Blink (and Carnival Time)

That’s how fast our vacation to le parc de la Gatineau/Gatineau Park, l’Outaouais and the NCR went by, which happened to be around the same time the June edition of the Bilingual Carnival was posted – so don’t wait, hop on over to Bilingual Russian to check things out before it’s time for July’s Carnival, going live at some point next week over at Busy as a Bee in Paris (if you want to contribute, send your submission over to Busy by Saturday, July 23rd!).
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The kids were on a roll with their German before we left, but speaking and hearing way more German all day long while we were away helped them consolidate their grasp of it and learn more. Not only did they pick up some new cottaging-related vocabulary, like “Guck mal, der große Fisch ist da wieder unter dem Steg!!!!” [Look, the big fish is back underneath the dock!!!] und “Hol mal die Paddel, dann gehen wir Kanufahren!” [Go get the paddles and we’ll go canoeing!], they also were constantly talking about what they saw and often asking questions. Punk 2 especially, as the youngest, was often stunned and had to be creative in describing what he found interesting. This is how he came up with 'cow' for the statue of a moose by the side of the road and the entirely new word 'cowdog' for the ginormous black and white dog we came across one weekend (all in German, of course).

What struck me most was that during this time, the increased German in their day-to-day lives led them to sometimes speak German to each other! As much as I have encouraged them to do so at home, it never really worked out or lasted too long, understandably so, but at the cottage they initiated it and talked and played in German from time to time. At some point Punk 1 even told Punk 2 she no longer understood English and he had to speak to her in German! Which he did, without the slightest hesitation, flexible little guy that he is. He only didn’t like Papa trying out his German on them once again and demanded he continue to speak to them in English.

I had also packed only German books and CDs for them, though they ended up being so fascinated by a new book Punk 2 got for his birthday that I might as well not have bothered to bring anything else.

And for a good literacy activity, Punk 1 and I kept a vacation journal. Her teacher had encouraged her to keep up writing over the summer, though not necessarily in German, and she was into it when I suggested it. She never wrote much and we never got around for her to illustrate it, but we now have at least a sentence or two for each day we were away. She is now in summer camp for the first time ever and thinks it’s a good idea to keep this up – though it looks like we’re doing it on a weekly basis since she is way too tired when I pick her up after work.

The Husband, of course, was also there, ensuring that English had its place. But since we were in bilingual and French-speaking parts of Canada, Punk 1 also felt inspired to practice her French. As we were driving to the cottage, we stopped in Ottawa and she immediately picked up on all the French spoken around town. She said that she couldn’t understand more than a word/phrase here or there, but started saying a few things to us in French and on drives often asked me or Punk 2 for random words she would then translate into French.

We’ve been back for less than a week now and English once again is more dominant in their lives. However, since we also met a German friend with her three kids on our way to the cottage and they’ve had all this increased German over the last little bit, they are still speaking to each other in German just as much as they did at the cottage and are now more than ever talking about wanting to go to Germany next summer!

And Punk 1, always paying attention to everything that goes on around her, must have overheard bits and pieces of a conversation we had with my German friend and her husband about us wondering whether/how we could swing living in Germany for a year, told me last night as I was getting her ready for bed that she’d like to go to Germany next summer and have us all stay there for at least a year or more :) Whenever we had mentioned this to her before, she had been interested in going there for vacation, while at the same time being absolutely appalled at the idea of actually living and going to school there. I know this is a change that is unlikely to last, but it’s nice to hear anyway.

It was a great trip – most importantly a wonderful vacation, but who knew this would turn into some kind of German love-fest for the kids :) I hope it lasts!