Being Bilingual and a Warning About Lead

There are a lot of things that are different about living in Phoenix compared to the Twin Cities.  I’ve mentioned the weather, but another thing that should not be surprising is the bilingual nature of the city.  Actually for the most part I feel like I do not hear or see people speaking Spanish more here than in the Twin Cities, but there are some other big differences.

Spanish is everywhere you look here.  I might not hear it more, but a lot of the board books that I get for Savannah at the library are bilingual.

This book is a perfect example.  We have checked this book out (too) many times over the years.  Don’t get me wrong, it is very cute, but the plot is not very compelling and so reading it about 100 times has just about done it for me.  Never in Minnesota did I see it like this, but all the copies here have the Spanish words right under the English ones.  That allows Ben and I to change it up a little.  Sometimes we read it to Savannah in English and sometimes in Spanish.  This is especially helpful since the last word of the book is, “More!”  Savannah thinks that means “read it again!” so we always read that page in Spanish.  ”Mos Altos!” doesn’t create the same reaction as “more” does and we can safely put the book down.  Actually at this point, the book is pretty likely to “fall” out of our library bag before we can check out.  Oops.

Another things that I noticed this week is that every form I had to fill out at Savannah’s cardiology appointment was bilingual.  A lot of job postings say that bilingual is preferred.  In fact, when I applied to a job last week it asked me five different times on the application if I was legally allowed to work in the United States.  And lest you think I mean over a multiple page application, no I mean there were 10 questions you had to answer before you could fill out the application.  Every other question on that form asked in a slightly different way if you were legally allowed to work here.  By the last questions I wanted to shout, “Yes!  Yes!  You already asked me that!!!!”

Now moms (or dads, but I don’t think there are a lot of dads who read here) another thing that is different here is the questionnaire about possible lead poisoning that we got from our pediatrician.  It was exactly like the form I have always seen in Minnesota except the last question was, “Has your child consumed any Mexican candy.”  I was able to answer no, but if they are asking that then I assume that there is a danger that eating Mexican candy can introduce lead into your child’s system.  That was scary to think about.  Mexican candy is everywhere here!  However, I know that I saw it in the ethnic food aisle at Cub Foods in Minnesota too.  So maybe stay away from the Mexican candy.

In response to all this Spanish around us, I decided to teach Micah some Spanish.  He now knows his colors.  I am not sure that he can have a gripping conversation with someone based on that, but if you ask him to pass you the rojo marker, he’ll know just what you need.