German is well-known for its compound word, which are somewhat of a cliché even to those who don’t speak the language, with famous terms such as “Donaudampfschiffffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän(smütze)” or the recently revoked law “Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz” (no joke). My daughter has her own category of compound words: Fledermausschaf/Fledermaushund/Fledermaus[insert animal of the day here] When she pretends to be […]

The German Sesame Street opening song hasn’t changed since I watched it, even though the opening sequence has. It was the first thing that jumped to mind in connection with what I noticed a few days ago: When my daughter speaks German, she will systematically use French articles. Mostly “la”, actually, but I haven’t made […]

Today we went to see French friends with kids. The parents both took German in school but admit they don’t remember much of it. When listening to our girl, they said she seems to have a slight German accent when she speaks French. That’s something I’m in no place to judge, and her dad says […]

Every parent, it seems, has a story of how their kid used a word or expression (usually a swearword) they weren’t supposed to know, which then begs the question: “Where did s/he hear that?” When the word or expression in question happens to be in the minority language (ml), the field of possible candidates is […]

The other day, my daughter got this beautiful poster with the numbers from 1 to 20. Ever since we put it up on her door, she’s loved to compare the objects and, of course, count them. On Thursday, we managed to film her:

Do you remember our initial confusion when our little girl referred to her pool noodle as “pâte” in French, where they are called “fries”? This week we were talking about something called (I had to look up the term) “water warts” of which she unfortunately has a few, which are being treated. Since both Daddy […]

Funny that this story coincides with German National Unity Day (today, October 3rd). My daughter and I found a Euro coin on the sidewalk. Usually it’s her who finds money, and it goes into her piggy bank (which is really a cow-y bank, but you might have guessed that). Anyway, she looked at the back […]

Letzte Woche haben wir sehr gelacht: Ich kam von der Arbeit, als unsere Tochter schon beim Nachtisch war. Sie begrüßte mich an der Tür mit einer Eiswaffel in der Hand. Ich: “Ein Eis? Hast du ein Glück!” Sie: “Ja, ma-ya Glück, dass Papa nicht alles Eis aufgegessen!”   Anmerkung: ma-ya ist immer noch ihr Begriff […]

Last week I had a good laugh: I came home from work  as my daughter was eating her dessert – an ice cream cone. I said “An ice cream? You’re lucky!” To which she replied: “Yes, I’m lucky that Daddy hasn’t eaten them all!”

Yes, my daughter is starting to translate between us now. Here’s what happened tonight: I’d asked her what she’d done in preschool. “Gespielt” (played). “Und was noch?” (And what else?) “Und noch andere Sachen.” (And other things too.) Dad doesn’t understand “andere” and asks what she said. “Rien papa. Je dis à maman, j’ai fait […]