Hi, My name is Tracey and I'm originally from the UK. I live in Toluca with my Mexican husband and two children, 6 and 4 years old and I'm looking for other English-speaking families with young children in and around Toluca in order to get together occasionally and speak English. Although my kids understand English 100%, they refuse/find it difficult to speak it... Thanks. Tracey
Looking for English-speaking families in and around Toluca
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Welcome, Tracey. I hope the forum helps you to find others for your English fix. As for the children, just keep speaking English to them. I assume that your husband speaks Spanish to them and that they are immersed in Spanish at school and with their friends. If they want something from you, you could make a game of it and insist that they use English to ask for it. Being fully bilingual will be a great advantage for them and I hope you can find some other English speaking children for them to play with on a regular basis.
Speaking English is not enough you must force them to answer back in English or they will not speak English.
I have a Peruvian friend who lives in Portland and has 5 children. With the first 3 she only spoke Spanish to them but allowed them to answer in English, she found out later that none of them could speak Spanish. They learned Spanish at school and speak it with an American accent.
With the two young ones she spoke to them in Spanish and forced them to answer back in Spanish and they learned English with the father and at school they are both perfectly bilingual.
You are right to look for other children who could play with them in English if you want them to be
The passive and active form of language are two separate exercises and both must be used. The passive vocabulary is always larger for anyone including in your mother tongue but if it is not used on a regular basis it gets lost with time.
Good luck in finding other English speaking children.
Thanks
Thanks to both of you for your advice. I try to speak most of the time to them in English but my poor brain now thinks more in Spanish than English as I don't know any native English speakers here. I will definitely have to make more effort to force them to answer me in English. Hopefully there are some other English-speaking children out there too...
Thanks to both of you for your advice. I try to speak most of the time to them in English but my poor brain now thinks more in Spanish than English as I don't know any native English speakers here. I will definitely have to make more effort to force them to answer me in English. Hopefully there are some other English-speaking children out there too...
Though they sometimes come slowly, I just had another thought: Here, we have TeleCable and some of the cartoon channels have the SAP (Secondary Audio Programming) feature, which allows you to switch the programming from Spanish to English. That feature is also available on Discovery, History and a few other channels.
We have Sky here which also has the English/Spanish option for most channels so they watch 99% of TV in English - my 6 year old daughter even complains if the TV is in Spanish which I guess is a good start but kids will be kids and they just won't speak it! A couple of years ago we moved to Canada for about 18 months and my daughter went to a preschool and started speaking some English so it's obviously related to speaking the language of your friends in order to fit in whereas she knows mummy understands Spanish so why make an effort!!! In fact she makes more effort with her "English" teacher at school than with me! Thanks for all your advice.
You are right , it is so tough continuing speaking a language when it is not spoken around you. This is how I lost the German I knew and this is how my grandmother whose first language was Basque lost the ability to speak it after many years of not speaking it. She continud understanding it but would answer back in French.
My Zapotec friends who live in Ajijic have children who understand Zapotec but do not speak it, they keep saying that after a summer in Oaxaca they will speak it but the 11 year old will not learn how to speak it correctly anymore unless they sit down and teach it to him.
May be some vacations around an area in Mexico where many people speak English will help.
I met a little French girl in a store here in AJijic who was blown away when she heard me speak French to her. She asked me where I had learned French not realizing that they were other people in the world who spoke French other than her family.
When all the friends speak Spanish the kids want to fit in and speak Spanish so it is a tough problem if they do not speak English before they go to school.
Yes, I'm still in Toluca/Metepec. Send me a message via expatforum and let me know if you want to meet up some time for a chat.
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Hi, I am glad someone is in the same situation as I will be soon, I am moving to Toluca in 6 weeks and I want my daughter keeps learning her English, she is just learning to talk but she understands everything in English, so I wish I could meet you guys and see how everything is working for all of you.
lane:thanks
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Hi Traceyp;
I will be moving to Toluca soon and I am wondering if you have found a community of English speakers yet. I would like to know if the English situation is going good or not, I have a baby that is learning to talk and I am afraid she is going to learn how to speak only Spanish and she will forget her English, even she doesn't talk yet, she understands everything in English! I hope everything is doing well and hopefully I can meet you there, I will be moving in 6 weeks.
lane:
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I lived in Guatemala for 20 years and now for about a month in Queretaro. My two children were born in Guatemala. At home I only speak Spanish to my wife and English to our two sons (14 and 11). They both are 100% bilingual with no trace of accent when speaking either language. I have spoken to them 100% in English since their birth and my wife has spoken 100% spanish. When they were children they only heard my english when I was home from the office. Key to their learning English in my home was DirecTV. They watched all of their shows in English Cartoon Network was a Godsend. They started school at age 4 pre-kinder in a bilingual school were classes in the morning were in Spanish and in the afternoon in English.Hi Traceyp;
I will be moving to Toluca soon and I am wondering if you have found a community of English speakers yet. I would like to know if the English situation is going good or not, I have a baby that is learning to talk and I am afraid she is going to learn how to speak only Spanish and she will forget her English, even she doesn't talk yet, she understands everything in English! I hope everything is doing well and hopefully I can meet you there, I will be moving in 6 weeks.
Being disciplined and speaking only English is important when you speak directly to your daughter. My wife's family used to make comments and get upset, of course it was because they did not know what I was saying, but I refused to buckle. Even though my wife understands English and can speak to my parents, I met her in Guatemala, started speaking spanish to her and I am really only comfortable that way with her... Just make sure you daughter is exposed to music, television, and her parents in English!!! My children only had one parent who spoke English and they are fine, they even prefer now to read in English than spanish.
GOOD LUCK!!!
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Hi, Thank you for your advice, I will put it in practice as soon as I move over there, I think I will be like you I will be talking to my baby in English all the time, she is starting to talk so I think it will be easy for her to understand both languages.
Regards,
Regards,
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Hello Tracey.
My name is Nils Pfeiffer my wife (Mexican) and I live in Toluca and it would also be great to meet up some time to meet other people who speak English. I am a German/American. I have been trying to find other english speaking people living in the Toluca and Metepec area to get together.
I hope to be in touch.
Regards
Nils
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Hi Tracey! My name is Megan. I just moved to Toluca about a month ago with my Mexican husband. We don't have kids yet but love them. I'd love to get together some time for coffee or lunch and chat. I'm not completely fluent in Spanish yet so to have some English speaking friends would be wonderful! If you're interested just let me know!
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Hey guys,
I have moved to Toluca since a couple of months ago, and I am trying to find English-speaking families that I can hang out with, if you are still in Toluca or Metepec, would you mind to send me a private message with a way to keep in touch with you and join the club.
Thanks,
Carmen
I have moved to Toluca since a couple of months ago, and I am trying to find English-speaking families that I can hang out with, if you are still in Toluca or Metepec, would you mind to send me a private message with a way to keep in touch with you and join the club.
Thanks,
Carmen
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Meg-Gonzales,
I tried what you said about the gmail account and it didn't work... :-(
I tried what you said about the gmail account and it didn't work... :-(
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Ryan Carmen,
Hmmm. I wonder why it didn't work. I've made some changes. Check it out again!
Megan
Hmmm. I wonder why it didn't work. I've made some changes. Check it out again!
Megan
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