Welcome to Cultural Connections Lab. I'm your host Dr. Kelly Forbes. We are here to talk with educational professionals around the world to impact and influence the education system as we focus on cultural connections and the education of multilingual, diverse students.
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Welcome back to another podcast episode with Cultural Connections Lab, and I am your host, Dr. Kelly Forbes. I'm excited to be with a dear friend of mine. It's been a long time since we've seen each other, so this is a great excuse to get back and to regain some insight about what's been going on in our lives.
And so I'm just so excited to introduce to all of our listeners right now, like I said, a dear friend. Her name is Daniela Pereyeda.
Daniela Pereyeda is passionate about bilingualism and education reform. She's the author of Become a Bilingual Family, the best method for raising bilingual children, even if you only speak one language, and is the past president of the Oklahoma Association for Bilingual Education.
So a big shout out to Oabe here in Oklahoma. Yeah, she also holds a family life education child development degree from the University of Central Oklahoma here in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Daniela helps parents create meaningful relationships with their children while learning Spanish. She believes teachers and families play an important role in the development of the whole child. For this reason, her goal is to create a community of bilingual families.
Bilingual family began as Daniela's dream. With the love, support, and encouragement of John, her husband, it became a reality in 2013. As they started their own family, the meaning of bilingual family evolved.
They are committed not only to raising bilingual children, but are also committed to creating a program that they would feel fortunate to send their children to. A program where children are respected as individuals and their unique gifts and skills are fostered.
A program that will become a model for education reform, and a program where families feel supported and connected.
Bilingual family, you can find them at bilingualfamily.us, is dedicated to fostering bilingualism and a love for learning in an environment that values the family as the primary teacher.
With a commitment to full Spanish immersion and a mixed age model, Bilingual Family School promotes a collaborative, growth-focused atmosphere that reflects the core belief that the family is instrumental in shaping a child's educational experience.
All of Daniela's past, present, and future endeavors are rooted in the belief that second language acquisition is all about relationships. And with that, I would like to give a big warm welcome to our friend, mentor, and great educator, Daniela Perida. Welcome!
Thank you. Thank you so much. I mean, it is such a big honor to be with you guys. I actually was thinking about this yesterday that the reason I wanted to join Oave was because of you.
Because, yes, because when we when Krashen came a long time ago before, before the time when I was president, he I went to his conference. I didn't know anything about about Oave, but I knew about Krashen.
And you were president-elect, I think. So, you know, everyone was talking and then you came on the microphone and your energy and everything. I was like, okay, I think I can join this.
Yeah, so that is so nice that you shared that. I honestly didn't know that at all. Yes. Well, wow. I think you dragged me into Oave. I think at that same conference. Your energy is like magnetic. Yeah. Yeah.
You are an humble guy. I think it was at the same conference though that you were like, I'm going to keep up to everything. And this news just so you know, of course, I have dragged him into this episode as well.
We do have our special co-host today, Dr. Jeffrey Taylor Tribble. He's the president, the CEO of our sponsor, Edgeskill. So thank you for being here. And to both of you, thank you for those kind compliments.
And I'm glad. I think that's what this is about, right? It's about trying to be excited, not trying to be, but like to show your passion, show your excitement about what we do in the field of education and most specifically, bilingual, multilingual education.
And obviously it is a big passion of mine and I am excited about it all the time. And I know that coming from a monolingual background from Tulsa, Oklahoma, I just feel like my life has been enriched in so many ways because I've been able to have this exposure.
And so I think for I'm so thankful for people like both of you, but especially to you, Daniela, because of the same way. That's so funny that you say that because I just feel this mutual respect for you and you've excited me.
And even whenever I got to tour, bilingual family before and everything. So that's really cool.
I feel the same way, Daniela. I think it was 10 years ago. We met for the first time at Multicultural Institute at UCO and was really impressed with the work that you had done, the book that you had published.
And I think you offer something very unique here in the state of Oklahoma. I don't know anybody else that does what you do.
Thank you.
I look forward to letting you explain that. But I mean, I don't know even nationally. There might be a few people that do something similar, but not many. You're one of a kind.
And I've enjoyed working with you on the board at OWABE also and excited to have you with us here today.
Well, we're definitely in great company today and all of us right here around the table, but then our listeners also. So thanks again for being here.
Absolutely. I'm excited.
Could you kind of maybe just start from the beginning a little bit about just your from childhood until kind of where you are today.
And then I do have some questions I want to ask. I'm curious about because you just have so much to offer.
And I'm really excited to be here and learn from you and with you today.
Of course. Well, we were joking before we started recording about how my bilingualism journey really started before I was born.
Yeah, my mom was really into heavy metal and she was in Columbia.
And if you met my mom, you would have no idea. But anyway, she's still to this day just like rocks out in her car.
She's an Iron Man. Oh, she's into everything. I mean, she she has a cat sticker. Is a cat still as a radio station here for you?
Yes. OK, so she has a cat sticker in her car and everything. But anyway, she's funny. It's a radio station.
Yeah, I don't know. Maybe I know both of us together. We know all genres. Yes, I believe it.
So anyway, she wanted which she was in Columbia and she wanted to learn these lyrics. Right.
But she didn't know English. And so she took this or correspondence lessons for English at the time.
Like they would send her books and tapes and then she would go every quarter and take a test.
I think she was like 13 or 14. And then when she went to college, she did study English there.
So that's where her passion started. And so then when I was about five years old, she picked Saturdays as our English day.
And you guys were you were in Columbia. We're still in Columbia. You were born in Columbia.
Yes, I was born and raised until I was 10 years old in Columbia. And so my mom just decided to pick Saturdays as our English day.
