fionamw

We have an ongoing debate about moving back to the UK/not/etc., and one of the dealbreakers is always that our 11/12 year old's Spanish should be retained and continued at the age-appropriate level if we were to go back. The problem is finding out HOW. Has anyone any experience of schools with native Spanish-type language on the curriculum? I know he'd probably pass GCSE Spanish tomorrow judging from test questions on the web, so anywhere with just GCSE wouldn't be sufficient.
Or maybe we have to look to conversational groups or private tutors, or even (don't laugh) employing someone round the house who's a native Spanish speaker..............
Bearing in mind this is just a thinking process at the moment, there's no rush to decide - but I have nightmares that he would lose his fluency. So all and any suggestions, pointers, contacts., etc gratefully received.

me me

from my experience of Spanish and Italians in the UK, I feel that if a good level of fluency has been reached, even at a younger age than your son, as long as they don't go out of their way to forget, they won't lose much fluency.

OH left Spain when he was about 7, of course he heard Spanish at home through the years, and with you , there is no reason why you all can't speak Spanish at home too.

Lenox

Perhaps there are Spanish international schools in the UK. A friend has a son who goes to one in Rome. Check with the Cervantes Institute.

fionamw

That last point would be a good one if we were all native Spanish speakers but my OH understands a lot and speaks barely any.. and mine is sufficiently poor grammatically that our son tells me off only occasionally for fear of becoming a nag!

There are various schools attempting to sell themselves as Spanish but in practice don't seem able to provide Lengua/cono or anything better than GCSE - with the exception of one in W London which is Spanish-govnt supported but only available to Spanish nationals (besides being 90 minutes from our home base in the UK!) ... so no, I haven't found any takers on that one thusfar.

steviedeluxe

I think this could be a real worry. It's a concern of many an English teacher here in Madrid that they start to lose vocabulary, forget the word or expression in English for certain circumstances. So it must be even easier to lose Spanish if moving to the UK, bearing in mind that all advertising, MTV etc will be in English.
Is there yet a call for a bilingual Spanish-English school in the UK, the way there are so many in Spain? There must be a demand surely?

missile

My BiL has a foreign wife. Her daughter is 14. She maintains and improves her spoken language proficiency through conversation with other native speakers but her ability to read the language is diminishing.

chopera

There is a Spanish school in London somewhere, but you might have to be Spanish to get into it. Brighton allegedly has the UK's first bi-lingual English-Spanish school, but I think it only goes up to primary.

Perhaps you can pay for someone to come round and spend a few hours each week speaking Spanish with him? A student maybe? We have a Chinese student who comes round and plays with our 3 year old in Chinese in the hope that he might learn some of the language.

To be honest I wouldn't worry about it too much - your son will already have fluency and the correct pronunciation so even though his Spanish will fall behind, he'll be able to pick it up easily enough if necessary.

Domino

Think that is a good point.
I recently met a guy who speaks reasonable English, his sentence construction is "the English way".
I have had 3 conversations with him over house technical matters and his concern is that I am the only English speaker he has had contact with in over a year. He knows he is "losing it" but he now has to resort to translation via computer to remind himself.
What makes matters worse for those who do have the English is they worry about it when they enter into a conversation, become embarrassed and actually pull away from entering into conversations because of it.
This is a bit like it is for us with our Spanish, we are frightened of getting it wrong and making fools of ourselves.

Fiona, I hope you can find a way of resolving this problem as it is good for your son to have the additional language(s) for the future, it is a big brave world out there and there are almost as many speaking Spanish as English.

An expat I know is sending her daughter to Uni to learn Chinese as "the language of the future", but unless she manages to find ways of using it often she will lose it - but then she is looking at becoming an interpreter so it may not happen.

agoreira

Agree, and it's very much a case of "use it or lose it", that's inevitable. If he has Spanish friends, he could use social media (most kids seem to) to chat to them, use skype to keep in touch, Spanish TV is available on the internet. The help around the house is possible, but not sure what they'd be doing whilst your son was in school, could work out quite expensive. Depending on where you'd settle, there are lots of Spanish living in UK that would probably be glad of some extra money, but again proper private lessons don't come cheap. I can understand you wanting him to retain his Spanish, but you could spend a lot of money ensuring he does, only to find he might never take advantage of his Spanish. He's probably deeply into all things Spainish at the moment, but give him a year or two back in UK, that could all change. Son of a friend of ours in Spain was offered a couple of university places in UK but was only interested in Spain, would never come back to UK. He's studying music, has done some time in Granada, currently in Córdoba and has just told me he'll be coming to UK later this year to study at The Royal College of Music!

julie22

Many years ago (before Spain joined the EU), the Spanish Government paid an amount of money to set up groups in the UK for Spanish Nationals to mix with other Spanish Nationals and keep the Spanish traditions.

Most of the attendees at that time were within mixed marriages (Spanish and English) and the group spoke predominantely all the time in Spanish for the children to learn/maintain their Spanish.

The group we were involved in organised a Fiesta for the 3 kings, and a Paella in the countryside in the summer, and included other activities for teenagers and adults.

It may be that the funding for this type of groups has long been withdrawn, but it may be worth contacting the Spanish Embassy in the UK to see if these groups still exist.

I remember, one of the donations from Spain to our group was a portrait of King Juan Carlos, that members of the group could volunteer to have 'in pride of place' in their living room for a year. OH always used to say to me 'dont you dare volunteer to have that picture for a year!!!'

jackytoo

Whilst another language is useful I wouldn't spend too much time or money on it as a priority. Most with language degrees drift off into teaching/translating. My Daughter did French and Spanish to A'level and didn't take any further. She has a top job but they weren't interested in languages. The only advantage is if there are two equal candidates and one speaks a language.

one problem for your child is that when/if doing GCSE in the UK he will be very bored. Perhaps if you find a school with Spanish on the curriculum they may allow him to join an A level class. Although about half of that will concentrate on Spanish history, literature etc which may be too adult for him.

cricketman

You are right in that careers that require languages are very badly paid

The biggest advantage to being fluent in Spanish is being able to experience and live in Spanish culture.

It's a strange circumstance that the OP's son may find himself in. Being brought up in Spain but being British. I suggest you explore what that means and what losing the Spanish part of him (if there is one) may mean.

If your son doesnt care less, then to be honest, he will lose his Spanish language anyway.

If he is upset at the thought of no longer living in Spain and no longer doing Spanish things then it is important that you find a way for him to enjoy that side of his life still when he lives in the UK

Language is a gateway to explore and experience a certain culture. By itself, learning a language (or having language skills) is pointless

jackytoo

Agree

chopera

If you are based in the UK but speak fluent Spanish then there is always the chance of finding what many consider to be the "holy grail" of getting a job in the UK and then being transfered to Spain, while maintaining a relatively high salary. Once you have the foot in the door with an international company, there is usually a lot of scope for moving between countries, which also looks good on the CV.

agoreira

Agree, it's good to have, but only if it's going to be used, otherwise it could be an expensive waste of money. More importantly, the boy has got to want to do it, there's no point in insisting he speaks Spanish purely because they might one day go back to Spain. I'm intrigued why Spain is not doing it for them now but they are talking about "maybe going back" sometime in the future.