Relative clauses

This morning during our library chat, J was killing the relative clauses. While describing the various tests he accomplished in a videogame this morning, these kinds of sentences were veritably streaming out of him: 

Ich habe alles geholt, was ich holen musste.
Ich glaube, das war der erste Test, den ich geschafft habe. 

I was especially excited about that masculine accusative singular relative pronoun, especially in combination with subordinating word order. There were 3-4 examples of this. I don't believe I heard a single error in basic grammar and syntax. 

By the way, the videogame was "School of Dragons," based on the movie How to Train Your Dragon.

In his description this morning, J was also using a lot of terminology from this book we have just acquired and been reading. 

So today was a very good example of how books + videogames can be used to leverage a lot of active L2 production. I've just ordered a large German World of Warcraft book in order to better be able to do this with that game.  

New books!

These arrived in the mail yesterday. J was super excited and sat down with them right away.

Daily conversation time

For the last five months, on the four days per week that I take J to school, we've had a routine where we sit down together in the library for a few minutes (2-5) and have a chat (always in German of course). 

(Thanks to librarian Tanya H. for the photos)

This has become an important part of our L2 routine after the pre-k days when we had one whole day together per week. It is also a lovely bit of quality father-son time. It's one of those many ways in which our L2 relationship, which I, like many people, had initially feared would feel unnatural, has in fact encouraged behaviors and interactions that contribute to the quality of the relationship with my son. If I had never undertaken to speak German with him, would it have occurred to me to set aside a few minutes every day to just chat with him? Maybe. But maybe not!

Initially I would read something like jokes or riddles. In the last couple of months I've stopped doing that and we've just been talking about whatever comes up. Recently it's been World of Warcraft. All I have to do is ask J about his characters and quests and he'll just narrate away.

Another thing I've started doing recently is to have him ask me questions. His task is to think up one good question every morning, about something he doesn't know about me or his mother. The goal here is to encourage him to take an active interest in other people's lives and perspectives, become a good listener and interlocutor. He has good social skills already (L2 may play a role in this), this is just building on that.    

Sunday school 22. Joseph 3.

Reading: Monika und Udo Tworuschka, Die Weltreligionen Kindern erklärt, loc. 1190-1199/2119 Kindle edition (Hinduism). Listening: Die Bibel, 3.19 - 4.07 (Genesis ch. 42-47).

Today we had a long and interesting discussion about what motivated Joseph to put the silver cup into Benjamin's sack and make it look like Benjamin had stolen it. 

We also started talking about Hinduism and had a fairly involved conversation about various conceptions of the afterlife in various religions, including reincarnation. 

2016

Total audio: 18.39

Total video: 3:11

Total gamplay: 3.00

Age 6.06.24

L1/L2 divergence, Part 5

Ever since he's become interested in World of Warcraft, J has been less active with Minecraft. One consequence is that he's not been watching as many "Let's play" videos, which provide exposure to rapid-paced colloquial language. When he does, he's been mostly choosing English-language ones, which has gotten me worried that it's becoming an effort for him to watch German videos for reasons having to do with L1/L2 divergence. 

However, this morning (and in the last couple of days in fact) he chose to watch German videos again: 

Later this morning I asked him about comparative understanding. He's generally quite reluctant to answer such questions and doesn't give what I would call rich responses, but he said that he understands the German videos still about as well as the English-language ones. Maybe that's true, maybe it isn't; he obviously senses my investment in his German-speaking ability and may be telling me what he thinks I want to hear. Still, it's something. He chose to watch the videos, after all, and had a lot to say about them.

begegnen

This morning J, while describing a World of Warcraft incident, told me about "... ein Monster, das ... dem ich begegnet habe." 

He got the auxiliary wrong (as he still not infrequently does with all the verbs with sein), but I was very impressed that he self-corrected the object case. 

L1/L2 divergence, part 4.

There was a disconcerting incident two days ago, the precise nature and significance of which I've been pondering. 

J and I were on one of our audiobook drives in the country, listening to the German version of J.M. Barrie's story Peter Pan, which my wife has been reading in the original to J at bedtime. Suddenly J announced in some distress that he couldn't understand what was going on in the story. He bust into tears and wanted to stop. After a few minutes he calmed down and wanted to resume listening, and thereafter it was business as usual: I could see him paying attention, reacting with facial expressions to what was going on in the story, and seeming to enjoy himself.  

