Colombian Culture, Colombia Adoption and Raising Colombian Kids

When I got engaged to Colombian Daddy, one thing that my parents -- born and raised in the good old USA -- wanted to know was why he had 2 last names and which one was his 'real' last name. Actually, in the Hispanic world, there is no such thing as a LAST name. In fact, if you were to directly translate the word LAST NAME into Spanish it would be ÚLTIMO NOMBRE. This phrase would be fairly meaningless in Spanish, and it is possible that you would even get the middle name of the person in response to a petition for a LAST NAME. The word used in Spanish in order to ask for what we call a LAST NAME is APELLIDO, which is more closely translated as SURNAME. In Colombia, as well as all Hispanic countries, most people will have 2 APELLIDOS -- called the FIRST and SECOND APELLIDOS. The person's first surname (apellido) is their father's first surname and the second surname (apellido) is the mother's first surname, what we call "the mother's maiden name in the...

Within Colombia's Ministry of Culture is a small program known as the Program for the Protection of Ethnolinguistic Diversity. This week the program announced a tragic loss of Colombian cultural heritage -- the loss of 5 native Colombian languages, with 19 on the critically endangered list. For its size, Colombian boasts an inordinate number of spoken languages, with 65 native languages and 2 creole languages -- this is not to mention Spanish. More than half of those spoken languages are spoken by fewer than 1,000 people. The most threatened language is that of TINIGUA, which as of the date of the report was spoken by only 1 indigenous person living in the department of Meta. The NONUYA language, from the area of Puerto Santander in the department of Amazonas, is next with only 3 speakers. Followed by CARIJONA spoken by 30 people who live in the department of Vaupés. Among the other 19 languages on their way to extinction is the creole of San Basilio de Palenque, a language ...

On Monday, I mentioned that my husband does not like to HACER EL OSO. I was surprised when I got a few e-mails asking me what this means. Here is a brief lesson in Colombian Spanish. HACER EL OSO -- literally means to MAKE THE BEAR. So right away you can guess that this is an idiomatic expression that means something else. In Colombia, it means to EMBARRASS YOURSELF or to MAKE YOURSELF LOOK RIDICULOUS. You can often hear people saying things like, "Uy! Que Oso!" This means, "Wow! You just really embarrassed yourself." clip art: http://classroomclipart.com/cgi-bin/kids/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Clipart/Animals/Bear_Clipart&image=bear_179.jpg&img=12&tt =

Amigo, Compadre , Compañero , Compinche , Colega , and Amigote are just a few words that can be used to say FRIEND in Spanish. However in Colombia, and more specifically in Antioquia and its capital Medellín , the word of choice is PARCE ( PAHR say). A PARCE is a good or close friend and the word is consistently used by most PAISAS (people from Antioquia and the surrounding coffee growing region) when referring to their friends. This is why is should come as no shock that JUANES ( a.k.a. Juan Esteban Aristizabal ), the world famous Colombian rocker and PAISA , might name his latest album P.A.R.C.E. A great stocking stuffer idea and a must for any Colombia lover's collection. http://www.amazon.com/P-R-C-Juanes/dp/B0047H7Q9U The album hit stores last week, and now that I have had a chance to hear it, I'd like to offer my opinion. First, it is a bit of a departure from his more upbeat rockero music of the past, and to me seems a little U2 ish . Though this is no...

I know many families that are trying to improve their Spanish. Some are learning in preparation for meeting their child/children, others are struggling now that their kids are at home, and still others are hoping to teach their kids more of a language that has slipped or is slipping away. I have found a resource to help you with your Intermediate Skills. NEWS IN SLOW SPANISH Obviously, this is a listening comprehension program, but there is also a grammar and vocabulary aspect. Just so you know, the accent is most definitely from SPAIN, yet it is very SLOW and easy to follow. There are several expressions that they use that are not what you would use in Colombia. Still, I think that the practice could be helpful for many of you. Also, be aware there is a subscription charge if you want the whole service, however , you can listen to the news for free and access some of their content for free also. You may want to learn more at their website: http://www.newsinslowspanish.com/

