Major L2 acquisition goals achieved

The latest media update represents the achievement of two major goals I set for myself and my son when we first began the second-language project nearly five years ago. The first goal was that J would eventually be able and willing—and really like—to read German books on his own, without my help. 

Well, this afternoon J sat read a German story all by himself. I had asked him to work through five pages, but instead he read over 30, in deep absorption for about 40-45 minutes. When I asked him why he kept going, he said: "Weil die Geschichte sehr sehr spannend war" (because the story was very very exciting). 

The second goal was ... Harry Potter! 

Five years ago, I thought to myself that if I could get J to the point where he can fully understand and enjoy this story, we will have reached a major language (and literature!) benchmark. Well, my wife started reading the first book to him several weeks ago, and we've been following that up with audiobook listening in German (my wife insisted English must take priority here!). He loves it, and he seems to understand everything.