Je ... desto ...

I've been "seeding" this construction for months in my conversation with J. Today was the first time I've heard him use it unprompted. We were talking about his teachers at school, and he said: "Je älter ich werde, desto strenger werden die Lehrer!"

Letter to Gustav

Gustav still hasn't come as he has promised, and J is getting impatient. He has written him a letter:

Media update 280

Reading: Katharina Neuschaefer, Die nordischen Sagen, 233-294/294 (end, kindle edition); E.T.A. Hoffmann, Nussknacker und Mausekönig, loc. 418-901/901 (end, kindle edition). Listening: Rolf Krenzer, Die kleinen Wikinger, 1.11 - 2.03; Katharina Neuschaefer, Nordische Sagen 4: Vom Ende der Zeit—Ragnarök, 1.37 - 1.55; E.T.A. Hoffmann, Nussknacker und Mausekönig, 1.54 - 2.55.

This has been a week of endings to long stories. Just in time for the new year.

I'm glad to be finished with the Norse mythology for the time being. Neuschaefer's version is good but a little too Ragnarok-heavy, with a quite relentless emphasis on the prophecy of the seeress from the very beginning. It's not wrong, it's just heavy handed and kind of monotonous after awhile. 

We both really enjoyed the Krenzer stories. The violence aspect of the Viking enterprise was tastefully and age-appropriately handled. The only raiding expeditions narrated involved the Vikings descending on two villages, at which point the villagers flee and the Vikings plunder. Defenses are mustered, but they arrive too late and the Vikings escape. That's all we get. The main characters, the two boys, are not described as being involved in any fighting. However, when the return of the expedition is narrated after a flash-forward, one of the older men to whom the boys were close has been killed, and there is quite a bit of emphasis on the mourning of the bereaved family.

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King has been one of my very favorite stories to experience with Jamie. It is just such a deep and rich tale, with so many levels and dimensions. And I'm thrilled that J's German is good enough such that he was able to understand almost everything. This afternoon after we finished reading it, I googled more illustrations and we discussed them at length. In every case he was able to identify and describe the relevant episode and point to lots of details:

2015
Total audio: 68.34 hours
Total video: 94.65 hours
Age 6.02.22

Changes / Medienwandel

Numerous factors are making it increasingly difficult to post daily updates on L2 media, so I'm going to change "Media today #___" to "Media update #___" and reduce these posts to every few days.

Also, I will no longer be recording certain things like "Let's Play Minecraft" videos, because during his tablet time J accesses these himself now from the Youtube "history" function and it would be very difficult and time consuming to trace and document his record. 

Since we're monitoring him somewhat less, I am not unconcerned about him stumbling across videos with inappropriate content among the "suggested videos" that appear on the right side of the screen, but at this point he seems to be sticking to the videos of his favorite players as they move through their various series. A couple of these players (like SparkofPhoenix for example) do use light profanity, but as I've explained before, this is not necessarily a bad thing, since profanity is a part of any living language, and anyway J would be exposed to it were he growing up in a German-speaking country. However, we are trying to pay attention that he not come across anything too horrible. 

On the other hand, I'm very happy that, during his tablet time, J is opting for just as many German videos as English ones. In the last couple of weeks, in fact, he's been watching almost exclusively German ones. This is fantastic for his language development. SparkofPhoenix, for example, speaks very quickly and often mumblingly-slurringly. This is great counterpoint to my German, which is often overproper in its enunciation, not to mention things like vocabulary and sentence construction, etc. 

There are also numerous bits of daily semi-targeted L2 use that are going unrecorded. For example, on the four days per week I take J to school, I make an effort to arrive a couple of minutes early so that we have time to sit down on a bench or in the library and read a couple of jokes, riddles, or interesting facts. For this purpose I have materials like the following ready on my ipod via kindle:

• Volker Friebel, Rätsel für Kinder
• Imke Stotz, Sagt Ulf zu Gnulf... : Die 500 besten Kinderwitze
• Norbert Golluch, Schlauer geht's nicht — über 700 Kinderfragen und ihre Antworten.

Media today 279

Reading: Katharina Neuschaefer, Die nordischen Sagen, 217-233/294 (kindle edition); E.T.A. Hoffmann, Nussknacker und Mausekönig, loc. 220-418/901 (kindle edition). Listening: E.T.A. Hoffmann, Nussknacker und Mausekönig, 0-54:00.

Yesterday we got our own Nutcracker: 

There was a small problem I should have anticipated, though: when he saw Ulli and Sabine, he went right into Prussian military mode and wanted to attack. It took awhile to convince him that ours are not unfriendly mice such that he is used to, but gentle sweet mice. I'm still not sure he understands, but we are working on him. 

