Brawk! Hola!
By Michelle Martin
Maybe I shouldn’t be concerned that my son is learning Spanish from a parrot.
Maybe I should just applaud his interest in a second language.
But somehow, it’s a little disconcerting to wake up to a loud squawking sound followed by “Hola!” or “Buenos dias!”
Most people with young children and a television in their homes probably know the parrot Frank is imitating: Paco on the PBS Kids series “Maya and Miguel.”
The cartoon series plays twice a day on Channel 11 (WTTW), and features the 10-year-old Santos twins, Maya and Miguel, along with their parents, their abuela and their pet parrot, who, like the rest of the family, is bilingual.
Don’t get me wrong—I like the show. It features happy, healthy, helpful kids who are members of a loving extended family, which puts it ahead of a lot of entertainment.
It also gives a positive portrayal of Latino culture (their mom is Puerto Rican, their dad Mexican) and introduces Spanish words as the kids switch back and forth.
But the funny thing is, this isn’t Frank’s first exposure to Spanish. His grandparents, who live downstairs, come from El Salvador, and many of the children who attend school with Frank and Caroline come from homes where Spanish is spoken.
While Frank and Caroline speak English almost exclusively, it’s not because they’ve never heard another language. My in-laws speak Spanish to one another and sometimes to my husband, and even occasionally to me. My Spanish is rudimentary, but good enough that I can almost always follow what they’re talking about.
Some Spanish and Spanglish words are regular parts of our vocabulary—Frank doesn’t have toy cars; he has “carritos”—but still, it took a TV show for Frank to show a lot of interest in Spanish.
Something about TV makes everything seem more cool, bigger and brighter than life, in a way that can make real life seem like a pale imitation. That’s why for a couple of generations now, parents have been trying to get children to turn off the tube and go out and play on beautiful days, and why the American Academy of Pediatrics consistently warns against too much “screen time” for kids, and advocates none at all for babies and toddlers under 2.
When the cool factor is applied to advertising, it’s that much harder for kids to resist.
That’s one reason we don’t subscribe to cable or satellite television. For the most part, our children are limited to PBS shows, which aren’t violent and have commercials limited to the sponsors at the beginning and end of the shows.
On our Saturday forays into Disney (broadcast on ABC) and Nickelodeon (broadcast on CBS) shows, Frank and Caroline seem to pay more attention to the commercials than to the shows themselves, with “Can I have that?” becoming a near constant refrain.
But then life intervenes and we find something better to do: run errands, go to the park, plant flowers in the yard. Chances are, as we head out the door, Frank will come out with “Brawk, adios!”
Maybe it’s not about the TV. Maybe it’s just about being 4 and being silly.
Martin is a staff writer for The Catholic New World. She can be reached at [email protected].
