I decided I’m going to do some holiday-themed translations over the next couple of weeks. So for those of you who’ve been wondering what these words from the popular song by Jose Feliciano mean, here you go!

Feliz Navidad,

Prospero Año y Felicidad

[fay-LEES nah-vee-DAWD,
pros-PEAR-oh AH-nyo ee fay-lee-cee-DAWD]

Most people probably know that the first phrase of this song’s chorus means Merry Christmas, and the rest of it translates in English to wishing someone a Prosperous New Year and Happiness.

Since I’ve been a little sporadic lately, I’m going to slide back into the swing of things gently, so a simple word for today to express my happiness at being back in California:

playa

[PLY-yah]

which in English, means beach

aaaah, it’s good to be home.

P.S. Later this week I have a great guest post for you, and then next week I’ll write up a long-overdue Bilingual Chiquita Update! Chao!

In honor of the grand project I started this weekend, today’s word is:

Escribir

[es-kri-BEER]

which in English means to write.

Here’s how it’s conjugated in the present:

Yo escribo [es-KRI-bo] (I write)
Tú escribes (you write)
Él/ella/usted escribe (he/she/you write)
Nosotros escribimos (we write)
Ellos/ellas/ustedes escriben (they write)

Here’s a fun idiomatic expression related to the word escribir:

Estaba escrito.

[es-TAH-bah es-KRI-to]

which literally means It was written, but figuratively means It was fate, It was meant to be, or It was written in the stars.

Tomorrow begins a very important week in our house… it’s the Fall Classic, aka The World Series!! Now, it would have been even more important had the Dodgers made it, but nonetheless the love of the game prevails and you can be sure that we’ll be watching mucho béisbol in the next few days.

So today I wanted to share with you a fun list of baseball terminology in translation! I found this years ago on MLB’s website and have used it in almost all my classes, as most textbooks have a chapter that uses sports as a theme.

Here are a few fun words, and then feel free to the whole document: vocabulario-beisbol.

el béisbol [el BAYS-bowl]

(baseball)

el jonrón [el hone-RONE]

(home run~ one of my daughter’s favorite words!)

la entrada [la en-TRAW-dah]

(inning)

un ponche [oon PONE-chay]

(strikeout)

embasarse [em-bah-SAR-say]

(get on base)

Now if only we got ESPN Deportes so I could watch baseball with the Spanish commentary and test my baseball vocabulary!

FYI: when I give you pronunciations, those are my attempts at using familiar English sounds to explain the Spanish pronunciations; they are not the correct phonetic spellings of the word! That would be for another, more linguistic post!

Today’s word is another simple verb, this time in honor of mi marido (my husband, AKA “Moondoggie”), who spent last week in Argentina on business:

Viajar

[vee-ah-HAR]

which in English means to travel.

Here’s how it’s conjugated in the present:

Yo viajo [vee-AH-ho] (I travel)
Tú viajas (you travel)
Él/ella/usted viaja (he/she/you travels)
Nosotros viajamos (we travel)
Ellos/ellas/ustedes viajan (they travel)

Here are some related words/phrases that Moondoggie used a lot (or learned) in Argentina:

¡hola! [OH-law] (hello!)

¡chao! [chow] (‘bye!)

¿Cuánto cuesta? [KWAN-to KWES-tah] (How much does it cost?)

coca [KO-kah] (Coca-Cola)

bife [BEE-fay] / lomo [LO-mo] / carne [CAR-nay] (all refer to beef/meet/steak)

¿Qué es esto? [kay es ES-to] (What is this?)

Aqua sin gas [AW-gwah seen gas] (uncarbonated water)

¿Otra vez? [OH-traw vays] (again? as in, can you repeat that again?)

la cuenta [la KWEN-tah] (check/bill ~in a restaurant)

Today’s word is a simple one (in honor of the Chiquita):

Jugar

[hoo-GAR]

which in English means to play.

Here’s how it’s conjugated in the present:

Yo juego [HWAY-go] (I play)
Tú juegas (you play)
Él/ella/usted juega (he/she/you plays)
Nosotros jugamos (we play)
Ellos/ellas/ustedes juegan (they play)

Here are some related words/phrases:

juguetes [hoo-GET-tays] (toys)

juegos [HWAY-goes] (games)

jugar a las muñecas [moo-NYEH-kaws] (to play with dolls)

jugar a la pelota [pay-LOW-taw] (to play ball)

jugar al béisbol [BAYS-bowl] (to play baseball) ~more on this one coming soon!

This week I bring you an appropriate idiomatic expression:

Estoy a dos dedos de algo nuevo.

(a dos dedos de equals the English idiom “on the verge of”)

which in English translates to, I’m on the verge of something new!

today’s word is actually a phrase, or rather, an idiomatic expression:

Poderoso caballero es Don Dinero.

(literally: Mr. Money is a strong cowboy)

which in English translates to the idiom, Money makes the world go round! {Idioms are not supposed to be literally translated, I just thought you might want that for vocab purposes.}

I’d like to think it’s love that makes the world go round, but hey, I didn’t coin the idiom… and Moondoggie does think I’m a bit of a hippie… so anyways…

Bilingual Chiquita Update

Not a whole lot to report this week… but she’s improving gradually all the time. A couple things of note, when I say, “Dime por favor” (“Tell me thank you”), Chiquita will enthusiasticly sign “please”- this is pretty cool. She’s also started doing this cute thing with her hands where she turns them up, as if to say “Where is it?” and she does the same “sign” when I say, “¿Dónde está?” She’s also saying her own version of agua interchangeably with wa-wa, probably because they sound so similar (more on this next week).

