Heather Hodges

The last leg of my journey this summer was to stop in Madrid, Spain to meet Cecilia’s husband and four children. This was by far the most pleasant portion of my trip. I was treated like an honored guest and shown the true meaning of Polish hospitality. That’s right, I was in Spain experiencing Polish hospitality! Cecilia’s husband, Bogus, is from Poland. Polish hospitality is legendary and is rivaled only by Spanish hospitality. I have never eaten such good food, slept so well, or made to feel like such a special member of the family.

After Mass on Sunday we took a drive to the walled city of Avila. This was outside the cathedral at a lovely cafe sitting down for lunch. Starting with me and going clockwise are: Teresa, Bogus holding Julian, Cecilia, Daniel, and Adrian. We arrived in Avila around noon, but had to wait until 2:00 for the restaurants to open for lunch. My American stomach was growling, but the wait was well worth it. By the time I left Spain I had adjusted to the 2-3 o’clock lunches and the 9-11pm suppers.

The walls around Avila are 1,000 years old, but they are still in pristine condition. We took a little tourist trolley ride around the city. During the ride I held Cecilia’s daughter, Teresa, on my lap. She is a gorgeous little blond girl. She and I became quite attached to each other during my stay. During the 40 minute ride Cecilia and I unknowingly became the butt of one of the funniest practical jokes I’ve ever been a part of. Bogus, her husband pulled a fast one on us, that I will only repeat in person if you catch me at the right moment.

Teresa and me at her grandparent’s house in the country outside of Madrid.

Cecilia’s parents at their home in Collado. These two special people have not changed in twenty years. They took prodigious care of me, I could not have felt more at ease in their home. I even got to take a real Spanish siesta while visiting them. It was one of the best naps I’ve ever had.

Every evening while I was staying with Cecilia’s family I got to read a bedtime story to the children. This was a very special thing for all of us. In a previous post, I mentioned that I am fascinated by how languages are learned. An interesting fact about these four children is that they all speak THREE languages. Cecilia only speaks to the children in English, their father speaks to them in Polish, and they live in Spain and of course speak Spanish. What an accomplishment.

On my last night in Spain, Cecilia threw a dinner party for me so that I could visit with her brother, Gonzalo and his wife, and her sister, Teresa and her husband. We had all gone to the American School of Paris together and had a fun evening.

Our meal at the dinner party…paella. In Spain you can order paella out, just like we order pizza out here. Yummmmy.

At the Garnett Bilingual Preschool (www.garnettbilingualpreschool.com) we enroll students who speak either Spanish or English and put them in a classroom together with a bilingual teacher. Our school is a dual immersion program in which the kids hear not only 50% of each language every day but rather 100% of both. When a teacher gives an instruction in one language, she will then repeat what she just said in the other language. For example a teacher might say, “Let’s all sit down to hear a story.” She would then say in Spanish “Vamos a sentarnos para leer un cuento. ”

It has been an incredible experience for my own son, Elijah, who is in his second year of preschool. He has soaked up the language adventure and made friends across cultural and language lines. He and his best friends alternate between Spanish and English while they play. They will interject a Spanish word in an English sentence if they are not sure of the English word and never skip a beat. At home he sings in Spanish and will make comments like, “Look, the grass is verde and the perro is blanco.”

I have spoken with some concerned parents who are worried that teaching their child a second language will confuse them. Research absolutely refutes this. Children who learn a second (or third or fourth) language in early childhood will read sooner than monolingual children, score higher on standardized tests (ACT/SAT), are creative problem solvers, perform better in math and logic, and are more culturally sensitive. Some parents are concerned that the vocabulary of their bilingual child is delayed. In reality if you will count and add the words a bilingual child knows in each language it will usually be greater than a monolingual child’s.

Language acquisition is a fascinating subject and one that requires more study and conversation. I have the opportunity this summer to go to Europe to visit a childhood friend who speaks at least 5 languages. She is from Spain and we met in Paris in 1986. After university she moved to Germany where she met and married a Polish man. She now has 4 children. On a daily basis the children hear four languages in the home, English, Spanish, Polish, and German. Fortunately for me, all of her children are fluent in English.