hand, at only 5 years old at this time, was less than convinced that Spanish was a good thing. After all, Alex was always there and could help right?
We decided to stay beyond our first year and decided to check out Escuela Del Mundo in San Pancho. EDM is a Mexican Montessori school where only Spanish is spoken though the administration staff is bilingual. Spanish for the kids in the classroom and administrators who Ashley and I can communicate with? Sounds like a "win win" situation to us. The twist on it was that Trace would be in a separate classroom than his sister for the first time and would have to figure things out for himself. Alex had some bilingual friends in her classroom and was able to receive some help from them during the first semester but Trace was not so lucky and had to learn all on his own. The first semester was a tough one for him as we saw some growing pains concerning his new situation start to surface. The kids wouldn't play with him very much and he spent a lot of time during recess on his own. From his teacher's point of view he was a still a model student in the classroom and fortunately he went to school each day without hesitation. All Spanish, all day and it began to make a difference for him.
The second semester is where we really saw a change in Trace and suddenly he became the eager translator as Alex was. They even squabbled about who was going to help Ashley or myself understand what was being said in the store or by someone speaking to us on the street. When language started to click for Trace, then the socialization started to pick up as well. A much happier kid and it showed during the rest of the year. The kids at EDM are not kids who turn Spanish on during school and go back to English when classroom time is over. They live, learn and play in Spanish since most of them are native Spanish speakers. I feel this made such a difference in both our kid's progress in picking up the language. Alex did great things in the classroom as well and her teacher let us know that she was even giving reports to the class in Spanish What? Our Alex? The year ended strong for both kids, especially Trace, and we were eager to see what language progress the next year would bring.
This year at Escuela Del Mundo saw both kids in the same Montessori classroom and daily Spanish exposure has really ramped up. They have even helped other kids with developing Spanish skills in class. Paying it forward. This has become the time where socialization has become a big part of the kids world not just in school. It is one thing to go to school and speak a language for all or part of the day but when school is done and the kids have to continue using the language with friends on the outside then things really start to solidify. After school activities, play dates, sleepovers, birthday parties etc were the norm now. The kids were getting 6 hours of Spanish in the classroom each day. At the end of the day they went on to play dates with their school friends who, for the most part, only spoke Spanish or on to after school classes taught only in Spanish. The kids Spanish exposure would go on for days not just a couple hours in the classroom. Here is an example.
Thursday School in Spanish: 6 hours
Thursday after school class in Spanish: 1 hour
Friday School in Spanish: 6 hours
Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon sleep over in Spanish: 24 hours
Sunday birthday party in Spanish: 3 hours
Monday School in Spanish: 6 hours
You get the idea with this example but this kind of thing goes on all week. Not just a few hours in class. Hours and hours of this degree of exposure among native speakers. Our kids have had success picking up a new language simply because of the hours spent listening to it and using it. They have had very little, if any, hand holding along the way. Their classroom, their friends, most of their socialization is virtually all in Spanish these day. No one sat them down and taught them "how" to speak the language. They have been coached a little along the way and we have been told that Alex is somewhat picky about getting things right, but they did not grow up with it or have it at home in any meaningful way. Could we have predicted that the kids would have survived this "swim or sink" education? No. If we had known the route the kids would take to get where they are now, would we have agreed to it? Probably not. Like many parents, we would have most likely underestimated our kids ability to adapt and persevere. They have not only "persevered" but are now thriving in my opinion as I listen to them everyday. They certainly have my admiration for what they have done and accomplished to this point.
I remember an encounter during our "Month In Sayulita" in March of 2011 before we committed to this "Adventure" One day we ran into a pack of what looked to be "north of the border" kids at one of the ice cream shops and unexpectedly they all spoke to the woman behind the counter in Spanish. They received their ice cream and ran off to the Plaza like it was nothing. It was "nothing" for them to operate this way. I still remember this as I stood there totally impressed as to how well these kids were communicating and hoped our kids would be able to roll like this someday. Well, now they do.
Has there been a downside? I cannot say that these are true "downsides" just yet but we have seen some side effects of our kids "Immersion". Trace's brain has been processing two languages since he was 4 years old and had very little reading experience before leaving the States. Though his speaking skills are strong in both languages, his desire to learn to read has not developed in either language. His teachers have said it is normal so we continue to expose him at home but not with a lot of pressure. He is catching on but when you see letters in a word that have multiple pronunciations depending on what language is being used I am not surprised he does not enjoy the idea of reading right now. Alex, on the other hand reads and writes well in both languages and actually speaks better in Spanish. Her brain processes slower in English but flows better in her new language. Native speakers have remarked on it. She even admits that she doesn't know how to say things in English though she could explain to you exactly what she wants to say easily in Spanish. Interesting, unforeseen side effects for sure but not things that we don't believe won't work themselves out in time.
Can we honestly say that "Immersion" has worked for our kids? We believe so. Can we pat ourselves on the back as far as the route we took to get our kids to this point? Probably not but it wasn't a planned course to begin with. We were recently told that a language teacher we knew said that "Immersion doesn't work". We were surprised by this. Have you spoken with our kids lately? Well, it may not work for everyone but for our children it has given them a skill to not only live here more enjoyably and effectively but has exposed them to a whole world here that they would not have had access to had they not learned to speak Spanish. They interact just as easily with English speaking people as well as native Spanish speakers. Even locals who have known us since we moved here have positively remarked on the kids' ability to communicate now. "Are they fluent?" one might ask. Per the definition, I can say yes, they are "fluent" since they can "capably use Spanish easily and accurately" but are they 100%? No. But in another year or two, at this rate, I think they will take with them this skill that will positively effect their lives forever. What a tool to have at such a young age!
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