I’ve been at home for 14 months, and the result is that I forgot how to speak Spanish. Of course, I exaggerate, I didn’t forget it completely but speaking and understanding is no longer effortless.
When you don’t speak a language for a while and exist outside of the linguistic environment, the language retreats to a passive state. It’s there but you have to dig it out. So I will be digging it out with the help of massive doses of Univision. Also, I need to read more in Spanish- although it’s not like I ever stopped – and retell what I’ve been reading and watching aloud. Klara finds Spanish strange but she’s putting up with it.
Clarissa's Blog 
My 17-year old daughter is bilingual English/Spanish (totally from immersion, because 97% of her class is Hispanic. It’s crazy.) She started speaking it fluently in first grade and none of her teachers would believe it – she was accused of “trying” to speak Spanish – until parents came in and started conversing with her. She doesn’t use it as much in the summer months because she isn’t at school with her friends, and she finds herself having a harder time too.
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