Media today 10

Der kleine Wassermann (Hörspiel), part 3, 23:10-33:40. At 28:22 there is a very catchy little song in the bossa nova style that J wanted to hear four times in a row and has since been humming all day. 

Ich bin der kleine Wassermann, 
der ganz genau weiß, was er kann.
O ja, o ja,
ich bin der kleine Wasserman!

Tief unten im Wasser vom Mühlenteich 
liegt verborgen im Schilf ein verwünschenes Reich,
wo Schnecken ihre Fühler recken,
Muscheln sich im Schlick gern kuscheln,
Elritzen durch das Wasser flitzen, 
Molche—nun es gibt auch solche, liebe Strolche!

Und Wasserflöhe springen in die Höhe,
und alle Brassen sehen es gelassen.
Zwischen Tausendblatt und Nixenkraut
lebt auch ein alter Argonaut.
Der Karpfen Cyprinus ist gern auf jeder Feier,
gibt's mal eine Fete im Mühlenweiher!

O ja, o ja,
er ist der kleine Wasserman,
der ganz genau weiß, was er kann.
O ja, o ja,
er ist der kleine Wasserman!

(Wir alle wissen das!
Ja, jeder weiß das hier!)

Ich liebe Quatsch und Schabernack!
Jedermann weiß, ich bin auf Zack.
Ich bin sehr mutig und auch schlau,
(Ja, ein echter Schlaumeier!)
jeder im Teich weiß das genau.
Und später werd' ich einmal dann
der große kleine Wassermann!
(Ihr werdet schon sehen!)
O ja, o ja,
ich bin der kleine Wasserman!

I had forgotten about the idiom auf Zack sein, so I've been working it in.

Age 4.12.15

Audiobooks and Hörspiele

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of audiobooks for my son's L2 development. Since I am not a native speaker of the L2 and learned it in an academic context, my own L2 production was initially deficient with regard to the linguistic strata associated with childhood: specific idioms and euphemisms of all kinds, especially for bodily experiences and activities; language of concrete physical description, especially of how simple devices work; onomatopoeic words; animal sounds, etc. 

German children's audiobooks made up for these deficiencies for my son and simultaneously taught me a great deal. Furthermore, audio materials, especially multicharacter Hörspiele, allow for regular exposure to a wide variety of different voice types, regional accents, and modes of oral speech, as well as to imitations of everyday communicative phenomena like mutiple people speaking at the same time, interruptions, voices from a distance, etc. 

  
My son has been listening to audiobooks ever since he began German at age 2.2. For the past two years, between ages 2.8 and 4.11, he has been listening about 90 minutes per week. At the time I am writing this, he has done about 250-300 hours of listening to about 70 audiobooks and Hörspiele in the three years he has been learning German. 

There is a major logistical qualification. I have found only one way to get my son to engage in sustained and concentrated listening: in the car, while strapped into his seat. All those hundreds of hours were logged on the road. In fact, much of this driving was for no other purpose than for listening to audiobooks. 

I avoid busy roads and traffic, either cruising very slowly around local neighborhoods (usually in the very early morning) or else out in the country. Fortunately, we live in a small town within easy reach of hundreds of miles of rural roads. If we lived in or near a big city and had difficulty escaping urban or suburban traffic conditions, I would not undertake the risk of so much unnecessary driving. As it is, I only feel guilty about increasing my carbon footprint. 

Chandler Bridge Road, 7 min. from my house

Weekly listening routine. Once per week we take long drive in the country, listening for 45 minutes to an hour. On two other weekdays, we get in 10-20 minutes of listening before I drop Jamie off at school or his grandmother's. The weekend is usually good for another chunk of 15-30 minutes. Then there are scattered bits of time here and there in the afternoon as we run errands or whatever. On longer drives or vacation roadtrips, Jamie will sometimes listen for several hours at a time. 