And what's interesting to me is that a lot of sort of what we know is good practice in second language acquisition is innate in humans.
If we actually allow ourselves to like connect like we were talking about this podcast, if we allow ourselves to connect and connect to like a deeper level,
we know innately like how to talk to others, how to teach a language, because we teach our babies the first language.
And so when I look back at how my mom taught me English and I'm doing air quotes, she we didn't do lessons.
We didn't sit down and this week we're going to talk about the numbers and next week we're going to do the colors.
She just did our day in English. In English. So good morning.
You know, she would ask me like, do you want orange juice or apple juice?
Well, we didn't really drink apple juice in Columbia. Like do you want orange juice or milk?
And she would show me the orange juice and the milk, which is comprehensible input is what we know.
It was low stress because it was my mom. So there's no the effective filter was, you know, removed.
And so I think it was low stress with your mom. That's not always the case with your mother, right?
That's true. That changes, changes time. No, but yeah, so I was also an only child.
So she was my only playmate and like my sister. So that I think worked to her advantage, you know, in terms of for me to acquire the languages,
because I wanted that relationship with her. And so fast forward, you know, many years and I was in college
and was just doing odd jobs here and there. And so one parent wanted me to do tutoring in Spanish with their child.
And so I didn't even think about how my experience was learning the language. I just started doing very structured lessons.
Like this week, we're going to talk about fruits and next week we're going to talk about this.
And before long, he like hated me being there. Like I would come, I would walk in. He's like, no, I want to.
Yeah, he didn't want me there. And which was strange because children usually like me.
And so I was like, what's going on? And so then luckily his dad was going through the master's program at UCO for bilingual education.
And so he said, you know, just play with him. Just hang out with him in Spanish. Don't no pressure.
You don't need to do any specific lesson. Just hang out with him. And when we did that, it shifted completely.
And he really he will enjoy being around me again and enjoyed listening to Spanish and acquired so much.
And so I was still in college during this time. And so I had this assignment for my play class.
And yeah, there is a play class. That's how important play is for children.
It's so important. Yes. And so the play class was just kind of like an open assignment, open ended assignment to kind of solidify the importance of play.
Right. And so I interviewed him, asking him like the different ways in which we had done our Spanish lessons.
And I just asked him, well, when I did this, when I did the themes, what did you think?
And so on, you know, just kept asking him about the different ways in which we did Spanish lessons.
And when I got to the end, I was my my whole idea was to ask him, so what is the best way to learn a second language?
And he was going to say through play. It was all planned out.
I thought for sure he was going to say that. And he said with my dad. Oh, yeah.
And so in that moment, because we were recording sort of like a podcast, I just kept asking him questions until he got to play.
Right. Not intentionally. Just I dismissed that.
But then when I looked back at the video was editing, I realized, well, yes, it's with his dad.
And the key thing here is that his dad was not a native Spanish speaker. His dad was learning Spanish.
I'm sorry. Not a native Spanish speaker. Did I say that? Yeah.
OK. He was not a native Spanish speaker. He was, you know, monolingual English speaker wanting to learn Spanish.
And so they were learning together. And who has the best connection? His dad.
You know, and so then it made me think of my mom.
And then I just realized, like, second language acquisition is all about relationships.
And that's kind of been the core of bilingual family. Yeah.
Well, you you you fast forwarded very quickly from the age of 10 ish to mid 20s.
I know why you did it, but I'm just curious.
What what was your experience like? Like, how did you end up?
Why Oklahoma and, you know, from Columbia to here?
Tell us your experience and then enrolling in school. And what was that like?
OK, so that's mainly it's kind of like the Bible. They pass forward from, you know, like 13 to 33.
What happened in between?
So I came here when I was 10 years old.
Really, my parents, I mean, my parents just were looking for better opportunities.
You know, and so they came here. I think they sold me the idea of coming to the United States by like, hey, we're going to Disney World, you know.
So we went to Disney World and then we came to Oklahoma.
I mean, we could have an entire.
I mean, I knew that we were going to we're going to live here.
But like the excitement of, OK, we're going to leave everything behind.
And what remind me, why did they want to leave everything?
I mean, just opportunities. I mean, my my dad was a graphic designer in Colombia and they both worked together like my mom worked with him.
And just everything started getting harder and harder and harder in terms of like in the economy and the economy and everything.
And so do you remember like those struggles?
Oh, yeah, I remember. So my dad had a partnership and it fell through.
And so he had like an office like you do with lots of different employees and everything.
And so when that fell through, he moved to a smaller office. And then when that was a struggle, he actually like we had another graphic designer, my dad, upstairs in our house.
They work from home basically is like the OG.
Yeah, usually you start out the basement.
Exactly. And so, you know, my mom started like doing odd jobs and things and they just they just realized that it was not feasible.
And so they had a family friend here and, you know, of course, he painted it like, oh, it's amazing.
It's so easy. Blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I still am very grateful for him, for this friend that encouraged them to come.
But he was not prepared at all to like actually help us.
Yeah. OK. So just out of curiosity, was the challenges that your father was having with the business in any way related to the political environment or like what we hear in the U.S.
about all the different drug lords and gangs, that kind of thing?
No, I think that I mean, that's very much an outside of the main city, like in the outskirts of Bogota.
And yeah, of course, there's there's all that. But it is just really hard to get a job in Colombia.
Like, even for example, if I was in Colombia right now, the fact that I have children, it would already be like, no, I mean, they're not going to say that's why.
But you have they want you to graduate and have five years of experience, but be under 25 and have no children.
You know, it's just that level of competitiveness and just it's a struggle. Yeah.
Well, yeah. So so the they were struggling.
The friend was like, hey, it's going to be great. Yeah, easy. And then you got to go to Disney World.
