Hopefully Trilingual!!

Guest Post by Helena from PinkGuayoyo

I am from Venezuela and my husband is Mexican. We live in Miami. We speak, think, and live in Spanish; so when my son was born I didn’t even think about what language we would speak to him. It was obvious that his first language would be Spanish. My Mom was able to take care of him for six months while I worked but after that we had to find a daycare or a nanny.


We were extremely lucky to find Nanana, who quickly became his Grandmother and part of our family. Her daughters adore him. He loves all of them. Nanana is from Pakistan and started speaking to our son in Urdu. As he kept on growing up most books and television programs were in English, my conversations with Nanana were in English and the little he said was in English.

When he turned two and half he started Speech Therapy which, is in English as that’s what he seemed to speak more and it went downhill from there. I started speaking in English to him. So did my husband and my sister. And yes, when we are outside and I speak to him in English I get a lot of looks. You know, the ones that ask “How come you are not speaking in Spanish to your son?” I am even embarrassed to speak in English to him in front of some of friends because I know how important it is for him to speak Spanish and all it means.

So, we have started to speak more in Spanish (my husband more than me) and in his new school his teachers are Cuban and speak to him in Spanish. We are happy that he understands all three – Nanana still speaks to him in Urdu as we’ve requested.

And so he asks for cosquillas - tickles in Spanish , for duhduh – milk in Urdu and laughs and says “Come on guys” clearly in English. We look forward to the day where he speaks all three of them clearly and fluently.


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Meet Helena:
Helena Osorio-Zavala lives in sunny Miami, Florida with her three year old son, her husband and her bulldog. She is a Broadcast Producer for a national advertising agency and is pursuing a Certificate in Creative Writing from UCLA Extension. When she is not at work or being a mom she enjoys reading, writing and traveling. She is obsessed with relationships and parenting. You can read more by Helena at pinkguayoyo.com