Roald Dahl, Sophiechen und der Riese, 2:34-2:42
There were a lot of the giant's funny solecisms in this section.
durcheinanderlich < durcheinander
keine Wange < keine Bange
Donnerschmetterling < Donnerwetter
Throughout this Hörbuch I've been drawing attention to these by saying things like "Did you notice how the BFG says __________ instead of _________? Ha ha!" and "Ha ha ha! The BFG should have said ____________ but instead he said ______________."
In addition to increasing general language awareness in a very fun way, this affords a lot of good practice with instead-constructions (statt, anstatt, stattdessen) and the past subjunctive (hätte sagen sollen / müssen / wollen).
Age 5.1.10
Piggy pedagogy
Friday, December 5, 2014
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Do NOT Read This Post! Overinterpreting the Grimms' "Marienkind"
Today my son and I listened to the Grimm brothers fairy tale "Marienkind" (Kinder- und Hausmärchen, no. 3, 13 min.).*
This is a very strange and disturbing story (par for the course with the Grimms, I suppose) that in some ways represents old-world Catholicism at its darkest: obey unquestioningly, or be not merely expelled from paradise, but burned at the stake! At the same time, the ending is a powerful statement on the total efficacy of the human will in accessing divine saving grace. It's popular Pelagianism. Though of course, the human excercises the will only in the face of the direst threat of violence, which scenario snatches back with the right hand the freedom extended with the left.
Whenever Mary asked the girl if she wants to admit opening the forbidden door, my son called out "Flunkerei!" ("That's a fib!"). Personally, I found there was something almost heroic in the little girl's resoluteness and told J so. Besides, much like with the forbidden fruit, there's the question of why Mary flaunted the door's forbiddenness if she didn't want it opened.
There is a brilliant scene in Otfried Preußler's Räuber Hotzenplotz that can be read as a parodie of the forbidden door in "Marienkind." Kasperl, trapped in the castle of the evil magician Petrosilius Zwackelmann, finds a door with a sign on it saying "Admittance Strictly Forbidden!"
He goes through, only to find a second door with a sign saying "Very Strictly Forbidden!"
and then a third door saying "Absolutely Forbidden!"
It's one of J's favorite scenes; we've read and heard it dozens of times.
One of many things I love about Preußler is the way he subverts traditional fairy-tale motifs, often in a way that represents the empowerment of young subjects vis-a-vis some kind of authoritarianism. The parade example of this is Die kleine Hexe.
Of course, all this freethinking education is probably going to come back to haunt my wife & me in about ten years—if not sooner!
J asked why the girl (das Mädchen) is always referred to as ihm (dative case), so he's really starting to hear the antiquatedness of the language.
Age 5.1.7
*We skipped over no. 2 "Katz und Maus in Gesellschaft" at J's request. He has no problem with people being burned at the stake, but can't handle a cat eating a mouse!
This is a very strange and disturbing story (par for the course with the Grimms, I suppose) that in some ways represents old-world Catholicism at its darkest: obey unquestioningly, or be not merely expelled from paradise, but burned at the stake! At the same time, the ending is a powerful statement on the total efficacy of the human will in accessing divine saving grace. It's popular Pelagianism. Though of course, the human excercises the will only in the face of the direst threat of violence, which scenario snatches back with the right hand the freedom extended with the left.
Whenever Mary asked the girl if she wants to admit opening the forbidden door, my son called out "Flunkerei!" ("That's a fib!"). Personally, I found there was something almost heroic in the little girl's resoluteness and told J so. Besides, much like with the forbidden fruit, there's the question of why Mary flaunted the door's forbiddenness if she didn't want it opened.
There is a brilliant scene in Otfried Preußler's Räuber Hotzenplotz that can be read as a parodie of the forbidden door in "Marienkind." Kasperl, trapped in the castle of the evil magician Petrosilius Zwackelmann, finds a door with a sign on it saying "Admittance Strictly Forbidden!"
He goes through, only to find a second door with a sign saying "Very Strictly Forbidden!"
and then a third door saying "Absolutely Forbidden!"
It's one of J's favorite scenes; we've read and heard it dozens of times.
One of many things I love about Preußler is the way he subverts traditional fairy-tale motifs, often in a way that represents the empowerment of young subjects vis-a-vis some kind of authoritarianism. The parade example of this is Die kleine Hexe.
Of course, all this freethinking education is probably going to come back to haunt my wife & me in about ten years—if not sooner!
J asked why the girl (das Mädchen) is always referred to as ihm (dative case), so he's really starting to hear the antiquatedness of the language.
Age 5.1.7
*We skipped over no. 2 "Katz und Maus in Gesellschaft" at J's request. He has no problem with people being burned at the stake, but can't handle a cat eating a mouse!
Puppetry today 2
The two hours this morning before J's school were a whirl of puppetry. First, he wanted a reprise of the Tannenbaum game from last night. This time we got through all three stanzas. I even managed to work in a bit of literary criticism by having the piggies ask what the last stanza means:
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum,
Dein Kleid will mich was lehren:
Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit
Gibt Mut und Kraft zu jeder Zeit!
