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What Kind of Spanish Do You Speak? Language and Social Perceptions

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Our perceptions about what kind of bilingual we want our kids to be are rooted in what we feel is acceptable Spanish. But where do these ideas of what is “correct” or “incorrect” come from?

In this episode, we speak to Salvatore Callesano, a sociolinguistic researcher and instructor at The University of Texas at Austin, about the relationship between linguistics and social perceptions and the effect these can have on bilingual children and youth in the US.

Salvatore Callesano

Mentioned in this episode

Additional reading

Join the Entre Dos Facebook community to share your experiences, questions, and discoveries with us and other parents raising bilingual kids.

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The Bilingual Advantage: A Research Update

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Is being bilingual/multilingual an advantage for cognitive development? The answer is not straightforward. You’ve likely heard about the bilingual advantage, this idea that people who have two or more languages develop cognitive advantages, particularly within the realm of executive function which is responsible for things like attention and task-switching. Research to date has yielded conflicting findings and, according to some researchers, the debate over whether there’s a bilingual advantage or not has reached a stalemate.

Dr. Anthony Dick

In this episode, we talked to Dr. Anthony Dick, an associate professor of developmental science and cognitive neuroscience at Florida International University. He published a study that found no evidence of advantages in executive function in 9- and 10-year-old bilingual children.

Continue reading “The Bilingual Advantage: A Research Update”
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A Conversation with Parenting Expert Maritere Bellas

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As mothers of relatively young children, a lot of the conversations we have are about what will become of our bilingual, bicultural children’s future. For this episode, we called on Maritere Bellas, an award-winning author and parenting expert, who raised bilingual and bicultural children in Los Angeles, to share with us her wisdom and experience.

Maritere R. Bellas

Maritere has written extensively about parenting for newspapers and online outlets, and is the author of the books “Raising Bilingual Children: A Practical Guide,” “Arroz con Pollo and Apple Pie,” and “Luisito’s Island.” After we recorded this episode, she also launched a multicultural parenting podcast in Spanish called Mamás 411.

Additional resources

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What We Love: En la Radio by Nathalia

Joanne Leung Photography

Not too long ago, LA-based singer/songwriter Nathalia shared with us her upcoming bilingual album: En La Radio. While we typically don’t write reviews on the blog, we had to tell you about this album, because we loved it that much.

Nathalia is a Colombian singer/songwriter, music therapist and early childhood music educator who has produced four albums for children. Her newest one, En La Radio, has 10 original songs in English and Spanish spanning a variety of music styles from the US and Latin America.

“It doesn’t sound like kids music,” Paula’s husband said when she played it. He meant it as a compliment. Play the album and chances are you’ll be as hooked as your kids. 

Continue reading “What We Love: En la Radio by Nathalia”
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What We Love: Tres Cuentos Podcast

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In this episode of What We Love/Lo Que Más Nos Gusta, we talk to Carolina Quiroga-Stultz about her podcast: Tres Cuentos. In Tres Cuentos, which means three stories, Carolina tells stories, myths and legends from Latin America in Spanish and English.

Carolina Quiroga-Stultz, creator of Tres Cuentos Podcast.

While most of the stories on Tres Cuentos are geared toward older children and adults, Carolina recently launched a summer series with stories geared toward younger children called Niñez Heroica/Children Heroes. Each episode includes a story followed by a few interesting facts about something related to the story.

In this episode …

The audio clip you heard at the beginning of this episode comes from the Tres Cuentos episode “Mitos de Creación: Cuando los ancestros bajaron del cielo“. You can listen to the same story in English here.

Carolina launched her children’s summer series after we spoke. Below are the two episodes she has published so far:

To find out when new episodes are published, follow Tres Cuentos on Facebook.

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One Year of Entre Dos

Today we’re celebrating one year since we published our first episode, a totally unscripted introduction to Entre Dos. This year has been fun and eye opening. We’ve learned a lot as moms and podcasters, and we have been overwhelmed by the support we’ve received and the connections we have made.

To commemorate this milestone, we thought we’d leave you with the seven most-listened-to episodes in our first year.

Thank you to all for listening. Here’s to another year!

~ Paula & Monika

Top 7 Entre Dos Episodes

  1. Bilingualism and Speech Delays: Dispelling Myths
  2. Decoding the Bilingual Brain: Part I
  3. Raising Bilingual Readers
  4. On Heritage, Language and Identity
  5. Bilingual Homeschooling
  6. Canticos: Sharing culture and building connections through music
  7. Family Dynamics & Bilingualism
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Public libraries: Allies for bilingual families

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Public libraries are one of our nation’s most important resources. They support literacy, act as an inclusive gathering space for the community, and provide a plethora of public services. In this episode, we dive into how public libraries have been supporting bilingual families and how they can support you in your community.

