Ouch, my brain hurts! Yesterday the girls and I started the first of our Saturday morning German language classes. The classes are taught by the Ohio German Language School at the Wellington School in Upper Arlington. I am impressed with the program so far: very nice and enthusiastic instructors and an acommodating program. The children are taught in seperate class from the adults. There are many children who are either native Germans or children of natives, so they have a head start on A & R, but I am glad they will have a change to hear the language in context. R will not be able to continue with the class beyond next weekend, as she is enrolled in her Saturday morning art class at CCAD, but we are able to arrange a tutor. My instructor is energetic and reassuring that we will not make fools of ourselves! The philosophy which we are following is that the best thing to do is just plunge in and speak/listen to German in-context. I wholeheartedly agree with this based on my experiences traveling in Northern Europe where we did not know the language, but managed to figure out bus and train schedules and shop for groceries. So, we began by learning how to give our name and introduce others. We learned some of the basics of verb usage/conjugation, which I was relieved to find is similar to Spanish.
It was a fun challenge and a nice departure from the everyday activities. But, oh, my brain hurt!
When I went to pick up the girls from their class, I discovered they had been learning more nouns and just a few common phrases. A immediately walked up to me with a handmade paper cone and said, "Ich mochte Susigkeiten", which means "I want Candy". They learned that in Germany there is a tradition of giving children candy in large paper cones on the first day of school. R was more reluctant to say it out loud until I agreed that I would give them candy when we got home. When we got home we also wrote several of their new words on cards and stuck them on appropriate objects.
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