New Site for Ordering Books!! March 18, 2012

I just stumbled across a website for ordering books, and I’m SOOOOO excited!! Not only do they have a great selection of German books (and I think books in other languages, too), but the prices are amazing and the shipping is FREE!!!!! Yes, free to most countries! What?! It almost seems too good to be true! Let me give you an example of their astounding prices:

One of the books I wanted to get was from the Bodo Bär series. I decided on Bodo Bär am Meer (a board book). The price was only $5.89. I price compared with Amazon.de, where the price was 4.95 Euro!! That’s better than the exchange rate, which would put it at about $6.50!!

Need another example? How about Elmar rettet den Regenbogen? The price was $13.39. On Amazon.de: 11.90 Euro. The exchange rate puts that at $15.67. Crazy!!

Honest, I’m not getting any compensation for this review! I’m just SOOOO excited!! (Wait, did I say that already?)

The only drawback I can find is that searching for books isn’t exactly geared toward searching for (children’s) books in a foreign language. You can do an advanced search and narrow down by language. But they don’t have options like searching by age. So it might still be easier to browse on a site like Amazon.de and then see if you can find it here.

Oh wait – what is this website, you ask? It’s called The Book Depository. Have you heard of it? Any experience with it? I’d love to hear about it! Especially if you’re looking for books in another language – are the results as good?

Happy book-shopping!

Three Months of Language Explosion! March 4, 2012

It is hard for me to believe that Aleksander has only been talking for about 3 months now. Ever since he started building his spoken vocabulary at the beginning of December, his progress has truly exploded! He has such a big vocabulary, I couldn’t begin to count the number of words he says. He generally uses about 3 words together at a time, but I’ve heard him say full sentences, too!

Since he started talking, I’ve become even more aware of how much German we’re speaking (or should be!). For one thing, he’s like the town crier announcing what language I speak! I greet him every morning in German (since we spend the mornings until his naptime in German – or at least that’s the goal), and he announces: “German!” He’s finally started to say it in German now, too: “Deutsch!” And if I should happen to falter and lapse into English (okay, this happens on a regular basis!), he immediately lets me know it: “English!!” So I clap my hand over my mouth and then switch right back into German It gets tricky when a non-German speaker is around, such as his babysitter. He seems to be getting the idea that Sam speaks English. He’ll say: “Sam – English. Mama – German/Deutsch.” Since the word for English in German is very close [Englisch], I still can’t tell what language he’s saying it in!

For a while, Aleksander was really pushing for English when I would speak German with him. “English … English … English,” he’d cry. I gently explained to him (again) that this was our German time, and Mama was going to speak German (in German, of course). More and more, though, he’s really catching on. Before I know it, he’s speaking German back to me. I still don’t insist on it. I try to repeat the things he says in English back to him in German. And sometimes I’ll ask him, “Kannst Du das sagen?” [Can you say that?]. He then repeats the German word. I’ve even started playing a little bit with asking him, “Wie, bitte?” [what?] when he says something in English. He usually responds with the German word!

What still shocks the heck out of me is to hear how often he self-corrects! He’ll say something in English and then immediately say it again in German. Amazing!!! Sometimes it sounds like an actual phrase, because he says the two words so quickly. One example happened at breakfast the other day. He often comments on how big (or small ) of a bite he’s taking (probably my doing, since I told him so often that he was taking too big a bite!): “little klein,” he said.

Occasionally I hear Aleksander mixing the two languages. For example, “very groß” [big]. But generally, he manages to keep the two languages separate.

I love breakfast and lunchtime with him. It’s a great time to practice and hear him speaking German. My favorite thing is when he asks, “Mehr Milch, bitte?” [more milk please?] Yes, he usually adds the “please” now, too, without being prompted!!

We’ve started watching a new DVD in the past month or so. I ordered it from Amazon.de before we went to the Netherlands last December. It’s called Singen und Bewegen by Detlev Jöcker. Lots of silly songs for him and his six little friends to dance to. Aleksander LOVES it. He asks for it all the time: “tanzen?” [dance]. The funny thing is, he does not get up and dance with Detlev and the kids – not even when I do it! He sits in his little chair and drinks it all in, just watching and listening. I don’t mind so much, since he’s getting German input. And I even get to cheat a little bit, since he often asks for the DVD in the afternoon – bonus German time!! The only downside is that those darned songs get so stuck in my head, they play over and over and over as I try to go to sleep at night!

I have to admit that my favorite thing Aleksander says these days is actually in English. “That’s … so fuh—neee!” It really is so funny when he says it! I must get out the video camera and capture some of these adorable little language nuggets!

