How to do OPOL when 1 parent speaks 2 different but similar (minority) languages?

M

matthew0101

New member
Hi,

Looking for advice here as I can’t find much about our specific situation online.

Wife’s native language is English whereas mine is Spanish. We live in an English speaking country, so Spanish would the minority language in our case.
Our son is about 10 months old and we’ve pretty much been done OPOL from the very beginning… she only speaks English to him and I (almost) only speak Spanish to him. Fortunately, she has a pretty good understanding of Spanish so I can keep speaking Spanish to him when we’re all together, in most situations.

My dilemma is that, aside from Spanish, I’ve got another mother tongue, Galician, which is a regional language spoken in northwestern Spain… and it happens to be the primary/main language my whole family speaks, on a daily basis. This language carries emotional importance to me and I’d love to pass it to my son too, even if it doesn’t have the same usefulness as Spanish.

Problem is this language is different but quite similar at times to Spanish (some sort of in between Spanish and Portuguese)…. so the wife is afraid that it will confuse the baby, as in he won’t “detect” that they’re 2 different languages, mix it up with Spanish etc

I’m not the main caregiver so I have a limited time per day to “work” in language acquisition…
Given all the above, what would be the best way to introduce this second minority language? Perhaps time and place? Or should I just focus on Spanish and introduce Galician at a later stage?

Thank you.
 
@matthew0101 I’m wondering, how was it for you growing up speaking Galician and Spanish, were they both spoken at home? Try to draw from your own experiences and use those tactics when speaking to your son. Were there people in your life who spoke both of those languages to you interchangeably? If yes, chances are you can do the same.

I would also consider switching to Galician if that’s your mother tongue and your family’s main language. Too often people think about the usefulness factor when they choose which language to speak to their child and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I personally think that the usefulness or value of a language comes from who you can have access to in that language (family & friends) and the emotional connection you can have with those people. What you pass onto your son is not only language, it’s who you are, your culture and a way of thinking. To me the emotionally important language always trumps useful, more widely spoken language for those reasons. However, if you grew up with two mother tongues and didn’t get confused, neither will your son.

Wishing you the best of luck 🙂
 
@barsomo Hi!So growing in Galicia my family would only speak to me in Galician and it would just be Galician with all friends and acquaintances. Schooling was a a mix of Galician and Spanish (they call it "Castellano / Castilian" over there) but, overall, it's pretty much Galician when we travel over there.

But thing is, Spanish is everywhere in Spain to everybody grows up fully bilingual (in regions with more than 1 official language). In the case of Galicia, Galician is mostly spoken in villages whereas the cities are mainly Spanish speaking. Also, it's pretty normal to have bilingual conversations.

I guess I haven't considered speaking only Galician to him because we don't live in Spain, so he won't "automatically" get Spanish from the environment, which is what would happen if we lived in Galicia. For us it's also important that he learns Spanish at native level, as that's the national-level language, and we don't want to limit him.

Thank you!
 
@matthew0101 I don't have any feedback to you. I'm a very new parent and am here to learn how to support my child's language development. I did want to share a personal anecdote.

I was born and raised in an English speaking country. My parent left Galicia for a Latin American country as a child, life happened and he never learned Galego. Growing up Spanish became my heritage accent, but my grandparents would speak Galego around me, and our extended family would of course speak it when we visited. (Several of my relatives from my grandparent's generations weren't strong Castellano speakers)

As an adult, I don't speak Galego, but even with the limited exposure I can understand it (written and verbal). All that is to say that your trips and time with family, reading books, watching movies, etc might be enough to give him a good foundation. As for mixing them up, he will figure it out.
 
@daftendirekt Thanks for sharing your experience! Galicia is a land of emigration so many people would have similar experiences (I do have ancestors that emigrated to Latin America as well, during probably similar times).

We really want him to be fully bilingual in Spanish but the thought that he won't speak Galician is a frightening one for me, as that's an essential part of who I am.

Good luck in your parenting journey!
 
@matthew0101 I think your kiddo will figure it out whatever you choose. My 2 year old speaks Portuguese and home, Latin American Spanish at school, and English is our community language -- he sometimes mixes Spanish and Portuguese (and even English) when he can't find the right thing, but mostly he knows that there are different words for different people and places. (Insert joke that he is accidentally just speaking Galicia )

Personally I'd emphasize the Galician since Castellano is easier to pick up later... but he will probably sort things out on his own whatever you choose.
 
@betho Hi!,

It's definitely reassuring to hear that he's learning both Spanish and Portuguese while avoiding mix-up, even when they're similar languages.

Problem with Galician, as in comparison to Portuguese... it's that the language it's way more Spanish influenced, due to several historical reasons (it was banned for a long time, Spanish being the solely official language etc). This results in people sometimes speaking a weird mix of Spanish and Galician, which can add to the confusion.
 
@matthew0101 Your kid won't be confused. My parents and grandparents constantly mix around Mandarin and Hokkien (a Chinese dialect) so there's similarities as there are differences. Certain words I'd think is Mandarin until I'm older but generally, I can tell the difference. And it's not like mixing is a bad thing. Code switching is very normal.

As you're not the primary caregiver, read this for tips to provide more exposure.

https://bilingualmonkeys.com/how-many-hours-per-week-is-your-child-exposed-to-the-minority-language/

Then just alternate between Spanish and Galician every week.

