2 books on foreign language and culture: 1 curious 1 conversational

We’re teaching our kids a 2^nd language.  I’ll speak as much Spanish as I know, mix in bits of the other languages I speak, put in some Curious George en Espanol and they’re super happy to listen and learn.    We received two books that help children understand things outside of their own culture.  Bosley Sees the World is an English/Spanish book about a bear that travels the world.  If You Were Me and Lived in…..Norway is an introductory book about what life is like for Norwegian children.  Both books are good at teaching about different cultures; one just does it from a tourist perspective while the other is more education based.

The Adventures of Bosley Bear: Bosley Sees The World is a dual language book.  It has the same text in English and Spanish with big, bright cartoon style pictures of Bosley exploring the forest.  The vocabulary is good for ages 3 and up and the length is perfect for a bedtime story-even if you read it in both languages.

On each page there are 2-3 words highlighted in green in both languages.  This is a chance for readers to word for word identify what their reading.  Most of the green highlighted words are also in a vocabulary page on the final page of the book.

This is a great stepping stone to buying books in Spanish.  You can follow along and gain the confidence to read to your children in a second language.  Children are little language sponges who spend the first 2 years of life listening.  They won’t notice if you pronounce a word just a bit off.  It’s the tone, practice and exposure to a second or third language at an early age that makes the big difference.

If You Were Me and Lived In Norway by Carole Roman is a children’s book that teaches kids about what it’s like in Norway.  The pictures have a very folksy feel to them and the text is very good for a bedtime story for ages 3 and up.

There is very little Norwegian vocabulary in the book; it’s more of a tour guide for curious non Norwegian folk.  The book does have a nice easy vibe that might make kids want to learn more about the country and traveling.  For the record, if you’re traveling in Norway and want to tell someone that they’re attractive (in a slang way), it’s tu ehr yuvlah fin, don’t ask me how I know that.

Both books are nice and trying to accomplish different things.  We find ourselves reading Bosley more, just because of the language component that we’re teaching our children.