My friend's son knows she doesn't speak Farsi so will only use it with his father and Iranian relatives. At first he'd hear Farsi but answer in English. The he started answering in Farsi--but only with people he knows speak it.

Both of these stages are absolutely typical of native bilingual language acquisition -- but absolutely weird and frustrating for parents who want to make sure the kids get to practice with both sets of skills.

(What's a little sadder is the cases where the parent gives up during the hear-Farsi-speak-English phase on the assumption that the kid just isn't picking up the other language. S/he is, but the ability to code-switch smoothly is a separate stage.)

(Also, kid has the makings of a wiseass.)

She'd look at the Gringo side of the family like we were nuts, when we tried to get her to speak Spanish to us.

Maybe it was your accent.

It probably was, but she wouldn't even speak Spanish in front of us at her (Spanish) father's urging.

She could take the F-Market vintage street car line down Market Street until she's at 4th. That's about where the Virgin Megastore is. Cody's Books is around the corner and it's a huge bookstore with an excellent children's section. If she wants to continue into the Tourista Zone she could then walk over to Union Square which has a Disney Store, and also a Tin Tin store.

But I'd recommend walking down 4th Street from Market to the Metreon. Unfortunately the Metreon doesn't have the Where the Wild Things are play space anymore. But it does have the cool toy store Things From Another World (second floor) and a huge cool video game arcade. The Metreon is part of Yerba Buena Gardens which is a large arts space with lots of kids stuff. There's a kids museum (Zeum - I don't recommend it though), which is right next to a big out door play area, an indoor skating rink and a bowling alley.

Thanks, Hec! I relayed your suggestions. She thanks you by proxy.

Hec, that's terrific. Thank you. I'll pass it on.

Heh. Sorry! I called her.

Years ago I had a boss who along with his wife was raising their kids to be bilingual. He would only speak Spanish to his kids and his wife would only speak English. His son understood Spanish but refused to speak it to anyone. (I think he was around six at the time). His daughter (who I think was around eight) would speak Spanish to any adult who wanted her to, because she loved the attention.

Well, I LJed her, which means she'll have it in writing. So there.

Farsi was my first language. When we moved to America, I shut up for a while and started speaking English. My Farsi only came out around my Persian grandma. My parents never kept up the bilingual.

35? It's 26 here!

Last week -- I swear it was in the 70s/80s.

It's 39 here. Yesterday's high was *79*. And I have a porcupine in my throat.

My Farsi only came out around my Persian grandma.

Grandma Fati is visiting from Iran this summer. She hasn't seen her granddaughter yet, so it's going to be fun. Ethan's baby sister is just starting to speak it, too--she's 18 months.

What I think is totally hilarious is that Ethan uses the English word "vagina" but uses a Farsi word for "penis." I wonder if it would be the other way around if his mother was Persian and his dad American.

It's 39 here. Yesterday's high was *79*. And I have a porcupine in my throat.

We hit 82 yesterday. We were all in shorts. Feh. Snow tomorrow. SNOW! We all have colds and I'm dying from congestion and sore throat. Owen has the same thing.

I could blame mine on toxic airplane air but our playdate on Friday had a runny nose so it could be the fault of Typhoid Audrey.