Languages At Home

Something everyone always asks my sister and I is what language do we speak at home?

I've pretty much spent the whole summer with my friend Nina who lives on the east coast. She and her older brother moved from Japan when she was around two or three because her mom remarried an American man, Mr.D (short for DuPont). At her home there is always a combination of Japanese and English being thrown around.

My mom attempted to learn German on several occasions. It's really horrible, when she tries to pronounce the words they come out with a spanish accent. So, she generally just sticks to teaching Spanish.

When Sergio first moved to America, we made a really big effort to speak only English in the house. But after he became fluent in it, he and my mom spoke Spanish a lot. It's one of her life's passions I guess you could say. She's probably a really good teacher because she is so enthusiastic about it. Julia and I know basic Spanish but that's about it.

When we were little my dad spoke a lot of German to us, and we visited my dads parents in Germany almost every summer and sometimes during winter break too. So we almost always speak German when we are around my dad.

BUT

Above all we speak English the most!

My dad thinks it's rude to speak German around non-German speaking people. Since mom can't speak German, we usually stick to English. Which kind of sucks because everyone (including Sergio) can speak German.