I mean, did you know English at the time? I did.
I knew so I went to a bilingual school in Colombia.
And that's something that I another reason why I admire my parents so much like, yes, they were struggling so much and yet they were paying for a private school.
You know, my grandparents, my grandpa in specifically would like criticize them like, hey, you're not able to like make ends meet.
And you're still wanting to send your child to like a private school. You know, maybe you need to let go of that.
But it was really important to them. And and I do think it helped me a lot when I came here because I knew.
A baseline. I'm curious when you went to Disney World, you know, now I recently went with my family and like you hear so many languages when you're there.
It's pretty cool. Did you did you at the time was it as multilingual or did you feel like you had to speak English when you were there?
I think we did speak. We had to speak English. I didn't. I don't remember, honestly, like I think there was so many emotions going on that I didn't actually pay attention to like what language was being spoken and just being there.
But I do remember the really scary ride where like an alien broke out from the middle and all that.
And for everything that they were saying was in English. And so we were literally freaking out like the glass broke and then you could.
Really mind you. So my mom was definitely the one that was most fluent out of the three of us.
My dad, to this day, does not speak English very well.
But I think it's because he was much older when he came. And so it's just he just has stuck with his group. And you know, but but anyway, going back to like coming here.
So I'll make this really short because I, you know, you don't have to make it short.
So we get we were supposed to stay in Orlando for a week. Disney World. Just go to Orlando. Hang out with one of my mom's friends.
It's just so funny. I'm sorry for like that's the first thing your impression of the US.
It's like the happiest place on earth.
You're high. I can't wait to go to Oklahoma.
Well, just wait, just wait.
So so this friend told my parents that he was getting a house ready for us. You know, it's a small house, but he was getting a house ready for us.
And they were putting in the hardwood floor. So it was taking a long time. They're not ready yet.
And so my mom asked her friend in Orlando, she could stay one more week. They stayed one more week.
And then the friend was like, no, it's not ready yet. You know, and so I said, it doesn't matter if it's ready.
We will just sleep wherever we cannot just stay here. You know, so we came here and he like drove us around, took us to Lake Heffner and a bunch of places that morning.
There was a friend here. That's why you came to Oklahoma.
Yeah, it's like a really close family friend. So well, he's actually family, I guess. My cousin's dad. But they split up a long time ago.
Anyway, we get here. He's like driving. He wanted to take me to the celebration station that day.
Like, just after Disney World. Just distractions. Yeah, just distractions. Like, OK, let's go Lake Heffner. Let's do this.
And so we're finally like, OK, we're ready to go home. We're tired.
Turns out he did not have a home. Oh, he lived with his mom in his mom's garage. Oh, my goodness.
Yes. Yes. Disney is over.
Yeah. So then his mom was obviously like, what did you do?
You know, she she like sent him off to go find somewhere to be.
And then we moved into the garage. So his mom kicked him out.
Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. And so, I mean, she she I call her like my Oklahoma grandma.
Because she really I mean, she took us in. Yeah, she didn't need to.
You know, and she really did. She I was afraid of dogs in Colombia.
Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of stray dogs. And I was terrified. Like my mom at eight years old would have to like pick me up on the street if there was a dog nearby.
Because I was so scared. It's not that uncommon, though, is it from people coming from other countries to the US?
So familiar with. Yeah, they're not they're not like family pets.
It has changed a lot. Like my cousins have dogs right now that are their little babies.
But back then, which, you know, it wasn't that long ago, right? Just a few years ago.
It was very different. And so when I came here, I was terrified of animals.
But I don't know. There was something about this lady. Her name is Ruth that was so welcoming.
And she had three dogs at the time and two cats.
And I I don't know if it was the newness of it all, but I just I didn't even notice them.
Like I had zero fear. Just walked into her house and she she was just very welcoming.
And then from there, you know, we worked really hard. The whole family, she has a family of ten children.
And so the daughter came in, took me to my mom to enroll me into Cleveland Military.
And then the other brother took my dad to go work. And like they just.
What was your dad doing for work? He went from being a graphic designer to installing hardwood floors.
Yeah. And that's what he did for until he retired. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty common, too, isn't it?
So I mean, they have a career and very professional and then they're just doing whatever.
Whatever they make it. What happened here? Yeah. Wow. So then.
So you were living with 10 other. No, no, no, no, no.
She she was much older at this time. OK. Ruth was I don't know.
Right now, she's like 80, 87. No, she's like 90 something. OK.
So at the time, she didn't have any of her grown children living with her except for the one.
I was thinking that you were like the only child.
This family was in the garage. Did you have siblings? No, just me.
Yeah. So the three of you. Yes.
The three of you in the garage. And how long did you live in the garage before you got out?
I think it was probably like three months. OK. Yeah.
We even had a dog for like a day, a stray dog.
And we're like, oh, I can bring him in. And he destroyed the garage.
So then we went to the pound. Yeah. But but yeah, I mean, it was it's interesting because to me,
I know like your face is right now like, oh, my gosh, that's a crazy story.
And to me, I guess because it was happening so fast.
I don't know. Yeah. And I was young. I didn't like it didn't seem to affect me.
It seemed to is the key because actually a couple of months ago, one of our students homes burned down.
So I know it's OK. I'm so sorry. And so and she, you know, she has a beautiful home.
She has a great family and everything and, you know, very established, like in comparison to where I was.
You're good. But for me to like put myself like it brought up so many emotions, emotions that I think were not.
Had to surface. Yeah. Yeah. I had no idea they were there. Yeah.
But just to think of this girl, I know she was younger than me. She's four.
But to think of her being homeless and living like all our toys and all our stuff is like, wow, that was me.