My husband jokes that being Colombian means that you could never do the Atkins diet because rather than an all protein diet, you are pretty much on the all carbohydrate diet. Not a lunch is served without rice, not a breakfast without arepa and/or bread. But, not the milquetoast sliced bread we buy here -- NOOOOOO ! It has to be the fresh, baked within the last hour kind. In fact, though sliced bread is available at stores like Carrefour or Carrulla . DO NOT BUY IT! It is dry and gross. Only good for toast, and not many people have toasters. Back to the bread. In smaller cities, there are PANADERÍAS everywhere. In Bogotá they are harder to find. But, they smell delicious!!! Your nose can literally lead you to them. You can know that you have found a good one if there are lots of people buying bread there. In some cases, the bread is behind glass containers and you tell the workers which kind you want. In others, like the one pictured here, you grab a basket or tray, a pair of tongs,...

We consider it a great blessing that our boys have cousins to play with in Colombia. Part of the joy of the trip is seeing them together. One sadness has been seeing my boys feeling afraid to speak Spanish. They understand what their cousins are saying -- for the most part -- but they just get so frustrated trying to speak back to them. It makes me sad. I had always hoped that the boys would be fluent in both languages. It makes me feel more determined to speak to them in Spanish. I hope that we will be able to find other Spanish speakers in our community so that they can have people to practice with.

One of the first things that parents here in the US teach their toddlers is to say "Sorry!" We use the word all the time. A child spills his milk, "Sorry!" He bumps into someone, "Sorry!" He forgets to do something, "Sorry!" He rips a toy out of the hands of another, "Sorry!" Where would be be if after time out we didn't have an apology of "I'm Sorry!" We love Sorry so much, that there is even a game for kids called, what else, "SORRY!" Sorry, here in the Northern part of the New World, means to feel "sorrowful". It comes from a German word that meant "distressed or full of sorrow". When we say Sorry!, we are saying "Hey I feel really bad about what I just did !" It gives us personal accountability. Well, here is a cultural newsflash! Colombians do not tend to express their apology in the same way. This is not to mean that they are rude, on the contrary, they share your pain. T...

I have been practicing Colombian greetings with my two boys -- in preparation for our trip this summer. In doing so, I have remembered some very important expressions that you need to know if you plan on spending any time in Colombia. The first is a universal, and uniquely Colombian greeting: ¿ Qué hubo ? pronounced like one word ( kyouboe ) While it literally means, "What happened?", the more frequent meaning is "How are you?" When I first went to Colombia, I recall wanted to tell people what I had been up to when asked this question. I would always respond with things like, "We went to see such and such today." After a few weeks, my husband looked at me one day and said, "You talk too much." What? I wasn't sure how to take this. Then, he said, "When someone says, '¿ Qué hubo ?' You just say, ' Bién .'" Okay, I could do that. So, now I will pass on this tip to you. If someone says ¿ Qué Hubo ? -- just ...

When I first met my husband, I had just spent 8 months living in rural Mexico. I had a fabulous campesino Mexican accent. When we were married (4 months later), we went to Colombia to spend several months with his family. The first thing I noticed was that my in-laws sounded nothing like my friends in Mexico. While the grammar was the same, they used all kinds of new vocabulary and pronunciation. For example, my sandia (watermelon) became patilla in Colombia. My mantequilla de cachuate (peanut butter) became mantequilla de maní. And my cachucha (baseball hat) became a gorra . Just to name a few of the differences. Not only did various vocabulary words change, but the pronunciation of the same vocabulary word on occasion also changed. Like take the word for beans, Mexicans say fri JO les (stress on the JO). My in-laws in Boyacá say FRI jo les (stress on the FRI). Another big difference that I noticed was that there was a huge variation in accents -- depending on the region of ...

