Nixing Spanglish

Hola mi papi's y mamasitas

Well, the time has come for me to increase the Espanol, and it is a pressing need. My twins caregiver speaks fluent Spanish and minimal, passable English. I speak Ebonics, the Kings English and horrible, treacherous Spanglish. On some level, I actually feel its a little disrespectful that I haven't taken more time, put in more effort. I am kinda overwhelmed with other things, but aren't we all. And the most important thing is clear communication and extending a basic kindness to her. Because I have 2 years of Latin and 4 years of Spanish under my belt, how lazy and rude is it that I haven't just taken a week to listen to a refresher course?

We had an issue the other day, very minor, but we weren't able to communicate effectively. She had panic in her eyes and I felt very very bad. Turns out, it was no big deal, she just wanted to clarify the purpose of some money I had given her. But you know how it is, folks and money. She definitely didn't want me thinking she had misused it, and our failure to communicate worried us both!!

Therefore, I am getting on it. No more piecemeal sentences with muy pequeno espanol sprinkled throughout, no Ima show some respect and get it right.

Anyway, my babies are definitely bilingual, in fact, they carry on entire babbling conversations in what is definitely not baby English, and both yell "agua" and "leche" at the sight of water and milk (the baby version of the words of course) as well as other words I haven't quite made out. It's funny, I was trying to translate their babble into English, came up with nothing. Start listening for Spanish words, ya'll, and realized these kids have been talking for weeks.

They respond and interact entirely in Spanish with my day care provider and her family members. Which I wanted. I have a huge family, they will catch on to English with no problems. And this is a bilingual, multicultural world, I want them to be able to really experience it. But, it also means that if I want to keep up with bilingual clever kids who can get into some stuff at the drop of a dime, I need to get the Espanol rolling off my tongue now!!