You know, and so anyway, I did not expect that to like this whole.
These are real stories, though, like, I know these are the stories that are, you know, our listeners,
you need to hear. Right. Exactly. This is their lived experience.
I think of me in fifth grade, like teachers would not know that all this was inside.
I didn't even know it was inside. My parents didn't know.
And I think probably because I was an only child, maybe you can relate.
We think we have to be like the strong one. Right. All the time. Right.
And so like I even remember later when we were here, we we went to New York City and we drove there as a family.
And I stayed up the entire time. Like my mom took a turn driving.
Then my dad took a turn driving and I didn't want to fall asleep because I wanted them to be safe.
You know, and so I think it was part of me like pretending to be OK with everything
because I didn't want them to worry about me.
It's like you never had time. Right. To even think about it.
Yeah. But then when this happened and it happened like a month ago, I just I obviously it's a sad situation,
but I knew they were going to be OK. You know, like there's insurance, there's they have all these resources.
They have the means to like.
But you know, that four year old was going to fill years later, potentially.
She doesn't have all her toys, you know, like that's important to her world.
Her favorite clothes, her like kitchen where she eats breakfast, like all these things.
And so it was it made me realize how difficult that time was for me,
even though at the time it didn't seem that way.
So, yeah, I think for sure, like sharing the story, think about like as a teacher,
think about what your children are coming with outside of, you know, learning math or learning to read.
That's really honestly not important when you don't have that connection or when you have other struggles going on at home.
And so and that's not even half of the struggles that some of the children that come into our schools are going through.
So what was going to school like for you when you started out at Cleveland?
It was great. It was great.
Like, I think everyone just thought it was cool to have a student from a different country.
They were asking me lots of questions.
And I had enough of a background or enough of a foundation in English to be able to answer all these questions and just get my message across.
And they understood me and I understood them, which is great.
Until I was asked to read in front of the class.
And then it was like, oh, you clearly need some help with reading.
And Cleveland didn't offer that. Like they didn't have an ESL program.
It was called ESL at the time. They didn't have any ESL program.
So then I had to move to Buchanan Elementary.
And Mrs. Peters was my fifth grade teacher. She was amazing.
And so I felt I always felt welcome in all the schools that I went to.
I think maybe in high school, it was just kind of like a huge class of 600. You just kind of get lost.
But by that point, I had a strong group of friends that, you know, kind of kept me feeling connected.
And I think that's the biggest thing. If a child comes in, has gone through all this, maybe worse.
It seems like it was hard, but there's children who go through much more difficulty to get here.
And so they have gone through all that.
And then the first experience that they have with the teachers, with the students, that's why it's so important.
Because that first experience tells them either I belong and I am part of this and people are excited to have me in their lives.
Or, you know, I am a challenge to them.
And so I think that's why, you know, we are actually right now working with UCO on Bilingual Cafe,
which is a program where we teach teachers English or Spanish so that they can connect with the families, connect with their students.
And that's why I'm so passionate about that Bilingual Cafe program that we're doing, because that's everything.
Connections and relationships are everything. And so if the teachers are not and the teachers and the staff is not just teachers,
like the entire school staff is not able to connect with the child, even if just one person,
then they might connect in other areas where we don't really want them to, you know.
So anyway, yeah.
No, that's first of all, thank you for sharing that.
Thank you for being vulnerable. Because this is why we do what we do right here.
So we can share these exact stories because someone out there right now is in the car listening to this as they're heading over to their district,
possibly, and thinking like, I'm going to make a different change today that I didn't make yesterday.
And I know more today. So thank you for sharing that.
With that, there's so much to unpack from that.
And I think one thing I kept thinking about is we have a lot of newcomer students and we also have a lot of language learners,
multilingual students that are born here that their families had to have experienced something of the similarity of what you're describing.
So whether it be the child that you have in your classroom that is a newcomer or a child that comes from from families that were newcomers before,
there is, I believe, this sense of this is another reason to be trauma informed because that can hold these feelings, these experiences.
And we had done a podcast before in our first season with Luis El Yefori.
And she discusses this with newcomers as well.
And I just think it's just a really good reminder to us that there is a definite role apart from the academic side
that we as educators must assume.
So that way we can be prepared in the best way possible to not just go through our class with integrity,
but to go through our class with character.
So we can have these relationships with our students and understand that the fractions may not be the most important thing right now to them.
It might be the fact that they're dealing with something that they may not even understand that they're dealing with until years to come.
And so when all these emotions are going on, it's just important again to be in that good relationship.
And so again, we have highlighted the importance of whenever you go to a school, the entire school community creating that sense of belonging for you to be there so you can still thrive.
Absolutely.
And we will be right back.
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And now back to the show.
With that in mind, do you have specific examples of teachers that really did a great job that you can say,
here's a great example of what teachers should do or maybe the opposite, what teachers shouldn't do that created real challenges?
Yeah, because I was going to ask about Mrs. Peters.
Mrs. Peters.
Why was she so great?
Yeah, she was in fifth grade, so that's when I moved to Buchanan.
Mrs. Peters, if you're listening.
Yes.
Gracias.
Thank you.
Thank you to all of our teachers.
Yes, yes.
What's unfortunate is that, well, first of all, you asked if there was any negatives.
Honestly, I don't feel like I ever had a negative experience with any teachers.
That's wonderful.
Maybe in high school, but it was not related to me being, speaking a different language or being of a different culture.
It was just like.
You're a teen.
Yeah, a teen.
Listen to Jared having a battle.
Exactly.
You and your mama.
Exactly.
And so it was just, it was something else, related to something else.
But when I first came, because I came in the middle of the year, well, it was actually April, they put me in fourth grade in Cleveland,
so that I would be with that same group of kids when we moved to fifth grade in August.
