Making Progress

Here are two recent quotes from Punk 2, almost 4 years old now:

“Punk 1, was ist das name of that [pointing to the robot she is drawing on her friend’s birthday card] in Deutsch?”

And:

“Kann ich bitte Socken für meine Schuhe im Kindergarten haben, Mama?”
[Can I please have socks for my (indoor) shoes for daycare, Mama?]

Maybe it doesn't take much to impress me, but I find both of them interesting. They are not necessarily good examples of how he normally speaks German as he usually mixes less than in the first example, and isn’t always quite as good as in the second one, at least not when the sentences are that long.

But they are interesting - not because there is such a contrast between the two - but because in the first case he is taking the initiative to ask his sister for a German word, even though they weren’t even talking at the time. And if they had, it would have been in English anyway. So what if his sentence structure is a bit off and he’s using both languages at the same time again – he’s asking to learn more German!

And the second one I like because it gives me hope. Hope that one day they will both be able to speak German with fewer mistakes than they make now. Because really, even though they can make themselves understood quite easily, they both make a number of mistakes on a regular basis. They do so in English as well and some of it is no doubt age-related (e.g., incorrect irregular verbs – ‘throwed’ and that kind of thing), but it happens much more so in German. They regularly use the wrong articles, have problems with pronouns (du/dich, etc.), and don’t get the sentence structure right. Their overall grammar and choice of words can be on the creative side, and they sometimes add a German word ending to an English word and translate phrases directly out of English that may not make sense in German. I probably could come up with a more exhaustive list if I thought about it a little more, but the point really is that this sentence impressed me because it is so much better than how he often gets things out.

I don’t expect their German to be perfect and understand that these kinds of mistakes are due to them not getting enough exposure to German. And I know that things like the upcoming visit from Oma will help with all of it, but it’s awesome to hear him take the initiative to learn more and to get a glimpse of what might be possible!