When Spanish and English collide
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| Faby Cruz (left) and Lili Raya discuss history while reading their textbook in class at DePue school Wednesday. October is Bilingual Child Month and both Cruz and Raya are fluent in English and Spanish. (BCR photo/Jessica Gray) |
Editor’s note: October is the National Month of the Bilingual Child.
DEPUE — An Austrian philosopher once said, “If we all spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.”
At DePue School, a lot of students grew up perceiving a different world — a Spanish speaking one. It is estimated that half of the world population is bilingual or multilingual.
According to the International School of the Peninsula in California, researchers agree that bilingual learners develop more skills in cognitive areas, which is why these students usually achieve better scores in verbal intelligence, global thinking and discovery of original approaches to problem solving.
As they grow older, learning to speak English and switching back and forth between the two languages between school and home is something a lot of students have mastered at DePue.
Lili Raya, 14, and Faby Cruz, 13, are both in eighth grade at DePue School and speak English at school and to some family members, but more often they speak Spanish to their parents.
Both Raya and Cruz said they learned English early on in school. Raya said she began learning English in preschool since she grew up with two older sisters who also spoke English. Today, her parents still speak only Spanish.
“I always spoke English, but when I was with my parents, it was always Spanish,” Raya said. “They know some English, but they say it’s really difficult to learn. I translate things a lot for them.”
Raya said today it is easier to speak English than Spanish, but she’ll still speak both.
According to the International School of the Peninsula, in cognitive development, one language is usually dominant over the other.
“With my friends I’ll speak both. We’ll talk Spanglish, with some words in Spanish and some in English. If I forget the word, and how to say it in English, I’ll use Spanish instead,” she said.
Cruz, meanwhile, is the oldest of five children — two brothers and two sisters — and said she speaks English to them at home. Cruz said her mother also speaks English, but her father does not. Sometimes she’ll help him translate things.
“It wasn’t easy to learn English,” Raya said. “I remember when I was little, I didn’t know any English. I was in an accident when I was a child, and the doctors were speaking to me, and I responded. They never knew I spoke English until then.”
Raya said a lot of her family is from Mexico, and they do not know any English.
“I go and see them every year. I visit my grandmother, and she doesn’t know any English. Sometimes there are different words they speak that I don’t always know, but once I hear it, I’ll start saying it too,” she said.
Raya and Cruz agree it’s a good thing to know both languages and said it’s helped them already.
“It’s a good thing; it’s helpful to speak both. You can help people translate. Sometimes if there’s someone in a store who needs help, I’ll translate the words for them,” Raya said.
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