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum,
Dein Kleid will mich was lehren.
I told them it's about how the tree means two things at the same time. First and most importantly, the tree just means itself, but secondly, it's also a symbol for something else which is a little harder to explain. Then I elucidated a bit what the connection is between the evergreen needles and hope and constancy.
The puppets are great way of introducing such things, by the way. J himself, of course, is not at the point of asking such questions himself. Nor is he much interested in hearing lectures from me out of the blue. But he pays very close attention when the puppets ask me questions. We have been through some version of the above scenario probably some half-dozen times in the past year, and by now J will volunteer things like "Das ist ein Symbol für ________" and "Das ist ein Zeichen von _________".
.JPG)
After this J wanted to do some drawing and coloring. He opened his coloring book to some peafowl, which he is very interested in. So he went and got Percy, our resident peacock (also from Folksmanis), and the three of us sat around the table while J colored, I read out loud about peafowl, and Percy commented.
All the while J was humming O Tannenbaum, so then, as we often do with songs, we tried to come up with new lyrics. Here is what we worked out with Percy, then with Ulli (mouse) and Franziska (gliding squirrel). Lines and words J came up with by himself are marked in green.
O Vogelpfau, O Vogelpfau,
wie schön sind deine Federn!
Sie leuchten durch das ganze Jahr,
besonders wenn es draußen klar,
O Vogelpfau, O Vogelpfau,
wie schön sind deine Federn.
O Gleithörnchen, O Gleithörnchen,
Du bist ein guter Gleiter!
Du gleitest schön von Baum zu Baum,
Du gleitest über Schaum und Pflaum.
O Gleithörnchen, O Gleithörnchen,
Du bist ein guter Gleiter!
(Scansion of the first line doesn't quite work, but we make it work.)
O Mäuseli, O Mäuseli,
Du bist ein guter Renner!
Du huschst im ganzen Haus herum ...
Then something about cheese as we arrived at school...
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum,
Dein Kleid will mich was lehren:
Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit
Gibt Mut und Kraft zu jeder Zeit!
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum,
Dein Kleid will mich was lehren.
I told them it's about how the tree means two things at the same time. First and most importantly, the tree just means itself, but secondly, it's also a symbol for something else which is a little harder to explain. Then I elucidated a bit what the connection is between the evergreen needles and hope and constancy.
The puppets are great way of introducing such things, by the way. J himself, of course, is not at the point of asking such questions himself. Nor is he much interested in hearing lectures from me out of the blue. But he pays very close attention when the puppets ask me questions. We have been through some version of the above scenario probably some half-dozen times in the past year, and by now J will volunteer things like "Das ist ein Symbol für ________" and "Das ist ein Zeichen von _________".
After this J wanted to do some drawing and coloring. He opened his coloring book to some peafowl, which he is very interested in. So he went and got Percy, our resident peacock (also from Folksmanis), and the three of us sat around the table while J colored, I read out loud about peafowl, and Percy commented.
All the while J was humming O Tannenbaum, so then, as we often do with songs, we tried to come up with new lyrics. Here is what we worked out with Percy, then with Ulli (mouse) and Franziska (gliding squirrel). Lines and words J came up with by himself are marked in green.
O Vogelpfau, O Vogelpfau,
wie schön sind deine Federn!
Sie leuchten durch das ganze Jahr,
besonders wenn es draußen klar,
O Vogelpfau, O Vogelpfau,
wie schön sind deine Federn.
O Gleithörnchen, O Gleithörnchen,
Du bist ein guter Gleiter!
Du gleitest schön von Baum zu Baum,
Du gleitest über Schaum und Pflaum.
O Gleithörnchen, O Gleithörnchen,
Du bist ein guter Gleiter!
(Scansion of the first line doesn't quite work, but we make it work.)
O Mäuseli, O Mäuseli,
Du bist ein guter Renner!
Du huschst im ganzen Haus herum ...
Then something about cheese as we arrived at school...
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, wie treu sind deine ...
This evening as we were decorating the Christmas tree, Friedel and Thusnelda broke into O Tannenbaum.
When they sang "Wie treu sind deine Blätter," J corrected them and said that Christmas trees don't have Blätter (leaves), but rather Nadeln (needles) and that it should be "Wie treu sind deine Nadeln." The piggies insisted that the words were right and sang it in his face, whereupon he squished their mouths shut. There followed about 10 minutes of horseplay where the piggies sang things like O Jamiebaum, O Jamiebaum, wie grün sind deine Ohren whenever he let their mouths out of his grip. He finally had to sit on them.
Thusnelda told J that people first started decorating Christmas trees in Germany a long time ago. She also told him that the custom was actually started by wild pigs, not humans. According to her, they would use their tusks to hook the ornaments and hang them up on the trees. "Das ist völliger Quatsch" (complete nonsense) J said.
I also read to J a bit about Christmas trees on Wikipedia, including a few sentences each from the Allemanic and Bavarian entries. I told him these were different kinds of German people spoke in certain areas of Germany and Switzerland. When I asked him if he could understand any of it, he said no.
