Mimicking Animal Sounds in Different Languages

By Cynthia Garza
on January 25, 2012
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sounds animals make in english and spanish1

My dogs understand Spanglish, especially when I say "ya!" But what language do they speak? I always love asking friends from other countries to tell me the sounds animals in their country make, or rather, how they mimic the sounds they make. Onomatopoeia -- remember that old school word from elementary. It's when a word mimics the sound it describes. Like woof, burp, honk or splash. There's an awesome website that was on display at the NY MOMA which is a collection of global onomatopoeia using sound recordings from people in different countries mimicking different sounds. Click on a flag to hear it. Pretty nifty!

But about animals and the way we not only say, but write things. We say and write that the dog says woof, or ruff ruff -- and this is how they sound in Korea, South Africa and Romania. Pero el perrito dice guau guau. The lamb says baaaaa, y la borreguita dice meeeeeee. The chick say chirp chirp y el pollito dice pío pío pío.

Mind blow! I love it. And if you're a multilingual aficionado you probably love it, too.

But WHY do they make different sounds? Well, it may be because in different places we have different species of the same animal, and the sounds they make differ. I'm sure there are other reasons but I'm no linguistics expert, and truthfully, I just think it's fun because it is what it is: cute!

Here's a book I got for the toddler K in Rio de Janeiro when we visited three years ago, exactly because I love this sort of thing. And now, for you to enjoy, animals speaking Portuguese. As Vozes das Animais:

And of course, all this to say that this was the inspiration behind our bilingual onesie and t-shirt Babel Animalitos. This is a theme I'm sure you'll see more of in our store in the future. It's a bit of an obsession in my home.

The Search for Pre-School: Two-Way Bilingual or Not?

By Cynthia Garza
on January 13, 2012
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I knew this moment would come sooner rather than later. My daughter is not yet three and I'm already drowning in information about which schools to apply to for next year. Public school is the only real option for us, so it's a regular public school or a public charter school. So why apply at 3? Well, many of the good programs start out at three, so if I don't do it now then the chances of getting into my school or schools of choice go down. There are more options that open up at pre-K 4-years, but starting now gives us two opportunities.

In the past week we've been to six school open houses or events to check out what's in store for our little one. I've got a handful more to go before the month is over. We love the bilingual programs, but of course, they are not all created equally. Some are two-way bilingual, immersion, and others are just a class or two per week in Spanish. And I'm not so sure how taking a once-a-week class in Spanish would really help. We did see one really awesome, amazing school that, of course, has stiff competition to get into, but at least it's a lottery system. At least we've got a better chance of winning this lottery than the kind of lottery I'd really love to win. If we won THAT lottery, I'd enroll the toddler K at the Obama girls' school. And she's become fluent in Spanish on our jet-setting vacations to Latin America.

So many things to think about as a parent, and it's really a subjective decision in the end, no matter how much you talk to your neighbors or friends about it. The other thing is, I'd really like for my daughter to go to a school that has a strong arts integration. And by that I mean that she can learn to play the violin, cello or whatever (a recorder doesn't count) through classes during the school day by third grade. Programs like that exist. But if we go the arts way, what happens to her Spanish? And what about science and math? I mean, those were always my best subjects in school, even going into college when I suddenly did an about-face and said nah, I wanna do something else.

So many decisions. Guess I gotta do like my mom and just light my San Judas candle and let it all work itself out.

She's Starting to Talk--in Spanglish

By Dos Borreguitas
on August 29, 2010
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So it's finally happening -- the moment when baby K transitions from gibberish every now and again to having what seem like full-on gibberish conversations with inflection, with a few real words interspersed between. She points to her cup and says agua when she's thirsty. And says apple for apple, banana, nectarine or any fruit, really.

I've been listening closely to the gibberish and inflections, and wondering what its going to be when it finally synthesizes in her head. Spanish, or English? Most likely it's going to be Spanglish. As much as I want her to speak just Spanish right now, I know that's not going to happen. She spends all day with her grandma -- who speaks both languages to her -- and she Skypes a lot with her other grandparents in Miami -- puro espanol -- but when we get home from work I'd say we do about 75 percent English and 25 percent Spanish. This is not the way I want it to be, but when you've been working all day and communicating in English it's hard to just unplug and switch to Spanish. Nah, nah, nah I know that's just an excuse and here's another -- it's especially hard when you live in a city where there's not much of a Spanish-speaking population, so it's not like you're just gonna stop at the grocery store and bam, all Spanish. At least I'm not the only one in this situation.

But from here on out, I'm gonna make a conscious effort -- mas espanol!

One of my favorite websites to read up on raising baby bilingual is SpanglishBaby.com. Anyone have any good recommendations?