And so I honestly don't remember the teacher's name.
But what I do remember is that she spent quality time.
I don't know if it was 10 minutes or five minutes or two minutes trying to say my name correctly.
Oh, that's right.
She was like, is it Daniela? Daniela? Daniela? And until she got it right.
How special.
Yeah. And it's funny because for like maybe the first five minutes, I thought she was asking, because my mom calls me Dani.
Sure.
Like when I pull up her nicknames.
And so she was saying that when she would start saying Daniela, or until I would say, you can call me Dani, Dani.
And so she, but she kept asking, you know.
And so that was huge that she took the time to say my name correctly.
You know, Jorge is not George.
Jorge is Jorge.
Exactly.
Right. Your name is your name.
Exactly.
Yes.
And so, and everybody's name is important to them.
And so we actually have run into that at Vallejo family because we are doing the opposite.
Right. So English speaking children and some have Spanish speaking parents to want to learn Spanish or continue with their Spanish.
And so we have, for example, a Samuel.
Right. And we started calling him Samuel because he's in Spanish class.
But I was like, you know what?
No.
Oh, right.
Because I am so firm on the importance of saying the right name.
And yes, it's cool that we're in Spanish class.
And so we should call him Samuel, but that's not his name.
Right. Right. That's not his name.
And so we asked him, actually, do you want to be called Samuel or someone?
You know, and so he'll tell us he goes by Samuel.
Yes. And so there's also Isaiah, Isaias.
And when we're we always play this game when they get picked up or like, estoy pensando, so I'm thinking of someone whose name starts with and we do the initial sound.
And so for Isaias, we'll say, ee, and he was like, not me.
They're not talking about me.
Isaiah. And so, you know, those little things that don't seem that important are they really are.
Exactly.
Something else that we do at school is we have classroom jobs.
I mean, a lot of schools have classroom jobs, but this really creates a sense of community within the children at bilingual cafe.
For example, we spend time instead of learning Spanish.
We're learning about each other in Spanish.
I love it. And so, like, if at the beginning of the year, you would spend time quizzing.
OK, so what's Kelly's dad's name?
You know, or what's Kelly's dog's name?
And so that's the content that you're trying to teach is who is Kelly in the classroom.
Right. Such a fun way to practice and play.
And you're connecting to your friends and your teachers and everybody.
And you're learning some English or Spanish in this case.
And so we really work on like knowing everybody's dog's name and all the connections between us.
Like we have two Mateos, my Mateo and another Mateo. Mateo Lucero, the other Mateo has a dog named Elias.
And my youngest is Elias. So we just make all these jokes like there's a dog named Elias. Baby Elias.
So, yeah.
I'm curious, with your family during your time in middle school, high school, were they intentional about you guys using Spanish?
And like that was that important to them or is it just natural just because they spoke Spanish, you spoke Spanish?
Yeah. So I think it's interesting because my parents, I think they stayed together for a long time because of me, they're divorced now.
And so there was a lot of dynamics going on during that time.
So my mom and I would often speak in English because it would kind of.
He wouldn't understand.
He wouldn't understand, which is awful. It's awful, but it was like our secret language. Right.
And so with my dad, of course, I had no other choice than to speak in Spanish.
And that's how we do it right now. Like when Alway comes over, everyone speaks Spanish and I love it.
I'm like, please do not try to practice English with the voice. Like just Spanish, selfishly.
Like I only want to speak Spanish. But yeah, we didn't.
I think when you come in, there's just not enough emotional bandwidth to even consider those things.
You know, and maybe in some cases there are like mom said I'm first generation.
What would I be? First generation? No, because I came here.
So I guess, yeah. Yeah. Your sons then. Yeah.
So with them, I was just curious because I know you're very into school about it.
I didn't know it was your family. Because I don't have any. I'm not trying to figure out where I'm going to live.
Maslow's here. Your basic needs are met. You're able to think on everything.
And so I'm able to do that. And so I think for them, it just happened with my dad.
I spoke in Spanish with my mom. I would go back and forth. But now we only speak in Spanish.
My mom and I only speak in Spanish. Did you take Spanish classes in high school? No, I took French.
OK. Yeah. So did you learn the language? No, no.
So that's a great segue into language acquisition. I took French for four years and then in college for two years.
And I still don't speak French. Now, why? So why is that?
Because I always kind of like speak to things like this and trainings and stuff.
But I really want to hear from you. Well, and I know that you've I've listened to your podcast sometimes.
Like in some of the podcasts, you've mentioned that you got it from your high school teacher like that when ignited.
So maybe it was a teacher. You know, you have to have a connection to the teacher, to the instructor.
Well, my class was pretty boring and it was very much based on conjugating verbs and reading passages.
And I would count, you know, count where it was going to be my turn to read aloud.
So I wasn't really paying attention to the whole story. You know how that is.
And no play was happening. No, no, it was just.
And so maybe in college, it got a little bit better. But by that point, I didn't have a strong enough foundation, I feel like, to enjoy it as much.
And so I always bring this up because we all have been in those language classes and especially as adults.
Like the expectation of what you're supposed to learn in a language class as an adult is like, OK, grammar, reading, all these heavy study concepts.
And that's the mindset of like, I'm going to study it. I'm going to get this down.
You make a little quiz list. Yes. You did your flashcards. Exactly.
And if we as adults allowed ourselves to learn the second language like children do, it would be no problem.
And that's what we're experiencing at bilingual cafe is that the teachers are like, I look forward to this. I'm excited.
Like it doesn't even feel like I'm learning Spanish. I'm just hanging out with my friends and we're just learning about each other.