One thing I have noticed while following adoptive family blogs is that many adopted children have birthdays while the family is in process in Colombia, or within a few months of returning home. A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a family anticipating the adoption of their child who will likely celebrate her birthday while the family is in Colombia. The question, "Are there any Colombian birthday traditions we should be aware of?" This question brought about an interesting conversation between my husband and me. Later, I spoke with other family members and even sent out a request to my online Colombian friends. Unfortunately, there was painfully little that anyone could come up with. So, here are the things that I did learn. Besides the Quinceañera, the only other birthday that seems to be special is the 1st birthday. Many families, but by no means all families, will spring for a big shindig on their child's first birthday. They will invite loads of people and feed...

The word in Spanish for UFO is OVNI (ojeto volador no identificado). It might have been useful to know this word if you had been in Bogotá on November 20th. On that day, Bogotanos were out on the streets to observe what has yet to be explained. Apparently, 3 bright circles were flying over the city. The objects did not appear to move or fly. They did not look like airplanes. No government official has yet explained what the objects might have been, but they captured the interest of the city for several hours. People on the street guessed that the object could have been just about anything, from alien spacecraft to Chavez's secret weapons, from weather ballons to US spy craft. Check out the You tube videos at this site. What do you think? http://www.realufos.net/2009/11/ovnis-over-bogota-colombia-nov-20-2009.html There are also pictures here: http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/bogota/articulo173493-ovnis-bogota It might interest you to know that OVNIs have been seen flyi...

While the rest of Colombia calls people from Huila -- Huilenses , they call themselves Opitos . Just one of the many unique things about the people and culture of Huila . The capital of Huila is Neiva which is located about 5 hours from Bogotá . Neiva is located on the Magdalena river and is hot and humid -- with average daily temperatures ranging from 89-102 degrees. The city itself was founded on May 24, 1612, by Diego de Ospina y Medinilla , and the department of Huila was established in 1905, with Neiva as its capital. What to see in Neiva ? Parque Santander -- This is the main park in the center of town. Surrounding it are government and religious buildings. You can see the Templo Colonial or the modern catherdral . There are also shops and restaurants. Parque Isla -- This park is located on the shores of the Magdalena. You can take the Teleférico or go in a canoe to get there. It is a nature preserve where you can see birds, ride horses, fish, or kaya...

While I am working with a Speech Therapist and a member of a University's ESL Faculty to put together more suggestions that can help with the teaching of ESL to your newly adopted child, I wanted to make 1 suggestion now that can help you as you read aloud to your child. Here is the technique: (TO MY EUROPEAN READERS: I found research that shows Dutch speaking children have similar issues to those learning ESL. We might assume, therefore, that children learning other languages -- particualrly those very different from Spanish -- Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, Finnish, Danish, German, etc. would suffer from similar language proficiency problems. So, you can try using this technique as well). Step #1: Read the title and look at the pictures. Label pictures that your child cannot name. The talk about or predict what the story is about. Step #2: Read 1 page or 1 paragraph, then stop and ask a question about the content. Once child answers, model the correct answer in a short ...

If you have a child adopted at 5, 6, or older, it is clear that they will need English as a Second Language classes at school, and most districts will help you. But what about the adopted toddler or preschooler? Most people -- and teachers -- assume that the child will adequately learn English by the time the child goes to school simply because they only hear English spoken in the home. Ah, but is that true?!?! I became aware that my own son (now 4 1/2) may be having difficulty with English acquisition when I started teaching him to read. He was/is doing great sounding out words. We started with the words that end in AT -- CAT, RAT, BAT, etc. He would look at the picture of a RAT, sound out R-A-T and then say MOUSE. I would correct him and say RAT. Then, finally one day he said, "Mommy, what is a rat?" OOPS! In addition to simple vocabulary issues, there are other issues that he has with language, so I reached back to my Master's degree in TESOL and started researching ab...

