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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

How do I sharpen my skills without someone to physically talk to?

Over the past few weeks I have been trying to find someone who is fluent in German to physically speak to every once in a while. I am worried that my knowledge is slowly being diminished without the ability to use it. In South Dakota, there are many people who speak Lakota, Spanish and even French, but very few who speak German. I have been going through my old text books, and some language learning courses in order to hear the correct sounds, but I wonder sometimes if that is enough. My daughter Ari still remembers the majority of the words and phrases I had been using with her before we had a short lapse during my pregnancy with her sister. She will still respond to my questions in German with one word answers, but she does not volunteer words or phrases other than 'jacke' and 'biebe'(her way of saying ich liebe). I almost feel that I need to start over with how I was "teaching" her German.
In other news, I feel caught up in this whirlwind that is having two little ladies to spend my time with. I finally feel like we are starting to fall into a good routine. We still have the big trip coming up, and in order to prepare for that I am trying to mentally pack and repack the suitcases, the car, the cooler and the kids. We are taking a small car on a 24hr road trip and the logistics of the trip are on my mind quite often. I cannot wait to get home and get my girls into as many mind growing activities as possible.
I plan to start talking about some new topics with Ari to get her back in the groove and improve her vocabulary at the same time. I think we will be focusing on weather (always a fun topic out her during the spring), and of course the days of the week, both topics that we have not really worked on with her before. Here's to some interesting weather!

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your new arrival! I think it's great that now you can motivate Ari to speak German to her little sister.

    That's what I'm hoping with happen with Griffin, at least--we're expecting a baby girl later this month. Lots of people have warned us that siblings tend to speak the majority language together, but I'm determined to encourage French between my kiddos!

    As far as finding people to speak German with, yes, that is so important. Have you tried Meetup.com? Notices at public libraries, community colleges, universities, hospitals? Maybe offering language exchanges through Craigslist? Or at the very least, regular Skype appointments with native speakers of German? Good luck!

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