He read them, almost as a favor to me, patiently, with the same patience, in fact, with which he did his homework. I had spent a lot of time searching for books not only in Spanish, but Spanish from Mexico. I had lost battles every day to shows that didn’t sound good dubbed in Spanish, to jokes that were not funny in Spanish, to songs we sang in English. For over 11 years, I had been in constant competition with my son’s environment. The other thing that happened around that time was that I was tired. By signing up you agree to our terms of use Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox. For years, I continued to ask “¿Qué?” and he continued answering in Spanish.
Eventually, he figured out I was an English professor and that it wasn’t that I did not understand, but that I wanted him to keep practicing. I would ask “¿Qué?” or say “No te entiendo,” and he would translate the idea into Spanish. When he was little, I used to pretend I did not understand when he said something in English. I doubled my efforts and made sure he and I only spoke Spanish to each other. I figured he would soon stop speaking Spanish to me, and his brain would be filled with the English words he exchanged with friends at school.
#I am alive in spanish free
Harrison explains that “Many factors can interrupt successful language transmission, but is rarely the result of free will.” Instead, he suggests, the loss of a non-dominant language is sometimes the result of speakers as young as 7 years olds who, due to social pressure, choose to speak the more dominant tongue and leave behind the language of their parents. Confronted with social pressures, young speakers had abandoned their ancestral language. In it, the author shares what he learned from the last speakers of the Tofa language of Siberia. There is one chapter in particular from When Languages Die I found myself thinking about years after I read the book.
This appreciation for words as cultural vessels is what I wanted my son to learn. Although these books may seem like they don’t have much in common, both authors treat language as a cultural monument. In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri is a reflection on the author’s path to learning a second language as an adult.
David Harrison provides an account of what may be lost when a language fades out of use. Interestingly, the two books I came to value the most are not intended as guides for parents. I read books and guides with tips for parents of bilingual children, and I kept notes on best practices. When I was pregnant, I tried to get ready. As a first generation immigrant, I did not feel prepared for the obstacles I would face when trying to keep alive a language that often felt far away.