My husband is PR and he said they learned to read in English because their books were in English. Not all learn to speak it though or more likely they lose what they learn in school because they stay in PR and for the most part don't use English often. Our nephews all know English, but our niece didn't try to retain or expand it because she doesn't plan on leaving the island and they don't live near tourist areas.
Sorta mirrors my experience. Of course, by reading I mean comprehending, not just vocalizing written text like a robot.
They're different skillsets. Being able to recognize written words and comprehend them is one thing. Being able to speak is a matter of being able to recall and pronounce the correct words to reflect your intention (and conjugation/gender doesn't hurt, which is a whole 'nother layer with Spanish).
Being able to hear and comprehend is a slightly different skill set than being able to read.
We are close to a couple - he's from PR and she escaped El Salvador for the US during the gang times. Their kids understand Spanish, but I've never heard either child speak it.
Our kids only speak English as my husband was away a lot when our kids were small/growing up, was in the military, at times out of country for a year at a time, then when he went to the reserves, worked fulltime, and at times having to go out of town from a few days to weeks depending on the detail.
Don't get me wrong, he was home a lot, (not like he was constantly gone) but I guess we didn't think about it too much until the kids would ask him to teach them some Spanish, but you know how teens are... one minute they want something the next the forget all about it, lol. And I only speak English, have a hard time learning to speak Spanish (know a few words and may understand enough to know the topic of conversation), and for the life of me I absolutely cannot roll my r's 😂 our kids can though, lol.
TBF, I'm learning Spanish and I can read it a lot better than I can speak it.
Spanish is easy to read because vowels only sound one way.
My husband is PR and he said they learned to read in English because their books were in English. Not all learn to speak it though or more likely they lose what they learn in school because they stay in PR and for the most part don't use English often. Our nephews all know English, but our niece didn't try to retain or expand it because she doesn't plan on leaving the island and they don't live near tourist areas.
Sorta mirrors my experience. Of course, by reading I mean comprehending, not just vocalizing written text like a robot.
They're different skillsets. Being able to recognize written words and comprehend them is one thing. Being able to speak is a matter of being able to recall and pronounce the correct words to reflect your intention (and conjugation/gender doesn't hurt, which is a whole 'nother layer with Spanish).
Being able to hear and comprehend is a slightly different skill set than being able to read.
We are close to a couple - he's from PR and she escaped El Salvador for the US during the gang times. Their kids understand Spanish, but I've never heard either child speak it.
Our kids only speak English as my husband was away a lot when our kids were small/growing up, was in the military, at times out of country for a year at a time, then when he went to the reserves, worked fulltime, and at times having to go out of town from a few days to weeks depending on the detail.
Don't get me wrong, he was home a lot, (not like he was constantly gone) but I guess we didn't think about it too much until the kids would ask him to teach them some Spanish, but you know how teens are... one minute they want something the next the forget all about it, lol. And I only speak English, have a hard time learning to speak Spanish (know a few words and may understand enough to know the topic of conversation), and for the life of me I absolutely cannot roll my r's 😂 our kids can though, lol.