viernes, 3 de junio de 2016

American vs.British English

Today I have run into an unexpected issue regarding speaking in English to my son.


This morning I have been with some friends and I have told them that I want to talk to my child in English.
They all have encouraged me to do it and that
has given me more energy to continue with this project.
One of them is English and we have talked a bit about the way she has raised her own son and the difficulties and advantages she has found. In short, for her everything has been perfect although her son sometimes tries to speak to her in Spanish as he knows she speaks it very well too. She is a native speaker of English and talking to her son in her mother tongue has been very natural, however it is always great to see how other people raise their children and get good ideas.

Well, let's get to the point! I have asked my English friend what is the way of saying 'te acabas de hacer cacota?' to my baby. Cacota is a funny way of saying poo to a baby. She has told me to say: 'have you just done a poo?' and then I have asked her if we could say poop instead of poo. 
This is the way I have come to the dilemma 'American or British English'. 
American or British English to raise a bilingual child
There are some words that are said in a different way, there is a different pronunciation for certain words and sometimes their writing is also different. For example: centre vs. center, truck vs. lorry...
I love the British accent and in my opinion, the ways they pronounce words is easier to understand, however, I watch lots of American movies, series, youtube videos... and unavoidably I am learning new words and commonly used sentences in American.

So, here is my decision so far: I am not going to worry about this for now. I am going to use both variations, and maybe in the future I will be able to see if I am using more one or the other, and then, stick to one of them. I still have time and they are not very different after all.

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