How My Children Became Bilingual
I met my husband when I was studying at the National University in Mexico City one summer. One day on a city bus, I recognized another woman from the school and struck up a conversation with her. She was planning a birthday party and set me up with one of her boyfriend’s friends. Four years later, I married my one and only blind date. I was still in graduate school when we married, and my husband wanted to pursue an MBA while I completed my doctorate. Because he had to sharpen his language skills to pass his English test, we spoke that language at home. When the children came along a few years later, we found ourselves drifting into English out of habit.
Early in our marriage, my husband and I jokingly worried our children would speak Spanish like me and English like their father. Since we primarily spoke English as home, we truly didn’t have to worry about that language, but they might have not developed their Spanish skills had we not moved out of the country when they were still young.