And here's a question. Is Galician more important or Spanish? Is it easy to pick up Spanish if you know Galician?

If Galician is more important due to family connections and it's not hard to pick up Spanish later on, then maybe focus on Galician first and then you can introduce Spanish later. That's another option.
 
@aldredian Hi,

Thanks for sharing your experience!Galician is definitely more important for me on an emotional level, as that's the language my Mum, Dad, grandparents etc raised me with. But's Spanish is also my language, as that's the national language, and i'm a native speaker of both.

Thing is, my family speaks Galician as a primary language, as they live in Galician speaking areas, but everybody is fully bilingual Galician/Spanish and they understand it perfectly... so it's not that he would be unable to communicate with them by speaking only Spanish. It's just that Galician is an important part of our identity and it would be a shame if he doesn't speak it.

Thanks for the advice!
 
@anonymousguy44 He's gonna start nursery soon. That nursery is, at least partially, bilingual English/Spanish so he'll get some exposure then. Main concern is that that input is enough, as our aim is that he's fully bilingual (as in native proficiency) in at least English and Spanish (and Galician too if possible).

For the missus, the baby being fully bilingual in Spanish is way more important than Galician (Spanish being so important worldwide), but obviously she sympathizes with me and understands my concerns about Galician
 
@matthew0101 Just an anecdote/observation: I am in Finland where both Finnish and Swedish are official languages. How much Swedish is spoken around you is strongly dependent on where you are located, in my area there’s quite a lot, but still, Finnish is a majority. My kiddo (Finnish/Swedish) has friends in daycare who are Swedish/Norwegian, and they have no problems differentiating between the two even though their dad is pretty much the only one in their daily lives who speaks Norwegian to them. Kids are able to distinguish between languages, if you are consistent, I believe is the key.

(The daycare is in Finnish and Swedish and Norwegian are mutually intelligible, even I can understand quite a lot of Norwegian even though I’m a native Finnish speaker who learnt Swedish in school, so quite similar situation to Spanish/Galego, it seems? 🤔)
 
@petra888 Hi,

Thanks for your reply!

The situation definitely sounds similar, so it's reassuring the kids have no problem with that. I guess the only thing is that it's difficult to know how similar those languages are, as in comparison to Galician/Portuguese/Catalan/etc to Spanish.

Something that my wife is concerned about is that, according to her... to her (English) ears Galician and Spanish sound quite similar in terms of sounds and intonation (Portuguese phonetics evolved differently) so, she's concerned that the baby can't grasp that it's 2 separate languages due to phonetics etc.

e..g English and Spanish are totally different in every sense, so it's absolutely clearcut those languages are different, there can't be no mistake
 
@matthew0101 Ok I have only a teeny tiny grasp of few courses of Spanish way back then in the Jurassic age that was my school days, but I dug up some comparative videos on YouTube and it seems to me that yes, your wife has a point in that Castilian and Galego sound very similar. When they point out the differences in grammar and vocabulary I can see them, but listening to people speak they sound way more similar than Spanish vs Portuguese (Portuguese is way softer and has lots of nasal sounds, Spanish is harder and more clipped, and actually is pronounced bit like Finnish, I remember our teacher telling us that it was usually easier for Finns to learn to pronounce Spanish than English, especially the R is the same). How much that would impede your goal of teaching your son both? IDK, no idea, sorry 🤔🤷‍♀️

For context: Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are similar and somewhat mutually intelligible, but not easily. Here is a video if you are interested in comparing. For reference, I’m fluent in Swedish, I can somewhat understand spoken (inland) Norwegian, written with lots of effort, when it comes to Danish it’s the other way around, written is closer to Swedish but nobody can understand Danish (here is a clip of Andre Wickström, a Finnish-Swedish comedian ie native Swedish speaker joking about how the Danes are impossible to understand, it’s in Swedish but you don’t need to understand Swedish apart from the first minute or so, all you need to know that a native Swedish speaker is trying to ask directions to a hotel from Danes 😁)

not even sure about the Danish themselves, it sounds a bit like (Scanian) Swedish spoken with a hot potato in your mouth and lots of extra phlegm.
 
@matthew0101 how often do you visit your family in Galicia? and how often do they visit you?
one solution would be that your relatives adress him in Galician. i presume you usually use that language when you're with them.
your son will learn the language on those visits :)
otherwise you can probably still talk galician or sing dôngs in galician with him.
 
@frustratedhusband Hi,

We were visiting quite often but that's changing soon, as the wife is going back to work, and the baby is starting nursery. As for them visiting, they can't travel often due to several factors, e.g. dependants, poor health etc

And yeah, we pretty much speak in Galician when we're together, and my family speaks in Galician to the baby indeed... but sometimes our conversations happen in Spanish, as my missus is very competent (in Spanish) but tends to get lost with Galician, so people tend to switch when she's around (the Galician dialect we speak can be a bit tricky to understand at times). She's English, for context

Thanks!
 
@matthew0101 then, videocalls with galician family for baby (with you!) some songs and dibujos animados in galician :)
your son will understand very fast that you speak english spanish and galician, that mum and the community speak english (but that mum understands spanish) and that los abuelos (don't know how you call them in galician, in aragon it would be los yayos, in catalunya els avis) speak mostly galician but also speak spanish.

he will manage, don't worry
 
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