Whenever we read/listen to/watch the same story in both languages, I always ask J questions about how well he understands it comparatively. Up until now he has either said that there is no difference in understanding, or that he understands the German version better. This time, when I asked him, he said that he understands the English version of Peter Pan better.

Now on the one hand, I don't dispute that this is simply true, and it seems to me that the incident is more evidence of the L1/L2 divergence that I have been noticing for the past several months and documenting since early March of this year. 

On the other hand, I think there are some mitigating circumstances, or differences in the circumstances. First, I've noticed in the past that J's level of concentration is greater while listening to an audiobook in the car than while being read to at home. At home, he tends to be playing with something (stuffed animals, toys, flashlight, etc.) while being read to. Consequently, he tends to drift along over passages he doesn't really comprehend without registering the fact with the reader, or else he simply says he does understand when he doesn't. I noticed this with Unten am Fluss several weeks ago, where it took me quite a while to really see that he wasn't understanding large portions of the story. In the car, however, where he is confined to his car seat and where he (intentionally on my part) doesn't usually have things to play with while listening, he concentrates on the story much more. So it's logical that he would also register non-comprehension in that setting.   

Secondly, like Unten am Fluss, Peter Pan is a discursively rather challenging story. My wife has pointed out on numerous occasions that even though it is written for children, in many ways it seems as though an adult audience is being targeted, between the lines so to speak. This is especially the case in ch. 2 (which occasioned the above crisis), where the parents are self-reproachfully recalling the events that led up the the disappearance of the children. 

Thirdly, when my wife reads Peter Pan to J, she reads quite slowly. The audiobook narrative is indeed very fast. 

Lastly, my wife often pauses in her reading to explain words and references to J. I do this while reading, but not often on our audiobook drives, in order not to fumble with the ipod while driving. 

So those are some mitigating factors. Still, I don't doubt that there is some real L1/L2 divergence behind the incident. 

Mäusemalunterricht

This is a fun book.

There is a good amount of written instruction with the kind of drawing-technical terminology I myself never learned.

Hospital visit

Ulli and Sabine promised J to be there for him during his toe operation last week.

Eine Schlangengeschichte, Teil 3.

Kapitel 4. Rettung

Während sich die Schlangen schlängelten, stellte die gute Schlange sich vor. “Ich heiße Schalin,” zischte sie. Ballu lispelte: “Ich bin Ballu, und das sind meine zwei Söhne, Schuhlu und Buhlu.” Und sie gingen weiter. Bald kamen sie zum Nest des Vogelgreifen. Es war ganz oben auf einem mächtigen Baum. Sie schauten nach oben und sahen Teile des Rands des Nestes. Rallu aber konnten sie nicht sehen. Schalin sagte: “Schlängeln wir uns den Baum hoch.” Sie hatten Schwierigkeiten, aber nach einer halben Stunde hatten sie das geschafft. Sie sahen Rallu im Nest. Der Vogelgreif war inzwischen wieder weg und noch nicht zurückgekommen. Sie sahen, dass Rallu eine Wunde hatte, wo der Vogelgreif ihn geschnappt hat. Er war aber nicht zu schwer verwundet. Er war überrascht und glücklich. Schalin sagte: “Kommt, gehen wir hier weg.” Die Schlangen schlängelten sich den Baum herunter, das war viel leichter. Der verwundete Rallu hatte ein paar Schwierigkeiten, aber er schaffte es.

New bilingualism research 3

Panos Athanasopoulos, "How the language you speak changes your view of the world" (The Conversation, 4.27.2015)

The experiments described here are quite ingenious. Cool also that German-English bilinguals are the focus of the study.

Wilhelm Busch

I inherited this jewel from an old family friend: 

Wilhelm Busch, Sammlung lustiger Bildergeschichten mit 1500 Bildern. Heiteres und Ernsters aus seiner Lebenswerkstatt (Hermann Klemm: Braunschweig, 1950). 

I read J a few stories from it a couple of years ago. "Der Hahnenkampf" was a favorite then, and still is. He wanted me to read it four times tonight.

We started a longer tale, "Schnurrdiburr, oder die Bienen." Ch. 2 features a piggy who gets stung. The bit in Low German at the bottom, "Wat hat dat Swien?" had J in tears with laughter; he kept asking me to read it over and over.  

By the way, the piggy looks dead, but isn't. Many of the stories in this book have animals—and people, especially children—coming to bad ends. It limits the appeal of Busch to a modern audience. This book has "Max und Moritz" as well, which I haven't read to J yet for that reason. 

