Learning a new language has been an interesting process. I still find myself thinking in Spanish often!! Wrong language! It's as though my brain has a "foreign language area" and when I am searching for a word in German, it tries to pull that word from the foreign language area, but the majority of the words there are in Spanish! I have learned a good amount of vocabulary now and, if I have a little bit of time to think before I speak, I can usually figure out what I want to say.
I had a funny exchange with a man on the phone while trying to set up a pedicure appointment for a friend and me. I asked him if he had any appointments available in the "morgen früh" (early morning). He said no, that "morgen ist sehr full." I then asked if he had anything in the "nachmittag" (afternoon). He replied that "morgen ist sehr full." I asked again, "Nachmittag? 13 Uhr? 14 Uhr?" to which he replied "MORGEN IST SEHR FULL!" Finally I remembered that "morgen" doesn't just mean "morning"--it also means "TOMORROW" and tomorrow was all full! Oops!! I had a good laugh about that. I'm a beginner here; it takes me awhile!
Drew is picking up a couple German words each day at Kindergarten. He tells me that "aufraümen!" means "clean up!", and he told me he has to get his "tisch" when it's time to go home (that actually means "table"--"tasche" is backpack, but it's close!). He says "Komm mit mir" to his friends (Come with me) and has been telling me "Guck mal, Mommy!" (Look, Mommy!) I had a proud moment this past weekend when we were at a Halloween party with our American friends: Drew was trying to play with a little girl and I said, "Ask her what her name is." He turned to her and said in German, "Wie heisst du?" I had to tell him that she didn't speak German and he should say it in English!
Yesterday a friend of ours asked him in German, "Are you learning to speak German, Andrew?" and he replied in English, "Well, I am learning German." so he is definitely beginning to understand what he is hearing.
There are, of course, still awkward moments as we are just beginners but it feels good to be able to understand more and more of what we are hearing out in town and on the radio.
This is such an uplifting post!!! It's wonderful how much you are already learning. I took a course on bilingualism in college and I remember reading that, when learning two languages, children exhibit "code-switching" without even realizing it (like Drew, understanding a question asked in German but replying in English). It's fascinating! Your brains are working really hard; I bet you're tired at the end of each day. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteAw, that story of Drew asking the girls name in German is soooo cute!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this post, too! Kelly and Drew, your excitement and enthusiasm for learning is contagious! You used to come home everyday and share something new that you'd learned or observed. Thanks for keeping that tradition going!
ReplyDeleteLove you!
Hopefully you see this since I'm getting caught up on old posts today :) Funny you mention it about the foreign language part of your brain--I took German in high school and Italian in college (and speak neither!) When I was learning Italian and searching for words, I would think of my limited German vocabulary! Glad to hear I'm not the only one who does that--we can't both be abnormal. Right?
ReplyDelete