No time to read? Listen to a podcast!

It feels like it's been forever since I picked up a book. I do miss reading but I just don't have time for it. I used to read quite a bit on the bus on my way to work, but since I started driving to work that's not exactly a safe option any longer. The one thing I don't like about being in a car is that it feels like such unproductive and therefore wasted time. Listening to the radio is great for a while, but once you're up to date on the daily news, listening to it for an hour each way got boring. And while I love rocking out to music in my car every once in a while, I just can't do it every day. So I started to listen to a few specific shows that I liked on NPR. I was super late to the game and hadn't even fully understood the whole concept of podcasts yet. I knew you could stream shows that would otherwise be on the radio, but somehow I had missed that there's so much more out there. Anyway, so I started listening to shows like Fresh Air, the TED Radio Hour, and Radiolab. Since then I've broadened my horizon a bit and now have a variety of shows I listen to. I know there's so much talent I haven't yet discovered, but there are a number of podcasts that I have really enjoyed. Here are the ones I enjoy the most, in no particular order. 

note to self

"The tech show about being human"

Note to self has been one of my favorite podcasts lately. Manoush Zomorodi is funny, and has a very down to earth approach to discussing technology, and how it helps or messes with our lives. I like that the episodes are relatively short (about 20 minutes). First, I can squeeze on in when I don't have all that much time. Second, they don't drag out the story just to fill 40 minutes or so. Episodes are fast, upbeat, and to the point. None of it is really super eye opening or life changing, but they're easy to listen to and cover a range of topics you probably never gave much thought.

Website: 
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/notetoself

Recommended Episodes: 
Forget Edibles: Getting High on Wearables
Two Dope Queens on Feminism

Raising Bilingual Kids - FAQs

This is the third and final part of my series on raising bilingual children. You can find part 1 here and part 2 here. In this post I want to answer some of the questions people often ask when they realize that we're a bilingual family. That way I can also jump into a few examples of what all of this looks like in real life. 

Do you speak German to Noah all the time? 

Yes I do. I thought this was going to be so difficult. I've lived here for almost 8 years now and I think and speak in English all day in my every day life. But I made this conscious choice to raise Noah speaking German and somehow it has never been difficult. Maybe in the same way that it isn't difficult with my family or English speaking German friends. Could we communicate in English? Absolutely. Do we sometimes mix the languages? All the time. But normally I have no issues switching back and forth between the languages if there's a constant - and for me that's people. Some I speak English to, others in German. And Noah is in the German group. It has turned into the natural way we communicate, and I now don't have to remind myself to use German with him. It would feel weird if I spoke English to him. 

Does Noah really understand everything in German? 

Yes he does, or at least as much as he does English. Obviously there are bigger words that he doesn't know yet, but that's true for English too. I have never needed to use an English word to explain something. If he doesn't know what I mean, I'll just use different words to describe what I'm talking about - just as you would do if he didn't understand an expression in English. 

Does he ever respond in German?

Sometimes. I talked about this a bit in my last post. He knows a lot of words, but they don't flow as easily as they do in English. Simply because he doesn't have as much practice, he needs to put a bit more effort into saying it in German. Noah is also very aware of his surroundings. For instance, at daycare, he would never speak German to me, because he knows his friends and teachers are right there, listening in. However, if it's just us in the car, he responds a lot more in German, knowing that's what I'm expecting of him. Other times, it's as if he decides he wants to practice and uses a lot of his German words, often when we read books for bedtime. So overall, he still speaks at least 90% English, but he has his moments. I still struggle with how much I should push him, afraid that I'll be putting too much pressure on him. When my mom was here a few weeks ago, after about a week, we noticed a huge jump in him using a lot more German. I'm hoping when we're in Germany this summer for 3 weeks, he'll get used to it and German sentences will start to roll off his tongue more fluently. 

Does he know when to speak German and when to speak English?

