Eva Longoria and Tony Parker want trilingual kids

Actress Eva Longoria, 32, told People that when she and new husband, basketball player Tony Parker, 25, have kids they will ‘definitely‘ teach the children all three languages they collectively speak — English, Spanish and French. While at a fundraiser for Padres Contra El Cancer (Parents Against Cancer), which helps Latina children with cancer and their families, Eva said,

We will definitely do that – absolutely, absolutely! Tony and I would love to have kids.

Eva added that it’s nice to have bilingual cartoon characters like Diego and Dora the Explorer, saying that when she was a kid it was only Speedy Gonzales.

Speedy Gonzales was the [only] bilingual character growing up and all he said was ‘Arriba! Arriba!’

Eva is fluent in English and Spanish while Tony, who was raised in France, speaks English and French.

The couple wed in France in July.

Source: People

Comments

I think that’s so great. My mom is Mexican and my dad is Costa-Rican, so spanish is my first language, but I was born in San Francisco, so I learned english almost at the same time. when it came time to take a language for high school requirements, my mom wouldn’t let me take the easy way out, so i took french instead of spanish. Now I’m trilingual and so grateful!!

- Natalie on August 13th, 2007

Cbb, r u saying EL is fluent or is ppl. Eva hasnt lied to date about her Spanish. Though her family is Mexican she didnt grow up speaking Spanish. She was taking lessons just like she was taking french lessons.

I suggest she has her mom/tony’s mom around as native speakers speaking the sp/fr 2 kids @ a young age helps the fluency.

- lilkunta on August 13th, 2007

‘While at a fundraiser for Padres Contra El Cancer (Parents Against Cancer), which helps Latina children with cancer and their families’ – I find that absolutely appalling!! If a centre was opened up to only help white children and their families there would be uproar about racism and rights! Charities like that should be open to children of ALL races and ethnicities, to exclude any based on that is outright discrimination.

- Sabina on August 14th, 2007

I totally understand Sabina’s comment. It sounds like a turn-off, like you’re excluding any other nationality other than hispanic. But at the same time, hispanic americans, no matter how far they’ve come, don’t have as much of the help and resources as white America has in general. I swear I understand, but if YOU were a minority in a country where you had a slight disadvantage, would you feel the same way about other members of your community helping EACH OTHER?

- Amlys on August 21st, 2007