Background

When my little boy, Aleksander, was born (November 15, 2009) I knew I wanted to raise him bilingually. (Trilingually, even, if I could get my husband to speak his native Dutch with our son … but that’s another story.)

I began learning German at the ripe old age of 14 as a freshman in high school. I had a fabulous teacher (Tausend Dank, Frau Hall!). I went on to major in German in college and then go for my Master’s and on to a PhD in German lit. Along the way, I studied abroad in Germany many times – a summer and later a semester in Freiburg, a year at the Uni in Mainz, a summer in Tübingen, and three summers in Weimar. I always loved my time studying and traveling abroad. As a grad student, I also began teaching the language. What a way to learn! Now, as a stay-at-home mom, I teach at a German Saturday school for children and hope one day to return to the college classroom.

After all that, I certainly consider myself to be fluent in German. It reads “near-native speaker” on my CV. And yet, all too often, I feel like I flub the language. Using the wrong gender again, not knowing which preposition to use, having no idea what the idiomatic expression should be, and so on. No matter how long I speak my second language, no matter how much time I spend in Germany or with native-speakers, I will never completely master this language!

Okay, not to get too hard on myself. I speak pretty darned well. However! What if my little boy started learning to speak German right away? What a gift that could be!

My quest began slowly. With the exhaustion of a new baby, I had little brain power to speak my native English, let alone my second language. So it wasn’t until Aleksander was about 9 months old that I began speaking German with him in earnest. I decided that every day between his two naps – from about 12:30 to 4 – would be our German time.

I’m not always consistent. It’s hard when we’re visiting friends or when my husband is home on the weekends or when family members come to visit. And I admit, sometimes I just get lazy or suddenly realize I’ve forgotten to make the switch. Oh well. Just pick it up again.

I have a small collection of German books (mostly thanks to my German friend Anika and her mom), so I read his bedtime story before his nap in German. I have downloaded German children’s songs to listen to as we play or in the car. And my brother (who speaks some German, too) clued me in to the vast powers of YouTube, where we sometimes watch episodes of the short cartoon Kleiner roter Traktor.

What I realized very quickly is that you don’t learn “baby” German in school books! How do you say diaper? pacifier?? zipper??? I had a lot to learn! Luckily, babies are very forgiving, and the vocabulary I needed has increased slowly. I find myself creating vocabulary lists and looking up words I don’t know. And I am grateful to Anika (who has a baby of her own just two months younger than Aleksander) who teaches me new words and phrases all the time. Yes, I think I just might be able to pull this off!

Aleksander is almost 11 months old now. I’m fascinated to observe how he progresses with his language. I know from research on bilingualism that he may take longer to really begin to speak. That’s okay. So far, I can tell he understands me as well in German as he does in English. Perhaps that also has to do with tone and hand gestures.

So I will use this blog to keep track of our progress – both mine and his. Follow along as I discover new words and new activities to keep the language going. We’ll see how Aleksander’s language develops!