Luego! Luego!

Okay, a cute story. As I have been learning Spanish I have been teaching my daughter as well. She was close to 2 years old when I began and is now 2 1/2. I began by learning commands or small phrases I said in English and then started saying them to her in Spanish.

For instance:

Put that in the trash.  -  Punlo en la basura.
It is time to change your diaper. - Es tiempo de cambiar su pañal.
Let's go upstairs - Vamos a subir las escaleras.

Now, granted, this was the blind leading the blind in language learning and I am sure at times (if not all the time) I was probably not saying things the way that native Spanish speakers say them, but those phrases came up when I used my translating apps.

My daughter, started following my commands and seemed to begin to understand some of the things I would say to her from the beginning, but she never answered or would say things back to me in Spanish. For example, if I said, "zapato," she would often reply with, "shoe." I began to get frustrated as this had been going on for months.

However, a couple of weeks ago, when she was leaving our bedroom to go find her mother in one of the other rooms, she said bye to me like the dozens of times she does throughout the day. I had been saying adios to her for months with no luck. So this time, I said, "Hasta luego!" -- A slight pause occurred then I heard, "Luego." She then turned her head back to me and waved.

I was stunned and excited at the same time!

When she coupled the wave with the word, luego, it seemed she grasped the concept immediately. But I said it again to make sure. "Hasta Luego."

"Luego," was her response.

That was her first word in Spanish and I could not stop grinning. That night, my wife told me that she was proud of me. She said she had been noticing how much I had been trying to work with her and she was glad that I stuck it out. That made me feel good.

So for the past couple of weeks, my daughter and I have traded goodbyes and luegos. She even said it to both of her grandmothers (with a little urging from me, of course).

I can see now that her learning Spanish is going to happen.

Why?

Porque because! - (Shout out to Bill Santiago!)

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Hay que tratar, para ganar. - Me

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Bakari Akil is a Professor of Communication, blogs for Psychology Today and has authored many books on Communication and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This is his experience learning Spanish.