As my family of four began our descent to Puerto Rico, I made the announcement. There would be no more English for the duration of our trip.
My kids, 9 and 11, who had been learning Spanish in immersion school since preschool, would get an opportunity to put it to good use. I thought this trip would be the perfect crash course for them before school started back up in the fall.
When we landed in Puerto Rico and headed to our hotel, I realized I was going to have my work cut out. The driver spoke English, as did the workers at the front desk, restaurant waiters, and other staff. Turns out, they were just as bilingual as I was.
Our no-English rule didn’t last long
At first, the kids were happy to skip the intense Spanish practice I had envisioned, but I still wanted us to try. Then, before I knew it, I was catching myself slipping into English, too.
My husband doesn’t speak Spanish, and with Duolingo as his only teacher, we often defaulted to English so he could follow the conversation. Before long, we were all speaking our own version of Spanglish, mixing languages to get our point across. My no-English rule was harder to enforce than I’d expected.
Even I had a lot to learn
I grew up speaking Spanish in the US, but it isn’t my dominant language. Our kids being able to speak another language is important to my husband and me, so we decided to enroll them in Spanish immersion schools, starting in preschool.
The Spanish language varies across countries and regions, but hearing Puerto Rican Spanish reminded me of how different the language can be. Some familiar words sounded unfamiliar, and I kept having to ask locals to describe the word they were using so I could connect it to the one I knew from Mexico, where my mother is from.
The cadence and speed of conversations were different too, which made me listen more closely to what was being said. Instead of being the one helping my family navigate the language, I was the one asking questions and learning at the same time.
I wanted my kids to see that Spanish isn’t the same everywhere
On the surface, I wanted my kids to practice their Spanish, become more confident speakers, and immerse themselves in another Latin culture, but it became more than that.
As a Mexican Spanish-speaker and a parent, there was something meaningful about recognizing familiar words, trying to understand unfamiliar ones, and explaining how people could express the same idea differently. In their schools, they have Spanish teachers from different countries — including Spain, Mexico, Colombia, and Peru — all with their own different dialects, words, and intonation.
Rather than correcting my kids or testing their vocabulary, we ended up all figuring out how to communicate in a place where the Spanish we knew wasn’t necessarily the Spanish we heard.
I came home with a different idea of language learning
When we landed in Puerto Rico, I had only one rule: to practice our Spanish before school started back up. Instead, we all slipped into English, mixed languages, and learned to navigate unfamiliar words.
I realized that fluency isn’t the same as knowing every word, and learning doesn’t stop when the lesson ends or the school bell rings. Sometimes it means asking questions, listening, and discovering a little more about the world along the way.
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