Category: Uncategorized
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Becoming Latina…
My bebita had her first taste of travel! More importantly, she had her first semi-immersion into another culture: Miami. I think she fit right in, too. When we arrived to Cuba Nostalgia, a annual event to celebrate Cuban culture in Miami, she fell asleep. I thought for sure all of the loud music would wake…
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Cuba Nostalgia
Cuba Nostalgia. It’s the name of an event we are going to this weekend with my mom during our visit in Miami. Everytime I visit this vibrant and colorful city I exclaim to those around me that all of my senses are reawakened! The sound of Latin, tropical music from the radio stations make my…
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A Pivotal Moment en Mi Vida Bilingue.
Have you ever had one of those moments where all of the pivotal experiences in your life are flashed right before your eyes? No, not like when you think you are going to die, but quite the contrary. When you feel like you have reached a huge milestone or when you feel like time is…
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"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…
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Education for Latinos/Latinos for Education!
In my community of Austin, Texas the topic of bilingual education has been a heavily contested arena. It has also been a special interest of mine especially since I became a bilingual educator and advocate for learning multiple languages. There have been several efforts, locally and nationally, to implement a different model for learning a…
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A Bilingual Product?
I decided to start documenting some of the bilingual products that catch my eye and make me laugh such as this one. Our family from Ecuador brought us some Ahi casero. We use it with ceviche and it is quite yummy. It is brand names like this one, SNOB, that make me wonder if marketers…
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Language Instinct-it’s not just the title of the book I have started reading.
It’s something that invigorates all of my senses…..I was having lunch with someone I did not know at all at Las Manitas. She was interviewing me for a Spanish teacher position. As we were discussing our experiences with language she mentioned a book called, Language Instinct by Steven Pinker. I was intrigued simply by her…
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I'm bien pocha!
There is so much I could say about this…so much. In fact there are so many other words I could use instead of “pocha,” like bien gringa or bien whitewashed. It seems like the older I get and the more experiences that shape who I am now as a 34 year old woman the further…
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Inherited meanings as part of our culture.
I just finished reading a chapter from a very intense book for one of my classes. I won’t bore you with all the details, but I will share that it talked about how culture can influence the way we think, feel, and see the world. Not just the world, things, people, it can even influence…
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Spanglish…why the controversy?
This is definitely a topic I plan on exploring and writing more about. I recently posted on Facebook, me encanta el espanglish, and got some pretty negative comments about it. I guess I forget that not everybody is learning about language acquisition as much as someone who is pursuing a doctorate in the field. Now,…