When they sang "Wie treu sind deine Blätter," J corrected them and said that Christmas trees don't have Blätter (leaves), but rather Nadeln (needles) and that it should be "Wie treu sind deine Nadeln." The piggies insisted that the words were right and sang it in his face, whereupon he squished their mouths shut. There followed about 10 minutes of horseplay where the piggies sang things like O Jamiebaum, O Jamiebaum, wie grün sind deine Ohren whenever he let their mouths out of his grip. He finally had to sit on them.
Thusnelda told J that people first started decorating Christmas trees in Germany a long time ago. She also told him that the custom was actually started by wild pigs, not humans. According to her, they would use their tusks to hook the ornaments and hang them up on the trees. "Das ist völliger Quatsch" (complete nonsense) J said.
I also read to J a bit about Christmas trees on Wikipedia, including a few sentences each from the Allemanic and Bavarian entries. I told him these were different kinds of German people spoke in certain areas of Germany and Switzerland. When I asked him if he could understand any of it, he said no.
Media today 24
Reading: Max Kruse, Urmel aus dem Eis, ch. 7-8. J found the section where Professor Tibatong tries to teach the Urmel his first sounds very funny and wanted to hear it twice.
Viewing: Let's play Kung Fu Panda (Deutsch), episode 7.
Viewing: Let's play Kung Fu Panda (Deutsch), episode 7.
Monday, December 1, 2014
Media today 23
Reading: Max Kruse, Urmel aus dem Eis, ch. 5-6.
Listening: Grimm brothers, Kinder- und Hausmärchen, Nr. 1, "Der Froschkönig" (10 min.); Albert E. erklärt Kroko & Co., 46:00-52:00 (end); Albert E. erklärt unsere Sonne, 0:00-11:30. We also had this collection of German Christmas songs playing while I worked and J drew.
Viewing: Let's play Kung Fu Panda (Deutsch), no. 11 (20 min.)
This is a video recording of two German young people playing the German version of the KFP video game and recording their chat while doing so. It may seem like a strange resource, but these videos (and there are now a lot of them) are fantastic for L2 development for several reasons. First, the game itself features a lot of spoken text.
Second, and more importantly, the players talk up a storm, using colloquial language and a wide range of speech patterns in ways impossible to get from audiobooks and movies. They talk fast, fun & slangy; they slur, shout, mumble, whisper, goof off & joke, argue, etc. Occasionally there is mild obscenity ("Scheiße!"), but nothing too bad, and quite frankly, besides naughty language being a natural part of an authentic speech environment, if picking some up provides J with even a modicum of extra titillation directed at the L2, I'm on board. Not that I ever signal anything but stern disapproval—I know my role!
J loves these videos and would watch them all day if I let him.
As for the Frog King, J has never had much to say about it and doesn't like it much. Not that I blame him. The way that the princess manages to lift the curse and be rewarded with true love and happiness not by overcoming her disgust with the froggy prince, as one would hope, but by giving into her revulsion and trying to kill him, is very strange. Not to mention the way a completely different story (Iron Heinrich) hijacks the end.
When we came to the section where the iron bands around Iron Heinrich's heart break, J said laconically: "Das ist unmöglich" (That's impossible).
Age 5.1.5
Listening: Grimm brothers, Kinder- und Hausmärchen, Nr. 1, "Der Froschkönig" (10 min.); Albert E. erklärt Kroko & Co., 46:00-52:00 (end); Albert E. erklärt unsere Sonne, 0:00-11:30. We also had this collection of German Christmas songs playing while I worked and J drew.
Viewing: Let's play Kung Fu Panda (Deutsch), no. 11 (20 min.)
This is a video recording of two German young people playing the German version of the KFP video game and recording their chat while doing so. It may seem like a strange resource, but these videos (and there are now a lot of them) are fantastic for L2 development for several reasons. First, the game itself features a lot of spoken text.
Second, and more importantly, the players talk up a storm, using colloquial language and a wide range of speech patterns in ways impossible to get from audiobooks and movies. They talk fast, fun & slangy; they slur, shout, mumble, whisper, goof off & joke, argue, etc. Occasionally there is mild obscenity ("Scheiße!"), but nothing too bad, and quite frankly, besides naughty language being a natural part of an authentic speech environment, if picking some up provides J with even a modicum of extra titillation directed at the L2, I'm on board. Not that I ever signal anything but stern disapproval—I know my role!
J loves these videos and would watch them all day if I let him.
As for the Frog King, J has never had much to say about it and doesn't like it much. Not that I blame him. The way that the princess manages to lift the curse and be rewarded with true love and happiness not by overcoming her disgust with the froggy prince, as one would hope, but by giving into her revulsion and trying to kill him, is very strange. Not to mention the way a completely different story (Iron Heinrich) hijacks the end.
When we came to the section where the iron bands around Iron Heinrich's heart break, J said laconically: "Das ist unmöglich" (That's impossible).
Age 5.1.5
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)