J of course wanted to crack some nuts, and we don't currently have any. I said I would get some but told him that we have to be careful not to damage Nutcracker's mouth. What I was fishing for, J produced right away: "Wie Fritz das in der Geschichte gemacht hat!" 

2015
Total audio: 65.23 hours
Total video: 94.65 hours
Total gameplay: 7.38 hours (category added 8.25.2015)
Age 6.02.10

Literary-critical Sunday school 17

Reading: Monika und Udo Tworuschka, Die Weltreligionen Kindern erklärt, loc. 793-826 (Islam; biography of Muhammed)/2119. Listening: Die Bibel, 1.28-1.42 (Genesis 21-23). 

The birth and binding of Isaac were up today. The latter made a big impression on J. I gave him the standard interpretation, that God did not really intend Isaac's sacrifice, that he was just testing Abraham's faith. 

I also told him that if I heard a voice claiming to be God and demanding that I sacrifice my only son, I would tell that voice to get lost. J laughed at that. 

We discussed some images as well:

   
I also noted to J how Muslims have the same story but that they tell it with Ismael in place of Isaac. 

Media today 278

Reading: E.T.A. Hoffmann, Nussknacker und Mausekönig, loc. 140 - 220/901 (kindle edition). Listening: Rolf Krenzer, Die kleinen Wikinger, 55:00 - 1.11.

The Krenzer stories are delightful and very realistic tales about children growing up in a Viking community. Up to this point they have been about life on the Viking homestead in Scandinavia and the attendant routines. The last chapters have been about constructing a Viking ship. Now the older boys are about to join their first raiding expedition. I'm very curious about how the violence aspect will be handled. Up until now everything has been very true-to-life.  

J continues to really enjoy the Nutcracker, despite the difficulty of the language. We have gotten up to right before the first battle between the mice and the soldiers, and J protested rather vehemently that we had to stop. He loved it when the Nutcracker taunts the mice:

"Knack knack – knack – dummes Mausepack – dummer toller Schnack – Mausepack – Knack – Knack – Mausepack – Krick und Krack – wahrer Schnack." 

2015
Total audio: 64.15 hours
Total video: 94.65 hours
Total gameplay: 7.38 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 6.02.2

Media today 277

Reading: E.T.A. Hoffmann, Nussknacker und Mausekönig, loc. 81-140/901 (kindle edition).

Far be it from me to require that illustrations faithfully render textual descriptions. But it does help with language learning! This illustration of the Nutcracker by Gennady Spirin ...

... perfectly captures the description:

Durch das Ausrücken von Fritzens Husaren, die dicht an dem Baum in Parade gehalten, war nämlich ein sehr vortreiflicher kleiner Mann sichtbar geworden, der still und bescheiden dastand, als erwarte er ruhig, wenn die Reihe an ihn kommen werde. Gegen seinen Wuchs wäre freilich vieles einzuwenden gewesen, denn abgesehen davon, daß der etwas lange, starke Oberleib nicht recht zu den kleinen dünnen Beinchen passen wollte, so schien auch der Kopf bei weitem zu groß. Vieles machte die propre Kleidung gut, welche auf einen Mann von Geschmack und Bildung schließen ließ. Er trug nämlich ein sehr schönes violettglänzendes Husarenjäckchen mit vielen weißen Schnüren und Knöpfchen, ebensolche Beinkleider, und die schönsten Stiefelchen, die jemals an die Füße eines Studenten, ja wohl gar eines Offiziers gekommen sind. Sie saßen an den zierlichen Beinchen so knapp angegossen, als wären sie darauf gemalt. Komisch war es zwar, daß er zu dieser Kleidung sich hinten einen schmalen unbeholfenen Mantel, der recht aussah wie von Holz, angehängt, und ein Bergmannsmützchen aufgesetzt hatte, indessen dachte Marie daran, daß Pate Droßelmeier ja auch einen sehr schlechten Matin umhänge, und eine fatale Mütze aufsetze, dabei aber doch ein gar lieber Pate sei. Auch stellte Marie die Betrachtung an, daß Pate Droßelmeier, trüge er sich auch übrigens so zierlich wie der Kleine, doch nicht einmal so hübsch als er aussehen werde. Indem Marie den netten Mann, den sie auf den ersten Blick liebgewonnen, immer mehr und mehr ansah, da wurde sie erst recht inne, welche Gutmütigkeit auf seinem Gesichte lag. Aus den hellgrünen, etwas zu großen hervorstehenden Augen sprach nichts als Freundschaft und Wohlwollen. Es stand dem Manne gut, daß sich um sein Kinn ein wohlfrisierter Bart von weißer Baumwolle legte, denn um so mehr konnte man das süße Lächeln des hochroten Mundes bemerken.

"Können wir auch einen Nussknacker kaufen?" asked J. Aber natürlich!