Yearly statistics (2016)

Here were the stats from last year (2015):

Total L2 audio: 80.33 hours
Avg: 13:14 minutes per day

Total L2 video: 95.26 hours
Avg: 15:41 minutes per day

Here is this year (2016):

Total L2 audio: 54.28 hours
Avg: 8.95 minutes per day.

Total L2 video: 70.45 hours
Avg: 11.63 minutes per day

Total L2 gamplay: 8.40 hours
Avg: 1.4 minutes per day (but highly sporadic)

So in 2016 J had about 20 minutes of audio-visual L2 input per day, down from about 30 minutes in 2015. Most of this reduction has to do with the fact that 2016 was the first full chronological year that J was in school full-time; in half of 2015 he was still in pre-school, which was half-days three days a week. At that time, I was still generally able to spend one weekday per week with him in an L2-intensive way. My six-week absence in summer 2016 also had an effect. 

All in all, I feel J is getting a substantial amout of L2 media input every day. 

Update: Another difference in the 2016 stats is that for the last several months, there are several regular instances of L2 media use I am no longer recording because it is inconvenient. For example, as I write this, J is sitting in the bathtub listening to Pu der Bär. He regularly listens to audiobooks in the tub and playing (for example with legos), both in German and in English. Over the course of a year this probably amounts to several extra hours of L2 listening. 

Media update 298

J Reading: Cornelia Neudert, Betina Gotzen-Beek, Monstergeschichten (35 pp.). J Reading with me: Sabine Kalwitzki, "Schulausflug mit Supermann." Das große Buch der Abenteuer (Würzburg: Arena Verlag 2015), p. 14-55. Me Reading: Max Kruse, Urmel aus dem Eis. 

Listening: Augsburger Puppenkiste, Urmel aus dem Eis (114 min.); C.S. Lewis, Der König von Narnia (225 min.) 

Viewing: RoxasLP SoraHerz, Let's Play Ratatouille, various episodes (127 min.); Augsburger Puppenkiste, Urmel aus dem Eis, episodes 1-3 (123 min.)

2016
Total audio: 54.28
Total video: 70.45 
Total gamplay: 8.40
Age 7.2.31 

Please, sir, may I read some more?

This morning I asked J to read a couple of pages in a German story called "Der Monster-Fänger." At work I get the following text from him: 

Moments like this make me believe that this whole L2 project of mine might actually even work in the long term!

Texting in German

A new era has begun in J's life, including his life in L2: texting! Here we are (me = green, J = white) corresponding about a Minecraft world we are working on together:

He uses his mommy's phone. Gonna be awhile before he gets his own! 

Würfelwelt

Just over a year ago we tried reading/listening to Karl Olsberg's novel Würfelwelt. J wasn't ready for it then. 

Well, he is now! We've just finished listening to the first story (also reading several chapters in the kindle version) and have started in on the second, Zurück in die Würfelwelt. 

J loves the story. It is suspenseful and well-told, and the quality of the German is high. From an L2 perspective it is very valuable; since J knows the videogame well, which is richly described in the book, he can visualize everything, picking up an enormous amount of vocabulary as he does so. 

Another L2 multiplier is that Gronkh, a well-known German YouTube artist of "Let's Play" whose Mincraft-videos J knows, is a character in the novel. So J has gone back and watched many of those old videos. In the last couple of days, I've noticed that when J has been playing Minecraft, he seems to be trying to imitate a Let's Play video by keeping up a constant stream of game-chat—in German!

Media update 297

J reading with me: Inge Meyer-Dietrich, Almud Kunert, Der kleine Drache und der Monsterhund.

Me Reading: R. Goscinny, A. Uderzo, Asterix der Gallier; Karl Olsberg, Würfelwelt (selections); DK Penguin Random House, Naturwissenschaften für clevere Kids (various pages) 

Listening: Ich weiß was, "Albert E. erklärt die großen Entdecker (49 min.); "Karl Olsberg, Würfelwelt (4.36 min.)

Viewing: RoxasLP SoraHerz, Let's Play Ratatouille, episodes 1-11 (x 2, 540 min.); IOCUZ, Let's Play Kung Fu Panda (various episodes, 230 min); Gronkh, Let's Play Mincraft (337 min).

2016
Total audio: 48.49
Total video: 66.35
Total gamplay: 6.40
Age 6.12.24 

Nutcracker reloaded

J started learning a piano piece from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker today. Tonight he asked me if we could start reading the story again, since Christmas is  approaching. "And Gustav doesn't know it yet!", he informed me. 

We had a grand time with Nutcracker last year (here, here, here, here, here, and here). 

"I'm especially excited about the battle," he told his mommy.