And, you know, we do lots of TPRS and that's what that's what I do. Total physical response. Storytelling.
And so I tell stories through or I teach Spanish through stories. And so they're starting to learn about who I am and all the crazy things that happen at preschool that day.
Or, you know, last the last time we met, we had a dos accidentes en el baño story.
Oh, OK. Yeah, that was intense. Everybody was at the edge of their seats like they were like, and then what happened? Oh, wow.
Go ahead. Yeah, they were just like they were more interested in knowing how did you get it all cleaned up in time?
Then to know like what verb did she use? What part is that? They just were immersed and they were in the flow of like understanding the story.
And so that's how children learn their first language, any language.
And so if we allow ourselves again to kind of be there and not worry about understanding every single conjugation, every single word, but connecting because the role of language is to connect with other people.
And if that connection is not there, then our brain doesn't think it's necessary.
100%. Well, and I also think, you know, before we had talked about Dr. Stephen Krashen, and so to this, what you're talking about right now, that's just a great example of, you know, not just providing comprehensible input to help with acquisition, but it must be compelling.
Exactly. So you are making this a compelling moment where they want to know what's happening and then they're learning this.
So to add on to that, what have those students in the bilingual cafe, what have they learned through this process about culture, perhaps, and the role that it plays?
Well, I feel like they understand that the classroom is an opportunity to create your own culture within the classroom.
Because I, and this is just my personal view on culture is that we think it's something outside like, oh, culture is like going to this Thai restaurant and learning this and wearing this and understanding the culture and going to visit and all this stuff.
But culture is within.
It's everywhere. It's our journey.
We have our own little culture right here.
With bilingual family, like our community of families has its own culture. And so I think what teachers are getting from bilingual cafe is that they have to create that classroom culture where the children feel like they're part of a family in order to teach them anything.
Isn't it awesome how language can really connect us in so many ways and teach us so much about not only other people, but most importantly, I think, you know, ourselves.
You're one of many examples of class, you know, language classes at high school or college.
Not really helping out.
I just so much luck with her and any what, you know, I'll just share it.
I had the opposite experience. You know, you know mine.
Yeah, you had a real opposite one.
Flunking Spanish.
And then going back to teach right there.
So if you haven't listened to the very first season one episode one, you can hear about.
Yeah, flunking Spanish.
I'm going to go back and teach them.
Yes.
I want to bring this back. So like everything that you've been doing and then like to where to where you are today and what's happening.
And so, first of all, what what ages does the school Montessori, I believe, correct?
Montessori inspired.
You can't really be a hundred percent Montessori.
Yeah, so not right. But it is not labeled as that, but I think it comes from, like you said, inspired from that with a big focus on play as well.
So 2013 bilingual family happened.
You start with just, I believe, one student and one teacher.
And if you again listeners bilingualfamily.us is the website and you can find a TED talk that Daniella had done.
And she discusses some of this. So you start in the beginning.
It grows to where it is today.
But before we get into that, what what are the current levels now?
So you went from one student and now how many students and what ages?
Yeah, so I like to say that and this is part of the TED talk that our focus is to grow in the impact that we make rather than the number of students.
Yeah.
And so while we haven't, I mean, we don't have hundreds of students.
We have 30 right now.
That can be the intention, right? Like I'm not trying to have a thousand or anything.
But yeah, we have 30 students right now.
It has grown a lot. And so we have a Nido class, which kind of changed the names a little bit.
But Nido is for, which is Nest in Spanish, is for one to two year olds with their caregivers so they can learn Spanish together.
And they learn all the routines of like real, meaningful, compelling input to use at home.
And so in the same way that the parents taught them English, maybe they didn't see it as teaching them English, but in the same way that the children acquired English,
they can use those daily routines of OK, vamos a lavarnos las manos, es hora de comer.
And you're talking about what you're doing in the moment, which is comprehensible input.
And so we really infused Nido in that, like the routine so that the caregivers, the parents, whoever is coming with the child can learn those routines and use them at home.
And so when the children move up to our casa de niños, which is like preschool for three to six year olds,
then we get to work in the classroom a lot more longer hours with the children, but they can continue working at home with the foundation that they had.
And then recently, I have to take a breath. We are adding studio.
OK, yeah, which is a hybrid homeschool program. It'll start in the fall of twenty twenty four for, you know, six to nine year olds will be together.
And this is following Montessori's planes of development. So the three to nine year olds really they can really work together and they have the same.
They're on the same plane of development. So the idea is more of collaboration and group work and project based approach.
All doing all that while learning Spanish. That is just so it's so exciting.
Yes, I got a question. No, you ask. I mean, I have a question that relates, but it's a little bit outside.
So if you're just more direct to what I just think that I don't want to get it too far off from where we might might connect.
So, you know, it's really fun to hear this story for me and just to think and from my point of view and just hearing it right now, it's like your mom really gave you this gift of the school called bilingual family just the practice that she had.
I mean, how, how awesome that it's really come to full circle in such a way.
But I love the way that you explained it. And I had just a few notes to try to bring this up.
It's really important that whenever we consider your story, right, this is this is a real story. You're a real student and Cleveland Elementary School, for example, you came from Columbia coming here like in the feelings, the emotions, what we had discussed with, you know, the student who unfortunately had lost her home.
All these things that are happening. You had a dream to make this happen that made you that means you shake and made you cry. And you had to go for it. And I love when you said like, when like, it kind of got me like a little fire under my rear end also just thinking about things like whenever you do have it because you can fall into excuses you can fall into being too busy you can fall into the mundane right.
But whenever your dreams make you shake and make you cry. And then you then you consider like you dream it. You, I believe you said you dream it, you review it and then you do it. No, you do it before you review. You do it before you do it.