Technology and method. I get all our German audiobooks and Hörspiele from Audible.de, downloading them via the Audible app directly onto an Ipod touch (a smartphone would work just as well), which plugs into an Ipod jack on a cord into the car stereo. While driving slowly in a residential area or on a country road with no traffic, I have my Ipod in my right palm with my thumb hovering over the icon that makes the recording skip back ten seconds. This is because Jamie likes to hear favorite bits over and over again, a desire I encourage and indulge, since repetition is pure language-learning gold. The pause icon is right there too, which we make liberal use of in order to talk about the story as we are listening. 

(Classical guitarist fingernails!)

Repetition and discussion are a fundamental part of the experience, and the technology makes a difference here: skipping back and pausing is not as quick and easy with a CD player as it is with an Ipod. Nor is it as safe, since you need to take your eyes off the road for a split second. With a bit of practice, this is not necessary with an Ipod touch (or a smartphone) using the Audible app. 

Again, let me make safety issues clear: Only on residential streets and backroads do I do the Ipod-in-the-palm thing. If we're listening while running errands in suburban traffic, there are no pauses or playbacks until we are parked somewhere. 

Primary materials. So far I have placed the greatest emphasis on stories I first read out loud to Jamie from books or e-reader. So the audibook is already a repetition. Our listening tracks our reading very closely; usually same or next day, and we listen only as far as we have read. I do this for three main reasons. First, I like to prioritize the written medium and the intimacy of reading out loud together as the primary literary experience. Secondly, I can make sure Jamie already understands everything before the listening begins, from plot points down to important words and phrases. Thirdly, since the audiobook or Hörspiel generally represents a performative enhancement of what I am capable (with great character voices by professional narrators and actors, catchy songs and soundtracks, cool sound effects), Jamie is less interested in reading a book together that we have first experienced as an audiobook.

For the first two years, the listening was dominated by four main groups of stories:

1) Nine Hörspiele based on Hans de Beer's Der kleine Eisbär (from 2.2-3.5 years)

2) Sixteen audiobooks from Ingo Siegner's Der kleine Drache Kokosnuss (from 3.6-4.3 years)

3) Fairy tales by the Grimms (2.5-years-present). 

4) Bible stories (3.10 years-present)

Beginning at age 4.8, the focus has shifted to longer chapter books. We have been working our way through Otfried Preußler's stories (so far Der Räuber Hotzenplotz 1, 2, and 3; Das kleine Gespenst, and Die kleine Hexe) and German audio productions of Roald Dahl's Charlie und die Schokoladenfabrik and Sophiechen und der Riese. In the case of the latter, Jamie first reads the stories with my wife in the original English. 

Other great serials we have dipped into for which great audio productions are avaliable include the Findus und Petterson tales by Sven Nordquist, Max Kruse's Urmel stories, and the endless Benjamin Blümchen Hörspiele. There are dozens more we have not listened to. 

Secondary materials. There is also a massive amount of high-quality German children's non-fiction to be had in audio production. The Random House/cbj audio series "Ich weiß was" is fabulous, covering most areas of basic knowledge in a very entertaining manner. The science and philosophy-oriented Hörspiele by the German astronomer Harald Lesch are truly stellar, managing to broach deep existential and ethical questions in a manner understandable and entertaining for a four-year-old. 

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We usually listen to these sorts of things in shorter snippets, since as not-fiction they do not hold Jamie's attention for very long. We have also listened to a good deal of poetry and mythology. 

Tie-ins to visual media. The more media through which a child can experience a story, the better for language-learning purposes. This factor also partly guides my choice of what we listen to. Of the above materials, many are available as films, television shows, or plays, either free via YouTube or at sites like Kinderkino.de.

In my experience, however, it is best to wait until one has read the book and listened to the audiobook before getting to the visual media. I have found that once J has seen the movie or show, he is less interested in a repeated reading of or listening to the story.  

Media today 9

Der kleine Wassermann (Hörspiel), part 2, 16:15-23:10. This was mostly just doing time on the way to school. J interrupted to talk about what was really on his mind: the difference between leopard spots and cheetah spots: 

I let him talk and commented, working on such idioms as gut Bescheid wissen and sich gut auskennen ("to really know what one is talking about"). 

