themlnetwork.com

Latest Blog Posts

Wow ! The LANGUAGE challenge is.... math!
Written by Silke Rehman
Who would have thought that ! Chiara's biggest challenge in her new German school (after 4 years in English speaking school) is not German spelling or writing (which we worked on during the summer and it paid out nicely). No, it is saying the numbers in German ! Not that she doesn't know the German numbers, she does. But she calculates her math problems in English and then needs to "translate" to German, which reads numbers from back to front (42 is read as "2 and 40") rather than front to back like in English (42 is "40 - 2"). Chiara's math teacher in Germany splits the class in two and asks them to solve mental math problems. Whichever team answers first, wins a point. Now, Chiara can solve the problem fine, but she thinks and works it out in English, with English numbesr. It then takes her time to find the right German number as literally translating "four(ty) two" makes 24 in German, not 42. Luckily, all tests are written, so here it does not matter which language you work out your math tasks. I have no doubts that Chiara will adapt over time and begin to think her numbers in German but I must admit I had not prepared her for that at all ! There you go, there is always something unexpected and new to learn. So when you move countries or switch the language of the school, help your child with the new spelling, writing AND don't forget to check the numbers !
[ Back ]