Yes, most definitely. This is something that has amazed me early on. Noah knows which language works for different people. For instance, he knows that he should use German with me, but can get by with using English. He has however never tried to say a single word to Tony in German. With "new" people it sometimes takes him a few days before it clicks, but he has always been able to clearly distinguish between who speaks which language. 

Doesn't he get confused and mix up the languages? 

This is a common misconception, that kids will throw together whatever words they have and confuse the two languages. That's however not the case. Yes, there are instances where he uses an English sentence structure and replaces one word with a German one, but not because he's confused about which one might be correct, but rather because it's the word that his brain had quicker access to, for example I use that word with him a lot more than Tony does the English equivalent. I already talked about this as well, but this is something I still do today. It happens to me all the time that I can think of an English word so much quicker than what it means in German, so I'll add that English word to my German sentence - fully aware that it's the "wrong" language, but knowing that the person I'm talking to knows what I mean. 

Doesn't your husband get confused? How does he know what you're saying? 

Keep in mind that we're talking about conversations with a two year old here. Tony surprises me sometimes with how much he really understands. but usually it's not overly complicated. Conversations revolve around the same topics and context and tone of voice usually give away what's going on. One of my concerns has always been that I was afraid our kids would some day use this to their advantage and try to trick us parents, but so far, it's been going really well. If I need to make sure that Tony understands he knows exactly what I just said so that we can both follow through for instance I'll just repeat it in English so everyone's on the same page (example: "I told him he could read two more books, then it's time for you to get him ready for bed."). Often enough, my tone is all that matters. It's pretty clear when I've already asked Noah twice to do something and my tone gets a bit more serious. Typically, Tony doesn't necessarily need to know (if he's not paying attention to what exactly is going on for instance) what I said. He picks up that Noah isn't listening and can just say: "you better listen to mommy!"

Do you still speak German when other people/kids are around?

This is an interesting question and I had to figure this one out for myself. Now the answer is yes, I speak German to him whether or not everyone around me understands. If I need others to understand for whatever reason I'll translate. It can seem a bit awkward sometimes, but it's worth it to me in the long run. I made a choice to be consistent, and I find it important to speak German with him only. Others are often only confused for a second but then find it more intriguing than anything. Now that I can actually talk to him it is a lot easier for me, but it was more difficult in the first year before he would really respond. I had never realized how much we say things to our children when we're really addressing the audience around us.  
The one other scenario is when I want another child to hear what I'm saying, for example when I'm letting both know that I want them to play nicely, or I want to let Noah and his friend at daycare know that they can finish reading that one book but then we'll have to go. Of course I'm directing that sentence at Noah, but I also want his friend to be aware. Well, worst thing that can happen is that I say it twice, once in German, then again in English. This doesn't happen all that often, but I imagine this to be something we'll have to navigate when we have English speaking friends over for a play date. I wouldn't want them to feel left out or that we're speaking in a "secret language". 

What's the most difficult aspect of all of this? 

As I said, we're almost 3 years into it, and it feels natural to me now speaking to him in German. On the flip side, I am also now used to Noah responding to me in English. Again, I don't want to add too much pressure, but I also want to encourage him to speak German. And that's just so exhausting! Imagine you had to translate every single sentence someone else says in another language, then wait for them to repeat it again, before you move on. It takes so much willpower and energy that I haven't been very consistent with it. But then again, I find it equally important that Noah has a positive relationship to language and communication and I'd rather we actually talk on the way home about all the fun things he did in daycare that day, even if it's in English, than him refusing to talk to me because he doesn't feel like making the effort. This is where I also need to remember that he's not even 3 yet. I feel good about how we're doing things, but trying to get him to respond in German without being discouraging is the most difficult aspect of all of this. 


Have any other questions? Now is the time to ask!

Mother's (or any Other) Day Gift Ideas

I don't really personally care too much about Mother's Day, but hey, it's an excuse to think about things I'd like to have. A girl can dream, right? Here are some things that I think would make a great gift for anyone, Mother's day or not:

Handmade Gifts (and you don't even have to be creative yourself!)

