Being Bilingual

My first post will be a response to this video. Or, rather, some musings inspired by the video. Go ahead and take a few minutes to watch the video.

Done? Okay.

I'm a bilingual teacher in the state of Texas. I teach students in both Spanish and English. One half of the day is done in Spanish (the subjects taught are reading, writing and social studies). The other half of the day is taught in English (the subjects taught are math and science). All of which is fine and worthwhile and challenging.

One of my main goals as a bilingual teacher is to stress the importance of being bilingual. Often, students will complain to me and say, "how come we have to read in Spanish? why can't we read in English?"

Like the video above talks about, and how this New York Times article describes, there are definite cognitive reasons to why being bilingual is a good thing. We are able to juggle more things in our head, we are more adept to switching in between trains/modes of thought, etc. As I was researching this post, a lot of articles came up as to how being bilingual made you smarter.

It's hard to explain to a classroom of 4th graders the cognitive improvements that they'll be able to enjoy just because they can speak another language. It's hard for them to fathom that they may be able to prevent Alzheimer's when they get older. It's just not something that they're thinking about, or that's all that applicable to them.

What I always end up telling them is that in the real world, outside of schools, of parents, of older brothers and sisters, of jobs, being bilingual is a key asset. It helps you. I tell them how being bilingual helped me in every job I've ever had. I tell them how it's helped me professionally. I tell them how I'm able to be their teacher because I know Spanish. I tell how much it's changed my life.

But that feels remote, distant; what does that matter to 4th graders?

I feel like my mission this year has been to inspire my students to care about being bilingual. I want them to be proud of it, to take ownership of it, to know why it's special. I want them to understand how lucky they are.

So when I answer them why they have to read in Spanish, I tell them: "Because some day someone is going to ask you if you know another language besides English, and I want you to smile and feel proud and say yes. I can read, speak and write in Spanish."