theMLnetwork.com

themlnetwork.com

Passionately Multilingual!
headerimage05.jpg
Home arrow Latest Blog Posts

More trouble with the German peers than with the German language
Written by Silke Rehman
Wow ! It has been 1.5 years already that we left Dubai to settle in the Bavarian Alps by Neuschwanstein Castle.  It's time to review those last 18 months from a language point of view.

Up until our move, when Chiara was 8 years old, she had spent all her school life in English speaking environments and schools.
When we decided to move, I remember the challenge, I felt 2 years ago: "Will Chiara manage the change of school system and language from English to German - particularly as the Germans split the kids into different schools based on their performance at age 10".

We just received her interim school report , the first indication for which type of school she will be allowed to enter next year. She did great and particularly her A in German (imagine: essays, dictations, grammar work)  is worth celebrating. We didn't expect that and are very pleased with this result.

Looking back, I believe this to be due to the following factors:

1. Objective:
I always knew that I wanted Chiara to grow up with German whatever environment she/we would be in. As I am German myself, I didn't want her to lose this part of her heritage and it mattered to me that she could talk to her German grandparents and be able to go to a German university later in life.

2. Stragegy:
Because I had been determined about this from the moment Chiara was born, I chose the strategy that was easiest for me / us as a family: the "one-person-one-language"-strategy. I stuck to this strategy rigorously throughout our time in French-speaking Switzerland, English-speaking UK and English/Arabic-speaking Dubai/UAE.

As my aim was for her to be able to enter German university one day, I also had to make sure that she learn how to read and write in German. 2 years after Chiara started learning to read and write in English I started to teach her reading in German (while we were in Dubai). To motivate her and make it a regular commitment, I started a reading/writing group and included other children in it.  The group worked incredibly well and all children read in German after only 6 months (a proof of how reading skills can be easily transferred from language to another). 6 months before we moved, I introduced German writing in the same group. I didn't quite manage to get Chiara to the age-appropriate level of her German peers at that time but she wasn't too far behind either.

I believe that the above enabled her to follow the class and catch up as she went along.

Luckily - despite the beautiful natural village setting -  we have quite a few international families in our neighbourhood and among this group of friends we only speak English. This is very beneficial for Chiara not to lose her English and have other English input other than her father.
Thank God, she still likes reading English books.

I now have to find opportunities for Chiara to engage in writing English. The school English isn't advanced enough yet. I just found a great work book which uses short stories to increase children's vocabulary, reading comprehension and short writing assignments. As I know Chiara likes stories and I want to make the work fun for her, I hope that this might the way ahead. I will let you know how that works.

School French will begin in the next school she changes to after the summer. So finally, there will be a more consistent setting for keeping up her basic French.

Our biggest challenge is not the language, but some of the German peers who bully everyone who is different - despite teacher involvement. What do they do ? Here are some examples:

- when queuing they let their pals go ahead, so that your child never gets to the head of the queue
- when they see your child, they run away and laugh or whisper
- when your child gets a good grade, they shout "booh!"
- they play the game "let's not talk to x child" and x child stays alone on the playground

Maybe like me you would expect other kids to step in and stand by the bullied child. Sadly no. Most of the other kids don't dare to defend the bullied child - they are too afraid that they might be bullied next.

I have to say I find that quite shocking at such a young age but it is very real and does not only affect Chiara. The affected parents can't wait for this school year to end and to have another chance in a new class.

Let's hope these bullies are just a few disoriented children and that this is not representative of German school kids in general. I will keep you posted !

Silke
 
[ Back ]