You just do it. Dream do. Yeah, I did have it here. You dream it, you do it and then you review it. Right. What does that connection mean right now and considering the whole story, your mom's starting this what we just discussed where you are in this dream that makes you shake and cry that that's how it became the reality.
Yeah, I'll give you an example based on studio. Thank you. That's basically like the next the next step right so dream doing review. I, it has happened through ever since the TED talk and I was able to like put words into it into what that process was like.
Now I know like if I'm asked to do this project or I'm, you know, asked to be a board member of this. I can feel it in my body, like, hmm, is this my ego like because it would be cool to do this thing cool to have this title, whatever, or is this like to my core what, like, the universe guide like you can feel that difference.
Yeah, yeah, chill just.
This is so cool. And so, um, this happened with studio so when we came back from coven, you know, everything's like, post code.
BCA.
So yeah, when we came back from coven, because it was still very active and everything it still is right now but we decided to cancel the after school program which we had before.
And it was because children would be coming from all different like we had children coming from Norman we had children coming from, you know, admit all over to the after school program from different school districts so to minimize the spread of anything we just decided to not do the after
school program. But then as I reviewed, and I was thinking, what, like, what is the point of the after school program, would I send my children to the after school program, which takes a lot of time.
I would send them to the after school program, which takes four hours in the evenings away from family. Right. And now I was like no I wouldn't, because if you're so smart.
And you're wanting to do soccer or something else and there'd be like three nights or four nights or something happening every single night. And I do at the core believe that family is the number one teacher and, and we are so distracted with things like, you know, wanting them to do this class and that class and they're just, they're all over and they're not connected, you know, and so I just knew that wasn't going to.
From from a family perspective and a personal perspective, I was like, that's not going to work out even if I had teachers who, and I wasn't involved in the after school program.
The point is that the idea of bilingual families that it is true to myself and my values and so even though we lost a big chunk of income from leaving the after school program.
I just didn't feel right. And then also from a language acquisition perspective, children were coming to preschool, you know, at the time it was only three days a week, but now we have five days a week for five hours or 25 hours of Spanish immersion to four hours in the after school program.
And so they would, they would start to lose their Spanish, you know, so is it, was it worth it for them to come four hours a week and spend time away from their family when they weren't getting enough input to keep up with their bilingualism.
So we've doubled down on like the resources that we were going to provide families to use at home.
Yeah, I was like, the idea is that they get the core, get the foundation during Nido and Casaninio, so like, you know, the baby class and the preschool class, so that when they leave, if they, if they choose not to do studio and they leave, then they can continue using Spanish at home.
It's an awesome chance though for parents and children to build relationships with each other in a fun way and just grow closer. I love that. I love that. Your question was a good segue into my question.
So it worked well because I was like, this is going to seem too little.
So it does lead well to my question. So now practically speaking and thinking about other people that might have similar experiences, how does one, you know, tell us a little bit about your personal experience being immigrant, coming to the US, like, and learning, you're an entrepreneur, you know, you've created something, but that takes work.
You know, it's a lot of work being an entrepreneur, but then thinking from a business standpoint, like, what, how did you learn how to navigate this process to become an entrepreneur in a business woman?
I'm still learning.
Yeah, but it's so impressive that you've done it.
How does someone like yourself, maybe somebody that's listening go about creating something the way that you've created? I think it really does go back to dream doing review that Kelly was asking about because if your dream doesn't make you shake and cry, you're going to give up.
It's way too hard. Like entrepreneurship, I don't recommend it.
I have the same. It is too hard like to go from eight to five, you know, five days a week.
You go to 24 seven every day, you know, and so I'm like, every time anywhere I'm thinking about bilingual family, which luckily for me it, it helps my children, you know, luckily it's not, it's in a related field.
And so some of the things that I'm researching or learning or thinking about, I can actually apply and be part of my family. So in that way, it kind of brings some balance to like entrepreneurship.
Yeah, some people don't want to listen to advice. Don't do it. They think I'm just going to do it anyway. Like, how do you do it? And are there resources out there for people from other countries that are trying to start businesses here? Like, what advice?
I will say I didn't. It wasn't until this year that I got my first business loan. Like I had, I started from sweat equity, basically.
Like, I think from like a practical perspective. So the last semester of college, I was offered like 20 or 7500 or something of student, you know, how they do student loans, even though you already have enough to pay their like, do you want more?
Oh, yeah.
We had had like our heater broke down or something. And so we, it was going to be about $7000 to fix this. We're like, okay, let's take it. And then we got an awesome guy that was able to fix it for 700. So we had that money.
And we were like, well, I want to start a school. Let's do it with that money. And I think by the time we actually started by the angle family, there was like 2500. But we started with 2500. And I remember like signing the contract for the church.
And I was like, this will last me this summer for semester to pay for the rent. Like, that's it. That's, that's it. And so because I was a teacher and I was like, what did you do specifically? Like, I mean, you and I know, like, how do you start? How do you start a business? How do you just like, I think I'm going to start a business today, like, to make it official?
Well, you have to get an LLC. This is, this is another thing. I think that when you have a dream that makes you shake and cry, the right people come to help you. That's what yeah, because at first I was doing business as Daniela, like I was, it was bilingual family, but I was doing business as because that was all I knew and had the capacity to like, deal with.
And I think if you get stuck in like, okay, what is the checklist for starting a business? Get an LLC, get an attorney and get this, get that. Then you're never going to start. You know?
I think that's so true. Like, like, like that's happened to me. I mean, I think that like even you're an example of that. Like the right people. But if, if all of this is based on a dream, right?
