The way my parents handled language was to teach us only Spanish. She let us learn English through older cousins, friends, TV and school, but the rule was always Spanish in the house. I spoke Spanish really well when I was little, but about the time I entered school I began avoiding Spanish (it wasn’t cool). It’s interesting that my classes were filled with bilingual children but they all spoke English all the time.. guess they thought Spanish wasn’t cool too. My parents spoke English well, so my sister and I would switch languages on them all of the time… they wouldn’t even realize until they had been speaking English for a while. It was a struggle to keep us speaking Spanish. They would yell at us to speak Spanish in the house and we would start in Spanish and convert to English half way through until they noticed again! lol. In retrospect, I wish we hadn’t been too bullheaded. My Spanish would be even better.

I have friends who had parents that spoke no English, and so they were really forced to speak Spanish in the home. Some of them speak Spanish equal to mine or a little better. They are also probably a little more comfortable with Spanish than I am. I know some of them dream in Spanish, which I have never done. I took Spanish in high school for four years and that helped me with writing and gave me an easy A. I have a very good accent and can pass for a Spanish native, and I obviously speak English well (…well judging by this post you might not think so).

I want to add that I am getting my masters in counseling (therapist) and this topic came up in my child development class. A child can learn both languages simultaneously without a problem. They figure out when you are speaking one language or the other and can separate them pretty early on. In this approach, it would probably help if you always speak English to your son, and Marina always speaks Spanish. Putting him in an English school would also help him retain his English once he gets into school, which is were most kids begin refusing to speak the unpopular language. If you are not putting your child in an English school, I would suggest teaching him English first and having a ‘no Spanish in the house rule,’ because he will pick up Spanish everywhere else. In my situation, it was little easier, because my parents and all my family spoke Spanish. Since you are the only Spanish speaker you really need to find a way to enforce the English.

I have a cousin whose parents spoke no English. They did not force him to speak any Spanish and just figured he would learn from the interactions with them. He always spoke to them in English, and they spoke in Spanish. As an adult, he could understand Spanish but could never speak it. He recently got a job where he had to speak Spanish, and he sounds like a Gringo. He has a horrible accent and can’t conjugate verbs correctly. Anyway, I hope all this helps. Good Luck.