[Al-Khwarizmi]

It's good to also talk about failures, so let me tell a failure story. I intended to do this the other way round: I'm a native Spanish speaker with good command of English (officially CEFR C2 level which is the highest recognized in Europe) and I intended to always speak to my son in English so that he could be bilingual (or trilingual, as we also have an additional regional language here).

It was an utter failure. Soon after he was born, I discovered that even though in theory my English skills are good in theory, speaking to him in English would impose an emotional distance. It wouldn't be as natural to express love and affection in English, I felt it would be a barrier between us and I really wanted to be close to my baby, so I gave up.

Then, as the kid grew, and as a plan B, I learned that some parents used the strategy of using English in a specific situation (a given room of the house, time of the day, etc.). I first used it in the kitchen, but then my parents (my mother doesn't speak English) moved to live with us because circumstances, so it became very awkward and I stopped. Then I decided to use it in playgrounds instead. But as my son learned to talk and express himself better, he started to get angry. He would say "¡En castellano! ¡En castellano!" ("In Spanish! In Spanish!"). I tried to convince him, but he is very stubborn, so I mostly gave up because otherwise he was always angry with me in the playground.

So now (he is 4 years old) I just try to tell him things about English sometimes, read some stories in English to him (but not too many because he gets angry and demands "en castellano"), and things like that. I hope he will still learn English, like I did, but the bilinguality plan failed.

Big respect and kudos to those who manage to keep it up!

[prismatix]

Thanks for sharing your perspective! I was in a similar boat with wanting to speak in the desired language, but also not being close with my child. Now, I just read books in other languages and say phrases to them occasionally to prime their brain to the sounds and ease learning in the future (if they do choose).

In college I remember hearing many stories from bilingual children whose parents spoke exclusively one language at home while the child spoke English at school, etc. Anecdotally, I recall many of these people saying they were less likely to open up to their parents (or, parent, if it was only one exclusively speaking the language). Many cited it was because they didn't feel as comfortable in the second language but didn't bother to even try because they knew their parents wouldn't budge on speaking English.

OP, YMMV and your daughter is only 2 so I'm sure it's fine for now, but it's also important to consider that as she grows into a teenager she may come to resent Spanish. As that happens you might want to allow her to ease off and speak to you in whatever she feels most comfortable with, for the sake of your own relationship. And remember: no matter what the outcome, you're already doing amazing work by preparing her brain to explore languages on her own in the future!

[infinitezest]

This is a totally aside but as someone attempting to learn Spanish as an adult I was curious about the translation from "castellano" to "spanish" (rather than using "espanol"). I had assumed that it referred to the Catalan language but based on some searches it sounds like maybe it _can_ refer to a particular dialect of Spanish but can also just refer to the Spanish language in general. Do i have that right? Language is fascinating!

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Originally it meant the specific dialect of Castilla, a region of Spain, but nowadays the term is used to refer to the Spanish language in general. Unless you are talking about history, "castellano" and "español" are synonyms and people understand them interchangeably and use one or the other depending on where they are from. Here is a map:

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Español_de_América#/media/Arch...

I am from Galicia, that red corner in northwestern Spain, so "castellano" is the most common term here.

The division within Spain makes sense, by the way: regions that have strong official regional languages say "castellano", because of course Galician, Catalan, etc. are also Spanish languages. So when you speak two languages, both with their origin in Spain, it makes less sense to call one of them español (Spanish). Note however that this doesn't mean that choosing to say one or the other is a political statement at all (or at least, the overwhelming majority of people wouldn't consider it so), things just evolved that way.

As to why some Latin American countries ended up saying "español" and others "castellano", I have no idea, to be honest.

[evertedsphere]

castellano (etymologically) is the equivalent of the English word Castilian, which can refer to the variety of Spanish spoken in central / northern Spain. Catalan is a distinct Romance language.

As for the use of castellano for Spanish-in-general see e.g. https://spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/913/is-there-a-d...

[ascar]

I'm curious where you are living while trying this and what language you speak with your spouse.

I'm German and have a foreign spouse living in Germany. I speak English with my spouse, work mostly in English and spend most of my free time using English. For neither of us English is the native language though.

I guess it's a dramatically different experience if you try to teach your child a language that's not used in the household and not used in the country. E.g. me speaking German with my child in Germany, while we use English as the common language, should be a lot easier than my spouse trying to teach a language to our child that's not spoken in the country.

This is all theoretical for me as kids are still a few years away, but a question I have been wondering about in a long time.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

I live in Spain. I use English a lot at work (maybe 50% of my communication at work is in English) but not with my wife, and it's not used in the country. I suppose it's an important factor, indeed.