Niña de 6 años: Karen, ¿cuando eras pequeña veías Bob Esponja?
[Karen, when you were little, did you watch SpongeBob?]
Yo: Yes...
Niña: Pero no entiendes español...
[But you don't understand Spanish...]**
Yo: But SpongeBob is originally in English.
Niña: ¿Bob Esponja también habla inglés? ¡Hala!
[SpongeBob speaks English, too? Whoa!]
You should have seen her face! She was absolutely blown away that Sponge Bob is bilingual!
**In case you're wondering, I'm supposed to pretend that I don't know Spanish so the kids theoretically speak English more. As you can see from this conversation, I just respond in English to what kids say in Spanish. They're too young to connect the dots and realize that I obviously understand all of the Spanish they are speaking if I can respond to it!
The same happens to me1 I teach infantil and very few have caught onto the fact that I'm bilingual. One little girl told her mom, Miss cat had to study a lot of English for a long time! She knows so many words! Ah, kids.
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