Which language do I speak?

Spanglish, Spantian, or Crolish?



I'm not an expert on linguistics and I hope I'm not doing more damage than good by introducing all 3 languages at once (Spanish, Croatian and English) but I have heard that babies are like sponges, they will absorb everything.

I did some research about multilingualism and I found a fascinating website, Spanglishbaby ,"the place to ask and get personal advice and honest answers to all those conflicting opinions out there about raising bilingual kids." Here I found a link to Simona Montanari , an expert on early multilingual development, and this is what she had to say about teaching your child more than one language " ...decades of research have shown that children’s brains have all the capacities necessary to cope with and fully master two or more languages if they are given the opportunity to hear and practice these languages on an everyday basis. The idea of confusion in bilingual children is really a myth, an old belief prevalent in monolingual countries that has almost become political."

So hey maybe I'm doing something right? With the exception of my Spanglish!

We are just combining all 3 languages in hopes that as she gets older she will know the difference. For now we are using words that are easier for her to pronounce, for example Elephant is too long, instead we say slon. Of course as she gets older I will speak to her only in Spanish, my Hubby in Croatian and she will have exposure to English in school.


Just to give you an idea of my daily conversations with Beli (22 months old), it goes something like this:


Me: Good Morning Beli.

Beli: Goo-Moneen Mama.

Me: Dile good morning a Daddy.....(tell Daddy good morning)

Beli:Goo-Moneen Daddy.

Me: Como durmio my muneca?....(how did my doll sleep?)

Beli: Mama dai ruka!...............(Mama give me your hand!)

Me: Dojee Beli wait for Mama.....(Come here Beli, wait for Mama)

Me:Dame los shoes.....................(Give me the shoes)

Beli: Dai shoes Mama.................(Give you the shoes Mama)

Me: Quieres pintar en el book?.........(Do you want to color on the book?)

Beli: Book? dai colors Mama! ...........(Book?, give colors Mama!)

Me: Mira!..mali pas..............................(Look, a small dog)

She really amazes me because when I ask her in Spanish to tell me the body parts she answers in Croatian! I think it's because Spanish is the minority language and Croatian the majority( at least for now that we are living here). I'm not too worried about teaching her English, although she does get the exposure from hearing Hubby and I speak. How about you, do you mix languages at home or use one of these methods OPOL, T &P or mL&H?

Raising a Multilingual Child

Raising a 19 month old in a foreign country raises many questions for both parents. One of them being, what language will we teach our daughter? My husband's native language is Croatian, mine is Spanish but we speak English to each other. The result, Beli speaks all three languages! And since we are living in Croatia she knows more Croatian than Spanish or English. She knows her body parts in Croatian, colors in English and if she wants something to drink she asks for agua water. At bedtime when I sing twinkle, twinkle little star she hums along with me and when I call her mi tesoro y mi nina preciosa, my sweetheart, my precious girl she tries to pronounce preciosa. I melt me derrito when I listen to her trying to pronounce this word.

One day over coffee I mentioned to my friend from Russia how Beli uses all three languages throughout the day.She told me about the One Parent One Language (OPOL) method. She explained that this would increase the likelihood that Beli would be bilingual. Except in our case it would be trilingual. Our goal is for our daughter to speak all three languages so she can communicate with both sets of grandparents.

According to this OPOL method, my husband should only speak Croatian to her, and I would speak Spanish. But to be honest with you, I am falling victim to Spanglish. Not that there is anything wrong with this right? I read her a book and I say "look Beli the tree is green and the cielo sky is blue. Y mira la agua look at the water. Then I wonder if we are only confusing her or is she really grasping each language independently? Or is she too young for us to even be worried?

So maybe this OPOL is worth a try? And while there might be no right or wrong answer, consistency is important according to this method. I will keep you posted of how it is working.

Aver como nos va. Will see how it goes.