Finally making it here to comment.

I teach in English to (mostly) Mexicans who are (mostly) using English as a second language. Part of my role here as a native speaker is to give them a different cultural perspective and forced practice in using English in the daily communications.

Sometimes my students need Spanish to communicate deeply and often I need to allow them that freedom. Speaking in Spanish also gives me (selfishly) a learning opportunity to improve my Spanish speaking and listening skills. The running joke is that many of my colleagues tell me that I have a “university student” Spanish vocabulary which makes sense since most of my Spanish is with those students.

That brings me to another caution sign for English speaking migrant workers in other countries (somebody asked why we call ourselves expats and not migrant workers on Twitter, great question). I put so much focus on ensuring that my own children have “enough” English language materials at hand (books, movies) that I probably went too far at the cost of their Spanish language fluency including vocabulary. I’ve seen that from my eldest child and now need to ensure she (and my boys) get enough Spanish language literature going forward.

Thanks for a great post Maha!