It is not often that I get to chat with a Latina author that was born and raised in Uruguay. Multilingual Andrea Olatunji has been teaching Spanish and English as a second language for over two decades. She is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese and conversational German. Andrea is a true believer that exposing children to the native language instills a love for one’s culture. In her case, her son is being raised with two languages and several cultures: Uruguayan, American, African American, and Creole, since they live in the beautiful city of New Orleans.
Music is a big part of Andrea’s family’s life and they get to honor each culture by nurturing the love for its music. Andrea is the author of two bilingual children’s books under her Fauna Nativa umbrella: Omar el jaguar in Spanish and bilingual edition, and Guillo el Armadillo in Spanish.
I invite you to watch our IGTV!
Here are Andrea’s tips for raising bilingual children:
- Foster the curiosity for language and culture
- Connect with language and culture through– music, family, food.
- Exposure to books – in all the target languages
- Natural exposure- projects, nature walks, fun activities
- Find opportunities for language exposure-
Gracias, Andrea!
Learn more about Andrea on Instagram @andreaolatunji
