Posted in German with the Kinder

Since my last entry, I have been pondering how some would view what I wrote.  How can what I said in German be meaningful to the twins if I didn't even know it before I looked it up? They've certainly never heard it before! However, I think the issue of meaning to them is secondary right now.  As I read somewhere recently, if we waited to say something to a child until we were sure he or she could understand it, they would never learn language at all.  And this is the reasoning (as limited as my understanding is of this method) of TPR - Total Physical Response.  You can see a video about this method here.  If I say, "Lass sein Hemd los!" while removing Christopher's hand from Alexander's shirt, they will eventually know what those words mean.  And I will have learned it also, because those words have meaning to me as well.

When I think back to how I learned vocabulary that I will never forget, it was all related to some physical object or action.  When Robert and I were in Germany, we went on a Rodelbahn.  It's kind of like a bobsled track going down the side of a mountain.  We were on a little sled-like thing, with a handle that you pulled back to brake.  Robert, who was 5 at the time, really wanted to go by himself, but they said he was too young.  So I told him we would go together but he could drive.  I had no idea that it would be so difficult!  At first it wasn't bad, and I noticed that there were signs at every curve that said, "Bremsen!"  I didn't know what that meant.  As we picked up more and more speed, I yelled at Robert to brake and he yelled that he couldn't.  We lost control, the sled went out from under us, and we slid on the concrete track until we tumbled into the grass.  Because I had tried to shield Robert from the concrete, I was hurt worse than him, but we were both scared and shaken up.  I thought about walking down the rest of the mountain, but we had not gone very far and I could not walk that far down a mountain with my knee hurt.  I convinced Robert that we had to get back on but promised that we would go very slow.  And that thing was hard to brake!  Have you guessed what "bremsen" means now?  Yep, "to brake!"  We were blessed we didn't "brake" any bones!  And I will never forget that word either!

Another time on our trip to Germany, I went to pick Robert up from the family he spent the mornings with while I was in school.  He said that the 19 year old daughter of the family had done something really cool and he wanted her to show me too.  The problem was that he didn't know what the thing was called in English, and she didn't know what he might have been referring to.  So I spent at least ten minutes trying to get more details out of Robert and thumbing through my German-English dictionary.  I was trying to avoid him having a complete meltdown.  Finally, I thought she might have done a cartwheel so I looked that up. "Radschlagen" was the German equivalent.  I turned to her, said "Radschlagen?" and she smiled and did a perfect cartwheel, and Robert was happy.  Will I ever forget the word "radschlagen" even though I have never once used it again speaking German?  Of course not!

Language is for communication.  We speak because we want to say something, because we need to communicate.  My daughters sometimes like to translate everything I say to the twins in German.  They know what I have said - usually - from the context of what is going on.  And eventually the twins will learn too - "This is what you say when this happens" and then hopefully they will start speaking more too.  Words aren't just abstract, they are intrinsically linked with the object, action, or feeling they are describing.

One of my goals for this summer: study TPR a bit more!