Reading: Der kleine Wassermann, ch. 9-10. Jamie enjoyed the world-upside-down aspect of the scene where the little water sprite might get sick if he runs around too long with dry feet.

Age 4.12.14

Media today 8

Reading: Otfried Preußler, Der kleine Wassermann, ch. 7-8. Listening: Die Welt der Zahlen, 51:00-59:00. Viewing: Reptil.TV, Episode 49 (0:00-10:00) and "Schlangen in freier Wildbahn" (0:00-20:00). 

J really enjoyed the scene in Wassermann where the water nixie daddy and son were watching the humans and remarking how bizarre it was that they lacked webbed hands (Schwimmhäute) and coudn't stay under water long. Preußler is a master of little Verfremdungseffekte, making strange things into the material of daily life and then illuminating quotidian things from an unexpected perspective. 

In "Welt der Zahlen" there were two sweet spots, one (54:46) where youthful hero Albert rudely interrupts the narrator (five-six reps and lots of laughs) and another (57:30) where Albert makes the infinity symbol by tipping over the number 8 (three reps). This last bit also has a good discussion of the concept of infinity (Unendlichkeit).  

With Reptil.TV I pointed out a few features of the host's Swabian accent: ischt for ist, nit for nicht. I told J that Friedel likes to use nit in order to provoke Thusnelda, which delighted him, so I'll be enacting that in the next few days.

Age 4.12.13 

Media today 7: Snake shows

Like me and not unlike his mommy, J loves snakes. 

J und das listigste der Tiere

Most good snake shows are in English, but several can be found dubbed into German. J has seen so many in both German and English that he has developed quite a wide specialized vocabulary. Tonight we watched Austin Stevens' "Sieben Schlangen, sieben Bisse" (50 min.), one we haven't seen before, and which featured some new snakes. I play uninformed, ask J leading questions, and just let him rattle on. 

Stefan Broghammer of Reptil.TV

In my view, the best original German snake show is Reptil.TV (which is about other reptiles, too). Besides being excellently produced and very detailed and informative about the animals in a non-sensationalistic way, it has the additional L2 benefit of featuring a narrator (Stefan Broghammer) with a Swabian accent and many guests with other different regional accents.  

Age 4.12.12 

Puppetry today 1: ganz toll vs. voll geil

Today Friedel and Thusnelda had one of their dust-ups over appropriate language use.

It was about awesomeness. Friedel was describing a new toy of J's as voll geil (teenager slang, about the equivalent of "badass"), to which expression Thusnelda took exception as "inappropriate" and told J he should not use it, suggesting ganz toll ("really great") instead. Friedel kept chanting voll geil voll geil voll geil and trying to get Jamie to say it. He laughed but wouldn't, so Thusnelda feels she won that one. I suggested also bärenstark, the term used in Kung Fu Panda, which everyone agreed was an awesome word.

Update: later today J sought to provoke Thusnelda by pointing out that the little witch uses the phrase total geil in her rap song. This delighted Friedel, who started chanting voll geil total geil voll geil total geil. Thusnelda just sighed and shook her head.

Age 4.12.12

Media today 6: Der kleine Wassermann

We listened through 16:15 of this Hörspiel.

This is a very high quality production. In terms of content it's an improvement over the book to the extent that a good bit (not all) of the outdated gender stuff is eliminated (I pointed this out to J). 

Stuff J wanted to discuss was how & why the mommy got all teary when the boy went for his first excursion because she's "afraid that he might run into a pike or something." J is very impressed by the numerous pikes (Hechte) we run into in children's stories. Here I guerillaed in some quick dative-verb practice: Meinst du, dass sie fürchtet, ihm könnte etwas zustoßen? (+ passieren and geschehen).

Also, the descriptions of the underwater dishes the nixie family eats were a good chance to practice words for "disgusting" like ekelhaft, eklig, widerlich, zum Kotzen, etc. 

Age 4.12.12