A few weeks ago, in honor of Mother's Day, I told the story of La Pola -- Policarpa Salavarietta -- o ne of the Heroines of Colombian Independence . If you didn't read it, or you would like to brush up, click here: http://raisingcolombiankids.blogspot.com/2009/05/policarpa-salavarrieta-rios.html I wanted to make you aware of a children's book -- in Spanish -- that tells the story of Policarpa . It is available in both audio CD and as an audiobook . If you adopted pre schoolers , or are working to keep your child bilingual, or if you are one of our readers from Colombia, Argentina or Spain -- you will probably want to add this to your collection. Audio CD in Spanish: http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/entry/offers/partnerPromotions.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes& productID =BK_ YOYO _000179 Book in Spanish: http://www.amazon.com/POLICARPA-SALAVARRIETA-Spanish-VARIOUS/dp/9588318033/ref=sr_1_48?ie=UTF8&s=books& qid =1243092881& sr =1-48

Are you working on keeping your child bilingual? Do you also want you child to learn about Colombia and its history? A great option would be the Spanish language children's audiobook: EL GRITO DE INDEPENDENCIA . The book tells the story of the Florero (Flower Vase) that started an uprising that eventually brought Independence to Colombia. The Audio CD is available here: http://www.amazon.com/GRITO-INDEPENDENCIA-Historias-Abuelo-Spanish/dp/9588318017/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246881093&sr=1-2 The downloadable audio is available here: http://kids.audible.com/adkd/site/k/products/ProductDetail.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0418742289.1243525598@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccladehgekdihhcefecekjdffidfml.0&productID=BK_YOYO_000180

Many an adoptive parent has been set back a few days by the observance of one of the many Colombian holidays. Here is a list of the official national holidays . This list was esablished by Law #53 in December of 1983. On these days, courts close, ICBF offices are closed, and many tourist attractions also close. So, if you will be in Colombia on these days, be forewarned. 1st January New Year's Day 6th January* Epiphany 19th March* St. Joseph's Day 1st May Labour Day 29th June* St. Peter & St. Paul 20th July National Independence Day 7th August Battle of Boyacá 15th August* Assumption Day 12th October* Columbus Day 1st November* All Saints Day 11th November* Independence of Cartagena City 8th December Immaculate Conception 25th December Christmas Day Maundy Thursday and Good Friday May or June* Corpus Christi June* (third Friday) Sacred Heart of Jesus Ascension Day* 40 days after Easter * When these holidays do not fall on a Monday, they will be observed the...

There is a little saying that most Colombian children learn. It is called El Mico Tití . Most Colombian kids know this saying and often adults will call their children a " Mico " or a " Mico Tití " as a term of endearment. I could not possibly count the times my husband has called our boys MICOS or MICOS TITÍ . Now, here is your chance to learn the saying too: El mico tití (The Cotton Top Tamarin ) paso por aquí , (passed by here,) comiendo maní . (eating peanuts.) A todos les dio (He gave some to everyone) menos a mi. (except me.) In reality, there are several different kinds of Mico Titís . First, is the Mico Tití Melena , known in English as the Cotton Top Tamarin ( Saguinus oedipus ). Next, is the Mico Tití Gris, known in English as the White-footed Tamarin ( Saguinus leucopus ). In fact, in Central and South America there are 21 different kinds of Micos Tití or Tamarins of the Saguinus Genus. But, the Mico Tití Melena and Gris ...

Here is a funny Colombian expression -- related to the theme of frogs that I have been working on this week. NO SEA SAPO. I include it because it is quaint, amusing, and makes no sense outside of Colombia. But, it can be heard in Colombian Telenovelas or on the street. However, it is kind of low class, so you may not want to throw it out there with your lawyer or the judge. The literal meaning of SAPO in Spanish is TOAD. But, in Colombia a SAPO can also be a person that is a tattletale, someone who sticks his nose in other people's business, or someone who answers a question when the question wasn't directed at him. The expression is "No Sea Sapo." -- don't be a tattletale or busybody. It can be useful with children -- but note it is strong. Since it can be rude to call someone a sapo, Colombians have created several humorous expressions that imply that someone is a sapo without having to come right out and actually say that they are a sapo. For ins...