‘You can’t help me with my homework Mummy, you don’t know Spanish!’

And with these words my eldest daughter threw down the gauntlet challenging me to do something to improve my Spanish. 

The six-going-on-13-year-old now has homework every weekend which, after some cajoling, she sits down and does beside her father. But when I tried to persuade her to do some before Sunday evening, so we could forget about it and enjoy the weekend, this was the response I got.

As her father and I speak to each other in English it has been great for the children as they get Spanish at school and plenty of English at home, meaning success on the bilingual front. However, and as my mother-in-law would doubtless agree, it has been no good whatsoever for my Spanish. We also have English TV, which I couldn’t live without, but that too means I’m not so immersed in Spanish. I always thought that by just living here I would pick it up. Now I see I have rather plateaued and as nobody corrects me I fear I shall continue to make the same mistakes forever.