City of North Miami Public Library
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Bilingualism and Speech Delays: Dispelling Myths

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A common misconception or myth about bilingualism is that it causes speech language delays. In this episode, Claudia Serrano Johnson, a speech language pathologist (SLP) and founder of Laleo Therapy in Virginia breaks down these misconceptions and shares red flags parents should look out for in their child’s speech language development. You’ll also hear the experience of Zayra Marrero Burgos, an SLP who has a son with developmental delays.

Claudia Johnson (left); Zayra Marrero Burgos (right)

Mentioned in this episode

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) – this professional, scientific and credentialing association has a directory of certified professionals.

Additional Reading

Learning Two Languages, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

How do you know when it’s a language delay versus a disorder?, Leader Live, April 14, 2015

Does Bilingualism Cause a Language Delay?, Multilingual Living, May 31, 2010

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We Need Your Help!

Take Our Survey

We have a big favor to ask: last fall, we applied to the first round of the Google Podcasts creator program – a program that “seeks to increase the diversity of voices in the industry globally and lower barriers to podcasting.” While Entre Dos wasn’t selected, we made it to the semi-finalists round, meaning we were in the top five percent!

Well, applications are now open for the second round and we want to try again, but to do so, we need to know more about YOU, our listeners.

Please visit entredospodcast.com/survey and answer a few questions.

If you like what we do and want to support our podcast, this is the best way to do it. The three minutes it takes you will help us tremendously, not only to apply to this program, which could get us seed funding and intensive training, but also to improve our podcast.

Your answers are completely anonymous unless you choose to share your contact information with us.

¡Gracias!

Paula & Monika

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What We Love: Conversation Starters

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How do you get your kids to engage with you in the target language? We don’t mean utilitarian exchanges about snacks or watching five more minutes of cartoons but actual conversations about interesting topics, concepts or just life, really.

It’s not as easy as it sounds, with our day-to-day lives we find ourselves not interacting as deeply with our loved ones, which is a problem in general, but poses particular issues for parents raising bilingual children. In this What we love/Lo que más nos gusta episode, we share how we get those conversations going.

Visit our blog post, Conversations & Storytelling: A Resource Guide for Bilingual Kids, to see our recommendations!

Join the Entre Dos Facebook community to share your experiences, questions, and discoveries with us and other parents raising bilingual kids.

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Conversations & Storytelling: A Resource Guide for Bilingual Kids

Here at Entre Dos, we’re always thinking of new ways to get our kids to speak the target language. Lately, we’ve been looking for resources that can be categorized as “conversation starters” or materials that can help us go beyond the quotidian exchanges of everyday life and even get a little creative with storytelling. Go to our latest episode to hear about what we use to get this done and, if you want a more detailed list of resources, take a look:

Wonder Ponder Books

Yo, Persona by Ellen Duthie

This book series invites children to think. Ellen Duthie builds an exciting world where anything is possible and there are no right or wrong answers. The illustrations and conversation starting questions are a great way to encourage critical thinking.

Continue reading “Conversations & Storytelling: A Resource Guide for Bilingual Kids”
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The Bilingual Revolution, Part II

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In Part Two of our conversation with Fabrice Jaumont – a French educator, researcher and the author of the book The Bilingual Revolution – we talk about what drives parents to undertake the efforts needed to establish dual language education programs and what you can do to get started. We also discuss common misconceptions about dual language programs and the importance of having a long-term vision when establishing these initiatives.

Photo by Jonas Cuénin

If you haven’t listened to Part I, this is a good time to do so!

Further Reading

The Bilingual Revolution

“The Bilingual Revolution” is available in English, Spanish, French, German, and Russian.

Entre Dos listeners can download a free e-copy of the book by visiting tbr-books.org and entering the code Entre Dos Podcast at checkout.

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The Bilingual Revolution, Part I

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Dual language education can be a good way to both sustain a cultural heritage and acquire a second language. But if you’ve spent any time looking into these programs, you may have found that they are not easy to get into or they simply don’t exist where you live. In this episode, we speak to Fabrice Jaumont, a French educator, researcher, and author of the book “The Bilingual Revolution.”

Fabrice Jaumont
Photo by Jonas Cuénin

Fabrice has helped start multiple dual language education programs in New York, and his book serves both as a testament to what a group of parents can do to bring these programs to their public schools and a guide for those who may want to replicate those efforts elsewhere.

Continue reading “The Bilingual Revolution, Part I”
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On Heritage, Language and Identity

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Are your motivations for raising bilingual children emotional or pragmatic? Maybe a little bit of both? We had an interesting conversation with Sabine Little, Lecturer in Languages Education and Researcher at the University of Sheffield, where her research explores the ties between heritage languages and identity.

Continue reading “On Heritage, Language and Identity”
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A Matter of Exposure

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If you’re raising bilingual children, you’ve likely heard the word exposure over and over again. We need to give our kids exposure to the target language, right? But what is exposure? How is it defined in the context of bilingualism? And more importantly, how much is enough? Does quality matter more than quantity?

