What are you reading to your kids?

Did you know this is the “Read Me Week” in the US? That won’t affect us in other countries that much, but anyway I wanted to blog about what I’m currently reading to my 4yo, but first I’ll share some facts about our book hunting experience.

The fact is that I don’t usually buy a lot of books for him since these imported goods are very expensive for a single mom. However, I still read a lot to him.

In Ecuador we don’t have public libraries with lots of children’s books in every neighborhood, like in some countries (another thing I loved about living in Japan), and even in the larger libraries in the downtown you can’t check out books, so you can only read on site.

How I solved this:

Long ago I’ve found a way we can access a variety of books and media (mostly CDs) for a decent price. I’m a member of the private library in the Alliance Française Quito, that allows us to check out 3 books, 5 magazines, 2 CDc and 2DVDs every week. Enough for the 2 of us!

French is not his first nor second language
I really didn’t put much thought about the fact that my son doesn’t understand French (or well, didn’t until I started reading to him in French). My French is not perfect at all- I can read and understand 90% of the content but my pronunciation is not good since I don’t have the chance to practice. But I don’t think I even need to have a perfect pronunciation to be able to enjoy French books with my son.

So what are we reading this week?
Among others, a book we love because it’s a story about a wolf and a cat, both very popular animals for my son.

Have a look at the inside of the book here: Lune

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Standard Mother Language?

Another post to celebrate the International Mother Language!

I’m Ecuadorian and my Mother Language is Spanish. I’d say is Ecuadorian Spanish because I love using our slangs and a bit of “wrong” grammar, product of a merge with the native Quichua. Now please don’t think in Ecuador we talk very different from standard Spanish…but wait!… with so many countries and cultures speaking Spanish what is standard Spanish like? We do speak different everywhere but we do understand each other most of the time. I mean, I have weekly parenting podcast in Spanish where I interview people from different countries and get feedback from everywhere. It seems that most people gets the meaning of the conversations, although I make an effort to avoid speaking my way so I’m not confusing anyone with our strange grammar.

This reminds me when I was backpacking in an island of the Titicaca Lake, Bolivia and met another adventurer from Argentina. We were able to understand each other perfectly but people from the island thought he was talking in English. This was so fun because people asked him higher prices and both sides asked me for an interpretation.

It must be a matter of getting used to the new accent, as when I first spoke in English (by telephone) with a guy from South Africa that wanted to buy from my online store. I thought he was from Greece, really! Then when we met in person after a while talking I was able to understand everything in English, not Greek

Do you have any experience when you didn’t understand native speakers of your mother language? Do you have a clear idea of what “standard (your mother language here)” sounds like?

Say Hello In different Languages

Today February 21st (Saturday) is the International Mother Language Day proclaimed by UNESCO’s General Conference in November 1999 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

I have to admit that I’ve not been aware of this observation day until recently that I was having a look at my calendar, but this sounds like fun to me since I love all things related to languages, countries and cultures.

Since I have a passion for languages this blog is for families around the world, I plan to have some language chit chat in the future, but meanwhile, why don’t we try saying hello in different languages? Feel free to add other languages you’ve learnt and typing in the original characters. Would appreciate any explanation on the real meaning or usage.

I’ll start:

Spanish: (mother language): Hola

Also:

Quichua (We call Quichua in Ecuador and Quechua in Peru and Bolivia): “Allillachu cangui”

I want to learn more! Would you please…? My son inherited my passion for languages and he’s always asking me how to say “that” in “this language”, so you’ll also help this homeschooling mama to fulfill the curricula

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