English children speaking Spanish
Spent the afternoon at the pool today with the kids (their swimming is getting really good now). We live on quite an "interesting" development. There is a real mix of characters with many permanent English, Spanish and Irish residents here. I think we could write a soap opera about the goings-on here day to day!
Anyway, what always truly amazes me is how young English kids (say from 4 - 12 years old) have mastered the Spanish language and actually talk amongst themselves in Spanish! OK, some of them haven't quite mastered the accentbut they are so comfortable communicating and playing in Spanish. The next minute they'll break into English and then mix the two up. It's quite fascinating listening to them. It's a bit like people speak in Gibraltar, mixing the two languages, but then you see, there is like a "structure" to it. There is a way to mix the two. Someone just trying to do it unnaturally would sound silly.
Then you find that the parents of these kids can rarely string two words together in Spanish.
Someone really should make a documentary of this development!
Anyway, what always truly amazes me is how young English kids (say from 4 - 12 years old) have mastered the Spanish language and actually talk amongst themselves in Spanish! OK, some of them haven't quite mastered the accentbut they are so comfortable communicating and playing in Spanish. The next minute they'll break into English and then mix the two up. It's quite fascinating listening to them. It's a bit like people speak in Gibraltar, mixing the two languages, but then you see, there is like a "structure" to it. There is a way to mix the two. Someone just trying to do it unnaturally would sound silly.
Then you find that the parents of these kids can rarely string two words together in Spanish.
Someone really should make a documentary of this development!
posted by Eye on Spain at 9:56 PM
4 Comments:
Very interesting indeed. I've noticed the same in Norway even if the Norwegian language is not that familar or easy to catch up with.
But then again, children learn fast because they don't want to speak perfectly, they just want to communicate.
I adored your blog, histories are fantastic. I will come back, forgive me for the English
sonds as if that's leke welsh and english in wales!
I'm not in agreement with people mixing up the two languages. Spanish is such a beautiful language and when I hear how it's mixed with English it just destroys it.
Giselle, N.Y.
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