Sh*t My Kids Say #5 – The Spanish Book
It’s no secret that Dora the Explorer has stolen a large chunk of the children’s television market. Part of the draw of the show for parents is that kids get a chance to dabble in a second language.
A three year old doesn’t understand that there are people who speak different languages and therefore doesn’t know the difference between English, French, Spanish and so on.
I recently brought my son to the Library to pick out some new books for circle time at the day care. I always let him pick out his own book too and he always selects a french book first.
I don’t know if the pictures are cooler in french or if it’s because they are the first books you pass by but he will always gravitate to the french section first.
I tried to explain to him a few weeks ago that, while Daddy does speak french, translating the book to English is a bit of a tough task and I asked him to select a book from the English section.
This is the conversation we had yesterday at the Library.
D: “Okay buddy, go ahead and pick out a book.”
L: “Okay Daddy!” **Looks for about 8 seconds** “Here’s a great book Daddy! It has a Boat!”
D: “Sure pal, whatever book you want”
L: **Sits at the table and opens it** “I think I need to find a different book Daddy.”
D: “Why? That one looks good and you love boats.”
L: “I think this one’s Spanish.”
D: “Nope, it’s in English. How do you even know what Spanish is?”
L: “Remember yesterday, you told me not to pick the Spanish books.” **Everything happened yesterday by the way**
D: “That was not yesterday, it was 2 weeks ago and I said don’t pick French books, not Spanish”
L: **Blank stare** “Okay Daddy. I’ll take this Spanish one with the boats!”
D: “Haha, okay pal.”
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I’d like to note that I am not against my kids learning another language, I just think it’s more important for them to master the one they are going to use on a day to day basis first.
Plus I hate translating things, LOL!
Cheers!!