Lainey's Deutsch

For some reason, Lainey has really been interested in speaking German lately. I don't know what peaked this interest or why, but I think it's great so I encourage it. Here are a few examples of Lainey-Deutsch:

In the car we play "Was ist das?" ("what is that?"). She started the game by pointing to something and asking "was ist das?" and I have to tell her the German word for whatever she's pointing at. (Usually, I can come up with the word) She then repeats the word-nonstop-until she finds something else to ask about.

She tries to use phrases she hears a lot, such as "ich habe..." (I have...) or "ich mochte..." (I would like...) or "ich weiss nicht" (I don't know). The funny thing is that she doesn't always know what these phrases mean. She knows something comes after it, but what she says doesn't always make sense. She'll say "ich habe fenster" (I have a window) because she's learned "fenster" earlier in the car. But, again, she's trying and it's cute! She's really good with the basics "danke vielmal" (thank you very much), "bitte" (please), and "ja/nein" (yes/no) and she's picking up more vocabulary every day and isn't shy to try it. I think that is what will eventually turn her into a better speaker than any of us!

The best part is her accent. Because she's so young, she hears the accent of German and can make the sounds better than older people. She's totally got the gutteral-clearing-your-throat sound that defines German down pat. In fact, I am pretty sure she thinks that if she just makes those sounds she's speaking perfect German! This morning, she was making up a little song, as she does often, and singing to herself. But today, this song was in Lainey-Deutsch. Not many real words but lots of gutteral sounds. I asked her about the song and she told me it was her "Deutsch Good Morning Song" and was surprised I didn't know it. I didn't burst her bubble and tell her she wasn't saying real words, of course. I just let her keep singing.

I'm really regretting not sending her to a German or a bilingual school last year. There were no openings in the bilingual ones I looked into, but I think she would have done fine in a completely Swiss school. My only negative about the school she's in now is that they don't teach German until Kindergarten. I really wish they did more. At least she has a few local kids in her class and has learned a few things from them as they learn English. I'm really thinking that if we do move to Frankfurt this summer, I'll be looking for a bilingual school for her, instead of the International School where Aidan will go. (I'd send them both to a bilingual school, but Aidan has already adamantly refused to go to an all German-speaking school, even though his German is getting better and better!)