Have you heard of Handmade? Yeah, Etsy on Amazon. Pretty awesome, right? I haven't ordered anything from there myself yet, but there are so many beautifully unique items available already. I don't know how much longer I can resist the temptation.



Here are just a few of the items that caught my eye. And this is just the jewelry piece of it. There is so much more, you should check it out!

Amazon Prime Membership

Not yet a member of Amazon Prime or know anyone who isn't? Why not give this as a gift? You get free two day shipping, access to tons of movies, TV shows, and music, cloud storage for all of your pictures, and so much more. Not ready to make the commitment? Try it free for 30 days.

Bluetooth Speakers

I have these exact Bose Bluetooth speakers and they were a great investment. The sound quality is excellent and they're so easy to use. I love that they're small enough to carry them around easily, but they sure don't sound small. I use them every day all over the house - in the kitchen listening to music or podcasts while cooking, in Noah's room for him to listen to stories or music for quiet time, to dance and sing along in the shower, and even outside. I think they would make a great gift for anyone. Also available in different colors.

Random fun or pretty things you would never buy for yourself

How about some of these cool ideas? Yes, you don't want to contribute even more to people's clutter, but some of these things look really fun though totally not necessary. I'd be happy getting any one of those.




What's on your wish list?

What I've Learned so far about Raising Bilingual Kids

If you read my last blog post you are already aware of all the benefits of being bilingual. All the benefits aside, it was never a question for me whether or not I would raise my kids bilingual. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I had to at least give it a try. I mean, what an opportunity! And we all have heard from people who now say they wish their parents had exposed them to another language but didn't, for various reasons. So here we are, doing everything we can to give our kids the best shot at being fluent in both English and German.

I have been wanting to talk about this topic here for a while, and now that Noah is starting to become more and more interested in trying out his German, I decided it was time. He's always been a good communicator, even before he had many words to express what he wanted, and his English is easy to understand even for strangers. He has always understood German just as well as English, but hasn't been very comfortable speaking it. I can't blame him; I keep having to remind myself that the purpose of language is to communicate; and if it works in English and people understand him, then why use the more difficult (i.e. not as familiar) language, which doesn't roll as easily of his lips? But lately, we have been singing more songs, reading lots of books, and I've encouraged him to speak German, which he started doing - to my surprise. But more on all of that later, we have lots of topics to cover. I want this post to be a good starting point with resources and tips for all my friends who are expecting their first baby and are thinking about raising their kids bilingual while providing some insight into what this looks like at our house - I get tons of questions about it wherever we go. I know it's a fascinating topic. So here we go, starting with my tips and what I've learned so far (remember, 2 1/2 years into this, so not an expert yet, and some topics such as reading and writing aren't even on my mind yet). 

Benefits of Raising Bilingual Children

It was never a question to me that I would raise my kids bilingual, and it's encouraging to see so many articles come out recently that highlight some of the not-so-obvious benefits of bilingualism. It is easy to imagine that knowing another language increases opportunity for conversation, cultural awareness, and experience. It has also long been known that children who grow up with two languages can learn a third language much easier than their monolingual peers and fears that children might confuse the different languages or have significant delays in their language development have been debunked as myths. 

Though this is not proven without debate, there have been a number of articles recently that highlight bilinguals' improved executive function,

"a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind (...)." 

The Easter Bunny Was Here

I'm late to post this but we had such a lovely Easter weekend that I wanted to share this anyway. 

We had such a fun day today. Going to the Snohomish Easter Parade is one of my favorite family traditions. Every year, the weather is just gorgeous, the sun comes out, and I get that wonderful feeling that spring is finally here. This year didn't disappoint; it was warm and sunny and we spend almost all day outside. What was special this year is that we added an Easter egg hunt for the first time and a lovely breakfast with even lovelier friends. We all had such a wonderful time. 

6 Months Update

It's happening, we're already half way through the first year. Today, Ava is six months old. Time for an update on what she's up to currently.