Thoughts on Language Learning

Since I’m talking about money this week, I just wanted to briefly touch on how this topic fits with bilingualism. There are so many benefits to learning another language, some of them cognitive, social and cultural, but there are even financial benefits in this day and age to knowing another language.

I did a quick search on monster.com for jobs with the keyword bilingual and over 5,000 came up (it didn’t specify how many over 5,000 but just read >5,000), then on careerbuilder.com I did the same search and came up with 10,579 jobs. Now with the economy the way it is, that in and of itself should be enough evidence for the benefit of learning a second language, especially at a young age when it will really sink it, and achieve the most fluency.

So let’s say you learn a second language as a child (or even later in life, which while harder, is still valuable!), and you get a job that was listed as a bilingual position. Well, chances are, you’re going to be making more money, than the average monolingual employee.

For aspiring businessmen & women, an article I read by Laura Morsch of careerbuilder.com stated that 31% of executives speak two languages and 9% speak four. Morsch goes on to report cite salary.com saying that

On average, bilingual pay differentials range between 5 and 20 percent per hour more than the position’s base rate.

Can I get a “wow!”? Learning another languages can open up a lot of doors for our children, and the time and effort spent now and throughout their education teaching and/or encouraging them definitely has the potential to pay off.

today’s word is another that is fun (and pretty) to say:

mariposa

(mah-ree/tee*-POH-sah)

which in English means, butterfly!

*if you roll your “r” it sounds more like a “t” sound… if you can say “ladder” or “butter” then yes, you can roll your “r‘s”– that “dd/tt-er” part is basically a rolled (or trilled) “r!”

Bilingual Chiquita Update

This past week, I’ve started to feel more comfortable (more on that below) with speaking to Chiquita in Spanish, and my little sponge is embracing these new words and phrases like it’s nothing. I love to hear her say “oh-wah” (hola) and it’s super encouraging to see her sign eating (she puts her fingers to mouth) when I ask her, “¿Quieres comer almuerzo/desayuno?”

Chiquita is also picking up on, and seemingly understanding the meaning of common commands that I say often, like súbete (go up(stairs)), bájate (get down), and ven aquí (come here). I’m not saying she always obeys… but she seems to get what I’m saying.

Thoughts on Language Learning

Here’s my profound (wink, wink) thought for the day on this issue… the more you do it, the easier it gets. I know it sounds simple but it’s true! This is true, of course, in most things we do… practice makes perfect… and while I’m not shooting for perfection, practice also makes easier, better, smoother, etc. And despite the fact that we’re basically having a one-way conversation, it’s good for me to practice, too!

Let’s be honest here, one of my hesitations in starting this “project,” was basically that I thought I’d feel stupid. I’m not a native speaker and despite 2 degrees and teaching experience in the subject, it still doesn’t always come naturally to me to speak or respond in Spanish… and plus, I thought, she wouldn’t understand me, so then I’d really feel stupid!

But then I really thought about it. When I first started speaking to Chiquita (in English), at birth, did she understand anything I said? or respond to me? The answer is no. And at 16 months, I’m going to go out on a limb here, and guess that she still doesn’t understand everything I say in English. So why should I feel stupid speaking to her in Spanish? Eventually she’ll understand everything I say (hopefully, in both languages!), but for now, I have to remind myself that this is a learning process. She’s gradually absorbing words and associating them with their meanings, and it’s an exciting process to watch, as a linguist, and a mom!

Today’s word is possibly my favorite word in Spanish:

cacahuate

(kah-kah-WAH-tay)

(how fun is that to say?!) which in English means, peanut!
{another way to say peanut is maní}

Bilingual Chiquita Update

In just a couple of weeks, Chiquita is already reacting and responding to my Spanish. Thanks to her sign language, she understands that gracias = thank you, más = more, terminada = all done, comer = to eat, and ¿dónde está? = where is…?.She doesn’t usually try to say these words, but if I say them she’ll sign them or indicate understanding.

She also understands and attempts to say hola, mono (monkey), leche (milk), carro (car), and pelota (ball), off the top of my head.

Thoughts on Language Learning

When monolingual speakers hear about raising a child bilingually, there are some immediate doubts which rise. I recently found an article citing recent research which busts a few commons myths, such as

• Learning two languages in childhood is difficult and can result in delays in language development.
• Bilingual children have less exposure to each of their languages than monolingual children. As a result, they never master either language fully and, compared to monolingual children, they never become as proficient.
• Young bilingual children can’t keep their languages separate; they use both at the same time; they are obviously confused.
• Using both languages in the same sentence or conversation is bad. Parents can discourage and even prevent their children from doing this by making sure that each of them uses one and only one language with their child at all times. The same goes for other adults who interact with the child.

I’ve studied many of these issues in the past and was really excited to find recent research continuing to prove that these are, in fact, myths, and are not true. If you’d like the read the article by researcher & professor Fred Genessee, click HERE.