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Once we decided to adopt from Guatemala, we made the decision to learn Spanish so we could better communicate with our daughter and everyone we would encounter on our homecoming trip. We had every intention of purchasing a big-name program and learning the language accordingly. We both had grandiose plans of “wowing” our friends and family, our daughter’s foster mom, and everyone we encountered in Guatemala.
Do you see where this is going?
Enter December 2007, while my husband frantically packed for Beauty’s homecoming trip and I paced around equally as frantic. So go ahead and ask the infamous question: how much Spanish did he (or I, for that matter) have under his belt before hopping a plane to Guatemala? The answer is probably more than obvious: we both knew the bare basics and nothing more. Sure, we had done a bit of “brushing up”–we both took Spanish in high school so it wasn’t entirely foreign, but we definitely weren’t fluent by any means. I could minimally communicate in Spanish, I knew a few songs, and he knew less than I did. He arrived at Guatemala in the middle of the night, at an airport, and was picked up by someone (arranged by our agency) who spoke absolutely no English. As he rode silently in the car in the dead of the night in a foreign country, my husband–who was not worried for his safety by any means, but still would’ve preferred to have some idea as to what was going on, where they were going, who he should ask for at the hotel, etc.–said he couldn’t stop thinking, “If only I knew at least a little Spanish…” If only.
The good news is that he made it through his trip with his very limited use of Spanish, but when we look back at our adoption process, we do have a regrets about having never learned our daughter’s native language (although we still plan to!). (Let it be noted that Spanish is the official language of Guatemala, but by no means the only language spoken; however, Beauty’s birth mom speaks Spanish exclusively, as did her foster mom.) This begs the question: is it vital to know your child’s native language prior to welcoming him or her to your family?
I’m torn on the “right” answer, if there is one. While I don’t think it’s necessary to learn Spanish to speak to your Guatemalan son or daughter, I am certainly one for preserving, maintaining, and celebrating as much of your child’s birth country and culture as humanly possible. I’m curious to know how many adoptive parents of Guatemalan children went into the process with some fluency in the language. If so, do you feel it helped you communicate with your child? Did it make you feel more at ease during your Guatemala visit or homecoming trip? If you didn’t learn the language prior to your child’s adoption, do you wish you did? As always, please feel free to comment or email me at courtneyo@adoptionblogs.com. Thanks!
[...] my previous Guatemala blog, I wrote about the question of whether to learn Spanish (or your child’s native language) [...]