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On another note, I’ve been doing some more cooking recently. Only thing is, the recipes didn’t turn out so well So I’ll post about them when I try them again….

The Language 180 Challenge at Multilingual Living started on March 1st. So far, they’ve asked participants to fill out two short questionnaires and post about resources on their comment page. It’s gotten me inspired, though! In fact, I finally organized and posted my own page of resources here. I also finally printed out the language guide from Alphabet Garten on Parenting auf Deutsch (you can get it for free by signing up for their newsletter). It’s filled with lots of useful phrases that a non-native speaker such as myself just doesn’t know! So now I have to start studying

Have I mentioned lately that my German Story Time is going really well??? Well, it is!! We usually have about 5 families each week. Some repeats, and some new families. The room in the library is quite small, so it really is just the right size. We meet every other Friday now, so I have time to plan everything. For each session, I pick a theme and then find books, songs, etc. to share with the kids. Sometimes it’s challenging, especially if I’m not very familiar with a book or song. But everyone seems to enjoy it, and they keep coming back! I’d say we have about 5 or 6 families who attend on a semi-regular basis. If you want to see what we’re reading, singing, and crafting, you can hop over to the blog: germanstorytime.wordpress.com. It’s been great for my learning, too. I know a lot more songs than I did a few months ago! It’s also a nice way for me to talk to other German-speakers. Not to mention a great opportunity to create a place for Aleksander to hear more German!

Puzzling February 27, 2012

It seems like Aleksander has always loved his puzzles. It all started with a shape-sorting ball. I think he was about 8 months old when I dumped the shapes out for him in his playpen and rushed back to the kitchen to finish making dinner. When I came back, all the shapes were in the ball! I was dumbstruck! For his 1st birthday, he got a couple of Melissa & Doug sound puzzles. (Okay, I wasn’t too sad when the batteries wore out on those! Sometimes I think they were possessed! We’d turn out the lights at the end of the night and the ambulance would sound its siren!!)

Around 18 months, I got him an alphabet puzzle. It said it was for ages 2+ but I thought it was cute, so I bought it anyway. He took to it right away! Before long, he could find the right piece, even if it was upside down or turned over! Here he is, putting in the pieces (check out the intent expression):

For his second birthday, his Oma & Opa gave him an easel. One side is a magnetic wipe-board, and he loves putting up his alphabet magnets. Before long, we realized he recognized his letters! Once he started talking, he quickly learned his alphabet. And the first song he sang on his own was “ABC”. He says the alphabet in German, too, although not quite as easily. Of course there are those tricky letters – in German “E” sounds more like “A” and “I” sounds more like “E”. He says them correctly if he’s saying the whole alphabet, but individually, he still mixes them up.

The one problem with his alphabet puzzle was that it’s in English! Some of the pictures work, like A for apple and Apfel or M for moon and Mond. But when I speak German with him, I can’t very well say “C” – “Karotte”. The German word for carrot begins with K, not C.

And so I finally broke down and made a big purchase from Amazon.de. The shipping is flat-rate: about 15 Euro, as long as you’re buying books, CDs, DVDs, and select toys. Of course I got a couple of other books and CDs, and I even got Anika to order with me, so we could share the shipping. It was worth every penny!!! I found an alphabet puzzle with great pictures. Most of the letters even have two pictures. Aleksander just loves it! And now I can practice the alphabet with him in German. Even when it isn’t technically our German-speaking time, we do this puzzle in German. When he asks to do it, I remind him that it’s a German puzzle, so we’ll have to speak German. Sometimes he tries to insist on English, but I insist right back by speaking German Here’s a nice big picture of it, so you can see the images:

Kinderlieder April 17, 2011

We’re still listening to a lot of German music – mostly Kinderlieder (children’s music). I find them running around in my head as I try to go to sleep at night. I’m slowly learning the words, too. I really want to find some time to sit down and look up the words, so I can learn the songs properly. It’s so frustrating to know just a line or two. There’s one about the rain (we’ve been having a lot of that this month), and I only know the first and last lines… “es regnet, wenn es regnen will…” (it rains when it wants to). So now’s my chance! Here are the words to this simple song that is sung in a round:

Es regnet, wenn es regnen will
und regnet seinen Lauf
und wenn´s genug geregnet hat
so hört es wieder auf

It rains when it wants to
and rains as long as it wants
and when it’s rained enough
then it stops again

AND! I just discovered a great website resource called Mamas Truhe! It not only gives the words but also the musical setting and an audio clip of the song. Most of the songs are in German, but some are in other languages, too.

