When my daughter Elizabeth was five years old and she started going to kindergarten, she didn't know any English because we wanted her to learn Spanish, so we spoke Spanish at home all the time. But then the teacher called me one day and she said, “I don’t know what is wrong with your daughter, but she laughs all the time. I think she is deaf because she can hear what I say and she laughs and laughs and laughs every time I talk to her.” And then I said, “No, no. There’s nothing wrong with her.”
So I went to the class to meet with the teacher, and my daughter, and while I walked into the room I was talking to Elizabeth in Spanish, and that’s when the teacher realized the problem. She turned to me and said, “Does Elizabeth only speak Spanish?” That’s when I too started laughing and told the teacher that I speak to Elizabeth in Spanish and the reason she wouldn’t talk and just laughed was because she didn’t know that much English and was shy to speak it. When I got home I told my husband that the teacher said that Elizabeth is deaf and he said, “Oh, no, no.” He said, “Elizabeth, come here, honey.” And then s he came over and he whispered, “Do you want 25 cents?” And she said, “Yes, Daddy, yes!” So he started making her talk in English to help her learn.
