Learning English

Over the last few months, Katy's English has exploded.  She went from hardly speaking English to carrying on conversations in full sentences in English.  It's quite amazing that she had all that vocabulary in there, just waiting to come out.

At first, Katy's English was so fun to hear.  She had a lot less inflection and she talked a bit slow, so she sounded almost robotic.  One day, when she first started using English, she randomly went on and on about a banana in her monotone, staccato English .  It was hilarious to hear her say, "ba-na-na.  I. want. a. ba-na-na. Where. is. the. ba-na-na?"

Katy's English isn't as random anymore, but it sometimes lacks the inflection of a fluent speaker.  She also sometimes uses Spanish grammar when she speaks English.  For example, she told me one time to put something down by saying, "down this."  Another time she told me, "I have three years old."  One time when I asked her where Papi was, she told me, "is working."  She also frequently responds, "I!" when I ask who wants to do something.  If you know Spanish, you will recognize that all of these are examples of Katy translating literally and applying Spanish grammar to English.

During a recent trip to visit family, we spent two days with Gigi and Pops.  At their house, Katy now uses mostly English.  As we were driving to Grandma and Papo's house, where Spanish is spoken, Katy told me, "I speak English at Gigi's house but I speak Spanish at Papo's house."  How amazing that at only three years old she already understands the difference between the two languages and when to use which one.