Continue reading “A Matter of Exposure”
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Our 2019 Bilingual Parenting Resolutions

Happy 2019! It’s the first full week of the year and we’re ready to get back to work. We’re also ready to continue traveling down this bilingual parenting path with our daughters and our small community of listeners and followers.

In our last episode, we shared the lessons we learned from seven months of recording the Entre Dos Podcast. It turns out that they also make good resolutions, so we wanted to share them with you here on the blog. We hope these five lessons will inspire you and motivate you in 2019.

Continue reading “Our 2019 Bilingual Parenting Resolutions”
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Happy Holidays! Our last episode of 2018.

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Welcome to our final show of the year!

In this episode, we talk about our holiday traditions and look back at the most important lessons we’ve learned so far while making the show.

We are so lucky to have you as our listeners and are working hard on our  2019 episode lineup. You can stay connected with us during the holiday break on social media. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @entredospodcast. And don’t forget to join our Facebook Group to tell us about your bilingual experience, suggest episode ideas, ask burning questions and more!

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Music and Bilingualism

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Music is one of the easiest ways to start building a connection to language. Even if you’re not a musical person, there’s a universality to music that makes it an effective tool for transferring knowledge. We’ve seen it in our homes.

In this episode, we spoke to Dr. Susanne Reiterer, associate professor at the Faculty of Philology and Cultural Studies and the Center for Teacher Education in the University of Vienna, and to Will Stroet, an award-winning multilingual children’s music singer-songwriter and educator based in Vancouver.

 

You’ll hear about the connection between musicality and language learning and how music can be an effective tool to teach languages.

In preparation for this episode, we asked our listeners to share their favorite music and artists to listen to in their target language. See the full list of bilingual music recommendations. It’s a good one!

 

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Family Dynamics and Bilingualism

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What does your bilingual family look like? Do you speak only the minority language at home? Do you speak both English and the target language? Do you speak English-only? In this episode, we explore how these family dynamics influence outcomes in bilingualism.

Joining us to discuss this is Dr. Anny Castilla-Earls from the University of Houston, and a group of parents raising bilingual children.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Annick De Houwer

ADDITIONAL READING

The Languages You Speak To Your Bilingual Child, Psychology Today, Oct. 24, 2014

One-Person, One-Language and Your Bilingual Child, Psychology Today, April 1, 2015

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Learning Spanish with the Kids

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This week on Entre Dos, we talk to Aileen Passariello-McAleer, of Mama-Lingua. She talks to us about her app, which is aimed at teaching both parents and kids Spanish, as well as her new book Simon Goes To School, which tackles the joys and challenges of attending a dual language school.

You’ll hear Aileen give advice about starting a target language playgroup and her thoughts on dual-language education in the U.S. Hint: she’s very passionate about his subject!

 

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Bilingual Homeschooling

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This week on Entre Dos, we talk to Catalina Burton, author of the blog Raising Bilingual Children. There, Catalina chronicles her experiences homeschooling her four-year-old daughter, Mia.

In this episode, Catalina talks to us about her family, why she chose to homeschool and what resources she has found helpful in homeschooling her daughter. She also shared advice for parents considering bilingual homeschooling.

Follow Catalina on Instagram @raisingbilingualchildren. Her account is full of ideas and resources even non-homeschoolers will find useful.

Continue reading “Bilingual Homeschooling”

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Author Spotlight: Jorge Tetl Argueta and his library of dreams

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We talked to poet and children’s book author, Jorge Tetl Argueta, about why he writes for children and his passion for promoting literacy. Argueta’s poems give us a glimpse of communities that are often misrepresented, erased, and dehumanized in U.S. American literature. His books, which center mostly around his homeland of El Salvador, offer a beautiful counter-narrative meant to build a positive self-image and empathy for our growing immigrant communities.

Jorge Tetl Argueta

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Growing Up Between Two Cultures

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Paula’s cousin, Juliana, talks about her experience growing up between two cultures. Juli, as she’s affectionately known in her family, was born in the U.S. to a Colombian family. She grew up in Katy, Texas, her first language was Spanish and she attended a dual-language elementary school program, but as she grew older, she began to notice many things that come with growing up between two different cultures and the feeling of not completely fitting into one or the other.

Juliana and her familia.

Now, as she readies to head to college, Juli has come to terms with her identity and feels proud of her two cultures. She offered some words of advice for other kids and gave us some insight into what our daughters and other bilingual kids may experience as they grow up.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Spanglish

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What We Love: Bebé’s First Library

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In this special episode, Monika and Paula share some of their favorite books in Spanish for babies and young toddlers, and give a few tips on how to choose books for the younger crowd. It’s part of a series we’ll call What We Love/Lo Que Más Nos Gusta.

Continue reading “What We Love: Bebé’s First Library”