English is Everywhere!

Photo credit: Emran Kassim

One of the first signs of assimilation, in first and second generations of Latinos in the U.S., is the loss of one’s native language. Those of us whose parents were immigrants or who are immigrants ourselves remember that minute fact a little more clearly than our counterparts whose relatives immigrated several generations ago.

Acculturation has been happening to immigrants from various countries for decades. Just go visit the Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York City and see for yourself.  In fact, if you are really interested in the history of immigration, check out any immigration museum in another country and you will notice a definite trend. I made it a point to visit the one in Buenos Aires a few years ago and the headlines on the newspapers articles, the immigrants, and the reasons why they transplanted to Argentina along with the struggles and outcomes were all too similar to the stories I have witnessed in America.

Before Sabrina (almost 3 months old now), came into our lives, my plan was to speak Spanish at home. Since having her, several things have happened and one of them is that I find myself using Spanish more outside of our home! My plan was that anything would be accepted outside the home because English is everywhere. I came to the conclusion that speaking Spanish outside my home is one of the main ways I have subconsciously preserved my family’s language.

The subconscious daily practice makes me feel like I am assuring that Sabrina will learn it too. Maybe its because my perspective of English is that of an invasive one. Just the other day I was asking a friend from Argentina how to say entrepreneur in Spanish, she said, “Emprendedor pero usamos la palabra entrepreneur.” {click here to read more}

As we mentioned last week, this month marks the 10th anniversary of the creation of Dora the Explorer character—the energetic bilingual Latina girl loved by all children and their parents, but especially by those of us raising bilingual children. In honor of this milestone, Fisher Price just debuted a singing and dancing “We Did It” Dora doll that will put your niños a bailar—or at least that’s what happened at my house when she came out of the box!

The first thing my daughter loved was Dora’s long, silky black hair. She quickly figured out that to get Dora dancing, all she had to do was press the pink flower on one of her shoes. And so she did time and time again because each time the flower’s pressed, Dora does something different.

First she dishes out a few commands in both languages so kids can learn how to follow her in the “We Did It” dance using words like arriba and abajo often. I don’t know how she does it, but she had my daughter repeating the commands and following suit as soon as she turned her on.

Soon she had Vanessa playing the Freeze Dance game by giving her the following instructions:

“When I say baila, dance! When I say para, stop!”

This was, by far, my daughter’s favorite.

Although this is not the first time they come out with a dancing Dora doll, I think this is by far the most realistic. Her arms move up and down and she twists side to side with her long, beautiful hair swaying to the rhythm of the música. I have to say that I think it’s awesome that there’s a doll out there which allows my daughter to feel like she’s not the only one who speaks two languages out there!

In fact, Dora points it out in the Say it Two Ways bilingual dance game. So for example, she’ll start twisting and will say:

“Now twist! In English we say twist. In Spanish we say gira.”

I have to admit that both the music and the dance moves of the new doll are really contagious. So much so that each time my daughter turns her on, her baby brother, Santiago, can’t hold back and immediately starts to boogie!

Check him out here:

{click here to enter the giveaway}