Media update 288

Reading: Roger Hargreaves, Miss Zwilling. Mona Horncastle, Kunst-Comic Albrecht Dürer. Kathrin Hamann, Pupsdrache Lutz. Listening: Ich weiß was, "Albert E. erklärt alles über die Schifffahrt" (51 min.); Dimiter Inkiow, Europäische Sagen (1.34). Ingo Siegner, Der kleine Drache Kokosnuss bei den Dinosauriern (56 min.).

One of J's favorite stories in the Inkiow audiobook was about the Golem. 

When he got home, he wanted to show me how he makes golems in Minecraft: 

2016
Total audio: 17.51
Total video: 3:11
Total gamplay: 3.00
Age 6.06.12

L1/L2 divergence, part 3. On the brighter side ...

Despite the gradual L1/L2 divergence, as yet there is no sign of weakening language barriers in his interactions with me. Around the house he always addresses me only in German, even when he is interacting with his mother and I walk in. If in our mixed three-way conversation I flub and address him in English (something I don't believe he ever does), he tells me to speak in German. 

L1/L2 divergence, part 2.

Up until last summer J, while playing make-believe games with his animals and toys, would talk to himself in German when he was with me alone in the house. A few days ago, and then today again, I noticed he does not do that anymore. 

I asked him if he still does and he said sometimes, but I'm not sure it's true. 

Ah, well, it's likely inevitable. I posted on L1/L2 divergence a month ago and stated my goals moving forward. 

Gutenachtküsse / Good night kisses

So I usually give J several goodnight kisses. Often I then leave the room, only to come back a few minutes later and request "einen allerletzten Gutenachtkuss."

Tonight his mother put him to bed, then I went into his room and said: "Darf ich einen allerletzten Gutenachtbussi haben?" J: "Papa, du hast noch keinen bekommen!" 

Volkslieder 3.

This one we knew from an episode of Janos' Traumstunde. 

J asked what "von dannen" meant, so I told him and have been trying to work it into our conversations.

Sunday school 21. Joseph 2

Reading: Monika und Udo Tworuschka, Die Weltreligionen Kindern erklärt, loc. 871-895/2119 Kindle edition (Koran). Listening: Die Bibel, 2.47-3.19 (Genesis ch. 38-41).

This is from Sunday. J made several good observations about the Joseph story, which he knows very well, but I've already forgotten what they were, since I didn't post this yesterday.

When we got home my wife played him Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which he now loves. 

2016
Total audio: 14.07
Total video: 3:11
Total gamplay: 3.00
Age 6.06.11

Eine Schlangengeschichte. Teil 2.

First two chapters here.

Kapitel 3. Der Vogelgreif

Als sie auf dem Pfad waren, stürzte plötzlich ein Vogelgreif aus dem Himmel und schnappte sich Rallu. Die Schlangen waren ganz überrascht und entsetzt, dass der Vogelgreif gekommen war. Der Vogelgreif flog zu seinem Nest. Die anderen Schlangen sahen eine gute Schlange, die ihnen aus dem Wald entgegenkam. Sie redete mit Ballu und sagte, “Ich glaube, ich weiß, dass das Ihr Mann ist. Ich weiß, wo das Nest des Vogelgreifen ist, ich werde Euch hinbringen."

Kunst 6. Dieter Asmus

The thing I pointed out with this artist is the juxtaposition of realistic subjects and incongruous surroundings. 

J especially liked his King Arthur themed work:

Volkslieder 2

We also listened/watched to two versions of this one, a traditional interpretation by Hermann Prey and a Manhattan-Tranfer-ish one by the Ute Mann Singers. 

Since in J's piano lessons we're working on modes, I sang this one also in Phrygian, with an F natural in the penultimate bar. 

Volkslieder 1

I picked up this book somewhere along the way: 

So I've started to learn and sing some of these songs to J at bedtime. Tonight we did "Es wollt ein Schneider wandern," which he really enjoyed.

 

I mentioned to him that there are a lot of stories about clever and tricksy tailors. We also listened to this version. 

Kunst 5. Albrecht Dürer 3

Tonight in the Dürer comic we read about his famous woodcut of the "Four Riders of the Apocalypse."

We read on Wikipedia about what each horseman symbolizes, then I read Revelations ch. 6, where they appear, then we looked at a number of other images of the motif. 

Great for a little kid at bedtime, huh?