Right. Then that's somewhere interpret this, but it's been, it's already been in the process. It's already been in the works. Yes. Yes. And so as long as you continue to follow your, your, your Northern star and making sure that you are on that path, like you're right.
Like the right people come to you and the right things happen for it to happen. Yeah. Like to this day, I don't know how to start an LLC and I have an LLC.
If not Google. Google. So my first semester, I only had like three after school students and one of them, their dad was an attorney. And so he was like, Hey, what are you? What's your business? Set up.
And it was like, he was like, okay, let me help you. And so he just did a promo, no work and set up the LLC for me and did all this stuff and just asked me some questions of how much I had spent to start it and all this.
And that's how we were incorporated. And so throughout the entire process, there's just been all these serendipitous things that happen that just fit. They're like, okay. But ultimately I do think that you have to, once you have that dream.
And I do encourage listeners to watch that video because it explains what the dream is. Because you could be like, I dream to have a mansion. You know, but your dream has to be bigger.
You crying. Yeah, exactly.
It has to impact others. Like it has to be bigger than yourself and impact people outside of yourself. And so when that happens, everything just kind of aligns and you get people to come help you.
We had, I remember clearly when we started, this is a silly example, but there's lots of those, like pretty much all of our materials have been happening magically like that. You know, so we, the after school program, they were like, we should have Legos. Legos are great. So I go to get some Legos and they're expensive.
So I bought a tiny like bucket of $50 Legos. And you know, they were within seconds. They're like, well, we need more Legos. This isn't enough. And so I thought, okay, well, yeah, we really need more Legos. That's something that we need to think about.
And the next day, Dr. Atkins, the co-author of the book called me and was like, Hey, my sister is donating all the, all her son's Legos. It was a giant bucket. Like we still haven't used them all up because there were so many and things like that just kept happening.
And then it just happens by chance. Like, see, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah. And it's just been like that the entire time. Like we, when we started recording the books, I don't know if, if you guys have seen, but we, before QR codes were a thing, I knew about QR codes.
So we, we recorded all the books in our little library and put QR codes on them. Yeah. And the children were checking them out and we needed more books. So one of our teachers was currently, was also working at, I think two lakes elementary or, you know, an elementary.
And they were donating like a giant box of books. And so we have those. It just happens. So I know that's not the best advice in terms of business, like not, not the best game plan.
But I do think that starting before you're ready, like, okay, you get the dream and you make the first step, whatever it is, just take the first step. Then you can start reviewing after like our, my very first step was I sketched a logo that was horrible.
Even though I am an artist, it was awful. And, and just use that look. I actually started using that logo.
I love it in the video. You all gotta watch this, this Ted talk. Yeah.
It was funny because when I switched to the real logo to the professional logo, I still had like a yard sign with the old logo by the front and a parent for the mommy and me class came in and she was, she had seen the logo in like a kids magazine that I had purchased an ad for.
And so she had seen the new logo and then you an updated logo, and she walked in and saw that and she was like, I think somebody graffiti on your sign.
That's a good point though too because, you know, it can stop you from like thinking, oh, I've got to have a logo and logos really take so much work at the end of the day. It's more about, like you said that what's your purpose, the passion, what are you providing to the community, to people that's more meaningful than any piece of art.
I mean that represents your company and that can stop you in your tracks because there is so much like out there of your research. Oh, you gotta have a business name and your logo and branding. And I think there's a lot of hype around all of the media and marketing because they marketers make a lot of money helping you create those things.
I think though that like there's just a lot to be said to really listening to your inner self and following your heart and your passion. And that's what that's that first step to realizing that that dream you have found.
You've found so many opportunities to provide access and exposure to language and to culture for families to help kind of maybe fill some of these gaps for people and people in your life have also filled some of the gaps that you've needed and we all do work together in this way.
You're reflective. You're such a great mentor. You're such a great leader in the Oklahoma community, especially in the field of bilingual and multilingual education. And you just, I mean, if you don't know, you have to know her. Her heart is so pure and so genuine. It's such a great human.
Just thank you so much for sharing all of this. Is there any last closing words or final thoughts? Actually, I shouldn't say that. Just like some closing words or anything that you would like listeners to reflect upon. Final thoughts are so final.
First off, I want to ask what your therapy fee is because I feel like this is therapy.
Harmony, relationships, love, respect.
It was great. No, I think something that came up in the conversation, like I have so many thoughts like you were saying, like final thoughts. There's never an final thought.
But something that came up was that intuition and that's from business perspective, from like a teaching perspective. We talked about it with my mom just innately knowing how to teach English to me. We're using comprehensible input without adding stress.
It was in her when she was able to be present and connected to me. It came naturally to her. And so the same way in business, you know, when we're talking about business, too, when you are connected to that source of that, you know, mission, that dream, that feeling that you can't get rid of.
Yeah. And you work towards it without like just with your innate abilities, what comes to you, then it works out. You know, and you're right. There's so much noise around, whoa, do this strategy, do that strategy, post this many Instagram reels per day or whatever.
It's the same in language acquisition. Use this strategy, use this tool, use that. And the foundation of it is connection and really coming in from the heart. So I think my takeaway from that is that you are enough and you have all of the abilities necessary to accomplish and achieve your dreams already inside of you if you just act upon it.
Yes, 100%. That is so awesome. Well, again, thank you so much. Thank you, listeners, for being with us. Daniela, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing your stories, for helping us become better learning through you and with you.
And again, listeners, thank you so much for being with us. A special shout out to our co-host Dr. Taylor Tribble and to our producer Mike Overholt. Thanks for engaging in another wonderful podcast of Cultural Connections Lab. I'm Daniela.
Thank you all so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Adios.
Thank you for joining us today. Don't forget to like, follow and subscribe. Adios.