My little girl got a balloon on a “stick” today in a big furniture chain store. She waved it around and the balloon half slipped off the stick. My daughter alerted us to this distressing situation with these two consecutive sentences:

“Mein Ballon est cassé!”
“Ma ballon ist kaputt!”

Either case, 50% French, 50% German. 🙂

Once more I’ve had proof that kids can learn a language very quickly when they want to. My daughter, who until our recent holiday in Germany had yet to say her first full German sentence, learned within the first few days that to get her ice cream after supper at our hotel, she had to say:

“Ich möchte ein Eis, bitte.”

Notizen aus dem Urlaub:

Die Betreuerin im Kids Club spricht kein Französisch, so wird “Moi aussi!” schon mal als “Mausi!” verstanden. Aber das ist o.k. Wenn meine Mausi merkt, dass man sie nicht/falsch versteht, wird sie’s schon anders probieren. “Eis, bitte!” sagt sie ja auch, wenn sie mit “Je veux une glace!” nichts kriegt.

Yesterday evening we were sitting outside an Eiscafé where my little girl shared an icecream with her grandpa. It must have made her thirsty because she asked: “à boire”. When after several repeats of the requests no one reacted, she asked “trinken?”. Grandpa promptly asked her “Du möchtest was trinken?” and signalled for the waitress.
Let’s see if that one sticks. 🙂

By the way: When the waitress came, my girl informed her she wanted “Apfelsaft” and was served the same a minute later, with a nice straw in the glass.

Yes, I’m jumping up and down in my excitement. So what was the big thing?
My little girl has been peppering her French sentences with German words for a month or two now (more markedly since those two brief visits to Germany in May), but the full “pure” German sentence remained elusive.
Now today we’d started a puzzle, then got interrupted by lunch, and later I heard her from the living room, repeating “Das kommt da hin, und das kommt da hin…” (This goes there, and this goes there…”) several times, and when I looked in, she’d completed the puzzle.

Very happy. 🙂

Yesterday, my girl surprised me once again with a stunning leap between languages similar to the pasta & fries one.

Daddy had told her today they would be going to the Cité des Enfants, a great hands-on experience for 2-to-7-year-olds (another section is geared at 5-to-12-year-olds) at La Villette. Cité des Enfants literally translates to “City of the Children”, but I’ve never used a translation of the name. (We’ve already been twice this year.)
So when my girl told me excitedly she was going to the “Enfant-Stadt” with Daddy, I ran for the notebook so I wouldn’t forget that language-leap. 🙂

Sometimes I feel sorry for my daughter when she tries repeatedly to tell me something in German, and I don’t get it. The other day, she outright shouted “fourchette!” at me when I didn’t get her request for a “Gabel” (fork).

But how was I to understand that the first thing she said to me today (after “Guten Morgen”, admittedly) was “Schildkröte” (turtle)? Last night she was going on about being a “Fledermaus” (bat).
A dream? A tiny turtle just moved in at her nanny’s the other day. (Welcome to the nanny-menagerie.)

Our little girl made me laugh the other day when she took up an expression we’ve been using with her more or less since birth – saying “hoch den Popo” as we lift her legs to put the diaper in place underneath.
She still needs a diaper for the night these days, and recently she’s called out when in that position “hoch Popo den!”

You know we practise the principle of “one person one language” (or “one parent one language”) at home, that is, Daddy speaks French and Mommy speaks German. Yesterday evening I realised there is another person and, yes, another language, present in the household, when I said “Alright!” to my daughter.

“Toi dis pas alright. Dora dit alright.”

That would be Dora the Explorer, German version which is bilingual (sort of) German-English.
(She watches it for the German, not for the English. But she does say “Let’s go!” and “We did it!” as a result. No comment.)

Die Zweisprachigkeit in unserer Familie färbt auch auf den Papa ab. Gestern, gegen Mittag, bei ihm im Büro:

Kollege F. will die deutsche Kollegin K. auf Deutsch grüßen: “Guten Morgen!”

Kollegin K.: “Vu l’heure, je dirais plutôt Guten Tag.” (Angesichts der Uhrzeit würde ich eher “Guten Tag” sagen.)

Kollege F. sucht Verstärkung und fragt den Papa: “Et toi, tu diras comment?” (Und wie würdest du sagen?)

Papa: “Moin!”