Interpretations of a Bilingual Life

"If you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language." -Gloria Anzaldua

"Do you wanna ver petite pim?"

I really could not believe it when the words, “Do you wanna ver Petite Pim?” came out of my mouth this morning as I was making coffee and talking to my nine-month-old. I technically used three languages to utter a sentence. I attribute it to the fact that I am still getting little sleep, it was pre-coffee time, and that I hear three languages a day with Sabrina: French (via video), Spanish (me, her tia, and the hubby), and English (we live in the US).

I can only imagine what it will be like the older she gets and the more we expose her to the three languages!

I’m curious. For those of you who are raising trilingual children, how do the three languages make an appearance in your lives?

Suzanne García-Mateus

March 13, 2011

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5 responses to “"Do you wanna ver petite pim?"”

Mamen

March 14, 2011 at 3:22 am

That was so funny, Suzanne!
In our case, Valencian (Catalan) is our main language at home and with my family and some friends. Spanish is the main language with my husband’s family and more friends, TV and media (we live in Spain). English is the weaker language. of course, but we use it a few times everyday, it’s the language of the cartoons my baby watches and of the two playgroups I take her to.
I have found myself mixing languages in the same sentence, but I don’t think I’ve mixed up the three of them at the same time! I’ll let you know, though…
Regards xx

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suzanne

March 14, 2011 at 8:45 pm

Thanks for sharing Mamen. Yes please let me know. I would love to hear it 😉 We went to Catalunya summer of ’09 and LOVED it. Beautiful place.

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Mamen

March 15, 2011 at 5:56 pm

Hi again (just replied you in my blog)!
We don’t live in Catalunya, we live in Comunitat Valenciana, it’s just below Tarragona. But we speak Valencian here, which is a variety of Catalan. I love Catalunya too, by the way…

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Benny

March 20, 2011 at 6:16 pm

Hi!
just found out about your blog and i love it. I am Italian and speak italian with my 9 month old daughter Sole. My husband is mexican and speaks spanish with her, and we live in Los Angeles. I speak italian most of the time with her, but i find myself speaking a mixed ispanglish when i am tired. It’s challenging some times especially for me cause we speak spanish at home. so complicated. I just found out about the book from Xiao-lei Wang. did you enjoy it? I can’t wait until Sole speaks her first word, an i bet will be spanish.

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suzanne

March 20, 2011 at 6:54 pm

Hi Benny,

That is awesome that you have decided to raise a trilingual child! It is hard. I find myself (as you read) speaking Spanglish a lot. We plan on sending her to a Spanish immersion school and to French summer camps, but we shall she how it goes. So, I recently wrote a book review about raising a trilingual child that may interest you in case you would like to learn more strategies you can use OR to compare them to the ones after reading the book by Xiao-lei Wang.

You know I never finished the book. I read bits and parts for a long while. I am also a graduate student so my reading for leisure is difficult to squeeze in. The author of the book I reviewed lives in LA and I believe she sends her daughters to an Italian school. She is Italian, too.

Here’s a link to the book review. The author of the book is named Simona Montanari. http://www.spanglishbaby.com/2011/03/ask-an-expert-a-book-review/
The blog, SpanglishBaby, is a great resource for parents like you who are trying to nurture a multilingual home. Good luck!

Thanks for posting a comment and sharing your story about raising your daughter with 3 languages. I love it!

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