SAP

So my mother-in-laws television got stuck in SAP this weekend to which Morgan replies, “it’s ok, I understand English AND Spanish, my brain is super fast and it’s just much faster than yours.” Now I digress, my rather presidential sounding daughter is A LOT spicier than I was at her age, but she’s right her little bilingual brain is running a bit faster than my aging in-laws… and so was mine, I just didn’t have the resources to feed it.

When the half cuban boy in my 1st grade class stood at the chalkboard to present “numbers in Spanish” I never imagined what he would deliver would be such a disappointment. Certainly the son of a Spanish speaking mother should have more to offer than what I’d already picked up off of Sesame street! 1-10 was small potatoes, and while I bit my tongue at the time, I was annoyed, a little surprised, and desperately hungry for more.  I naively believed that every kid knew Terry and Maria’s banter by heart, and the handful of Spanish turns of phrase that came with their PBS characters: “Hola, Hace Calor, Uno dos tres”… boy was I wrong.

Fast forward to today… once again I naively believed that EVERYONE knew about the powers of SAP to alter your children’s television viewing experience, alas no. First off SAP (which stands for “Second Audio Program,” and not Spanish Audio Playback) is frequently available in Spanish, and a whole host of other languages on occasion. So my Everyone can do it language immersion hack of the week is: Help yourself feel better about your kids watching TV by changing the audio output language! Disney Channel: SAP! Netflix Kids: Audio output-Spanish, Subtitles-English (so you can read along and learn too!) Sprout: SAP again! Sure there are Spanish TV stations and programs but there’s something about the appeal of a familiar show that just might persuade your kid to sit and listen. Heck if they’re young enough they probably won’t even notice which is the most beautiful thing of all. If they’re young enough they’ll just watch, immerse, and little by little learn a second language.

I’m certain if they had SAP back when i was a kid, i’d have counted circles around that kid!

Morgan (and Emory) explain and demonstrate the basics of swapping out the audio language on Netflix, making screen time just a little bit more educational.