How do you get an 11 yearold to speek properly?

Question

How do I get my lil half brother to speak properly in both English and Spanish? I am half-American and half Mexican. In addition, he is full blood Mexican but was born up here. Now for some reason that boy dose not understand that he needs t o speak properly in both languages. like a few min ago he got on the computer and said he was boring, then I told him one "your board, not boring" and all he says is " don’t care" and thus I try and explain to him why he needs to speak properly and he starts this dumb crap where he just stays quiet and doesn’t say a word so I then get angry the threw him out. Anyhow, he has been like this for years and nether neither my father nor I can get him to speak right. the school says he is getting speech therapy but obviously not and his damn mother wont help at all (she’s the damn type of mother than will take him out of school for 2 months during the winter rather than going down to Mexico in the summer so he doesn’t miss any school)

Answer 1

Relax- he's got two languages bouncing in his head, and that's a LOT of words to keep straight, not to mention the differences in sentence structure, verb tenses, and all the other stuff that goes with putting those words together.

Make sure YOU speak correctly around him, and encourage him to read (maybe even read with him, alternating pages or paragraphs) in both English and Spanish, and eventually he'll get the hang of how sentences should sound in either language.

Answer 2

I spoke only Spanish until i was 3, then i realized that there were no other Spanish speakers in my community so I stopped speaking Spanish entirely. Growing up, my parents would try to force us to speak Spanish (my dad's Peruvian) by telling us that if we wanted something from them we would HAVE to ask them in Spanish --so we would just do without. Or they would tell us, "Today we are going to speak only Spanish in this house!" and so we just wouldn't speak the whole day. This was when we were around your brother's age so i understand his rebellion. Eventually we realized the importance of speaking Spanish and we're all pretty fluent, but it sounds like your brother is going through more than just being rebellious if he has to go to speech therapy. My advice, I guess, is just don't come down so hard.

What about having him watch some shows he likes in Spanish?
I used to watch talk shows in Spanish to hear the flow of speech since they weren't actors reciting lines but people actually speaking.
What about watching American shows and moviesthat are dubbed in Spanish?
Peace!

Answer 3

First of all YOU need to SPELL correctly.

Speak, Bored,

The ONLY way to get this child to SPEAK properly is TIME, PATIENCE and REPETITION.

Tough love, time outs and such might work well here too. Take classes in parenting. ESL - English as a Second Language. ETC will help him. Motivation is key.

Answer 4

lol. my little cousin has that problem too! I think we all went through that phase. Just correct him when he says something wrong. It'll stick eventually. I speak spanish at home and speak english with my friends... he'll get used to it. Being billingual is good : ) He's at that age that he doesn't care... lol.. and i'm sure he says " I don't care" because he thinks you're making fun of him and he doesn't like it... tell him " i'm not making fun of you but you need to say you're BORED not boring" and explain to him why it's not boring and it's bored. Just don't correct him.. let him know why. Past tense present tense.. ING for present... but yea let him know : ) it's good that he has someone like you to help him out some kids go through life speaking incorrectly . :P

Answer 5

Try having him read more books in English and Spanish. Newspapers or even comic books. Something he might enjoy reading so he does not get bored. It should help. If he reads it correctly he will speak it correctly.

Answer 6

somehow he is looking up to you and you are hurting him even if it is one iota for both. You are both young boys and you are too young to feel this responsible for any of his behaviors. it takes much time for him to learn. I am one half hispanic and wasn't raised with my hispanic relatives and have a very hard time learning spanish even at almost 50 years ; and my half brothers and sister that are white have not had any trouble learning Spanish what does that tell you? I give him good credit

Answer 7

First you need to take a lesson in spelling. It is BORED not board. SPEAK not speek, etc.
Just correct the child every time they say something wrong and he will eventually pick it up.

Answer 8

I would enroll him in the Sylvan learning center.
That's a shame that the mother won't help out.