A few weeks ago, I downloaded one of Nena’s albums of children’s songs. I love her renditions of the songs! And her voice is so easy to sing along with. I chose Komm, lieber Mai. I think I’ll be getting more of her music soon.

One of our favorite songs is “Rubber Duckie.” We sing it every day at bathtime. But sometimes I continue our German time into the evening, so I needed to learn the words in German, too. I found the German version on iTunes and downloaded it. The words were pretty easy to figure out:

Quietscheentchen, nur mit dir
plantsche ich so gerne hier
Quietscheentchen, ich hab’ dich so furchtbar lieb
Quietscheentchen, so ein Spaß
Wenn ich drücke, sagst du was
Quietscheentchen, der beste Freund, den es gibt
Jeden Tag, wenn ich baden mag oder spritzen
Seh’ ich auf meinem Lieblingsplatz meinen kleinen Schatz sitzen
pitsche pitsche patsch pitsch
Quietscheentchen, du bist mein
Und gehörst nur mir allein
Quietscheentchen, ich habe dich lieb…
Quietscheentchen, ich hab’ dich so furchtbar lieb!

Language Refresh 101 Challenge February 27, 2011

Corey over at Multilingual Living has thrown down the gauntlet! It’s time to refresh those second (or third or fourth – ha! I wish) languages! I’m on board and am already inspired by the posts I’ve read in the forum. What great ideas!

It can be a daunting thought to try to hone one’s language skills at this stage of the game. A professor at Middlebury College’s German Language School once described it as being like a Trichter – or a funnel: if you plug it up and pour a certain amount of liquid into it, it fills up quickly; but then if you add the same amount of liquid on top, the level of liquid rises much less. (Did I explain that clearly?) Or like a musician friend of mine once told me, she’ll spend the rest of her life learning the last 10% of her instrument. It can be very frustrating! But I’m finding it rather exciting to learn new vocabulary to use with my 15-month-old. Nothing like an incentive!

First, I have to figure out where to begin. Corey is right that you can’t go back to beginner textbooks, etc. I generally feel like my biggest weaknesses are noun gender and prepositions (idiomatic usage, in particular). For the former, perhaps I should follow some of the advice I give my students at the Saturday school: use colors for the different for the three genders. I also find that learning words in phrases helps (e.g. “nimm meine Hand” reminds me that it’s “die Hand“). This technique helps me with prepositions, too (e.g. “Ich denke an dich” means that “denken an” takes accusative). [Yes, I am a bit of a grammar geek!] I wonder, though, what kind of resources are out there for helping fluent speakers of a non-native language improve their skills?

In addition to reading children’s books with Aleksander (thanks, Anika, for bringing them back from Germany for me!!), I am also starting to learn more songs. It’s a great way to increase my vocabulary, especially in the area where I’m currently lacking: children’s vocab! I-tunes can be a great resource for finding whole albums of children’s songs. I also have a wonderful DVD of Eric Carle stories brought to life as 7-minute cartoons. Aleksander likes them, too!

Some of the suggestions from the Multilingual forum are also great. How about checking out a few podcasts? Netflix also has German DVDs. And somewhere in the house, I know I have a German novel or two I could read (in addition to the innumerable volumes of classic lit from my graduate days). I also love the idea of looking for parenting blogs in German!

This challenge also gives me a new focus for this blog. I haven’t been writing much, since I feel like I say the same old thing (Aleksander still isn’t talking, and I’m still trying to stay consistent… blah, blah, blah). So for now, I can keep track of what I’m doing to improve my own German and the resources I’m finding to help me along the way. Drück mir die Daumen!

Reading Materials November 30, 2010

One of the challenges of raising a bilingual challenge is the availability of materials. I assume there is more for Spanish-speakers and even for French-speakers. But for German-speakers? It gets tricky! I’m lucky to have a generous friend in Anika (and her parents!) who brings me books from Germany whenever she goes home for a visit.

There is the internet, of course. I’m so grateful to be able to download German music from iTunes. It is great to be able to turn on one of my German playlists when Aleksander and I are driving around in the afternoon during our German time.

When it comes to DVDs from Germany, you have to have a region-free player. My husband actually took care of that before we even met. With his large collection of DVDs – most of which he purchased while still living in the Netherlands – having a machine that could play both European and American DVDs was a must. Now I just have to build our collection of German-language DVDs along with our books.

Luckily, there are a couple of great resources out there! One is Alphabet Garten. They have a great selection of books, music, and DVDs. The other resource I’ve found is ABC Kinderladen. In addition to books, music, and DVDs, they also have toys, games, and other things from Germany. It’s been great to be able to increase the collection of German board books to read with Aleksander.