Die Kaffeestube Teil 2 - virtual Kaffeeklatsch in Germany and Austria

[cheaspicks]

Chat for those living in a German-speaking country, or anyone else who is interested.

[NoHunIntended]

www.amazon.de/Kaminumrandung-Charming-aus-Holz-weiß/dp/B004NTD8SU/ref=pd_sim_sbs_k_4 is close to what I am looking for, if a little on the plain side, but cheaper would be good!

[Ploom]

nohun - its not that anyone is going to do anything with the info but it just makes you identifiable and where I live i'm probably the only British person with that combination of dc and ages for miles around. Then that information is out there and anyone I know in RL could identify me and follow my posts. Its unlikely to happen but I'm just also conscious that these posts could come up on a search on google at any time in the future.

No help about the fire surround - ebay would have been my first idea too. But not sure i've ever seen them in a German house tho which is why they are maybe rarer on ebay. Fires here are usually much bigger than in the UK since they often provide hot water for the house too. Good luck with the search!

[Ploom]

cakebump - thats what cheaspick and her dh do and it seems to work really well. Your dh is right - dc who live here long term hear such a lot of German that it is an effort to keep up their English. But the effort is so worth it. I do the same as englishwoman and always speak English to my dc unless I'm talking to them & their friends at the same time. Our family language is also English until the second I leave the room then its instantly German!! But i'm bloody stubborn about them speaking good English so will keep on being stubborn!

[Ploom]

Sorry for the disjointed posts - on my ipod and keep forgetting things I want to post cause I cant scroll up!

Oh antique - do you think he wondered if your gorgeous baby was cross dressing at such a young age?? Ha ha! I think the door always goes at the moment when i'm inappropriately dressed - its been so hot that i've often only in my underwear then there's that scrabble for clothes! Think it makes me look like i've been doing something waaaayyy more exciting.

[wantingmore]

Thanks Antique I hope you dont have any more embarrassing moments with the postman!!!!

[awesomesauce]

Wow...I don't show up for a few days & am now completely lost! I can't believe how fast this thread moves...I'm still a forum-posting-virgin so please bear with me if I miss replying to anyone in future.

Wantingmore I too live in Berlin, am Canadian, married to a German, have an 18 month old munchkin & a groovy doggie. As soon as I got pregnant we started researching bilingual schools here & were super impressed with The Berlin Metropolitan School - metropolitanschool.com/en/home.html

The school is from pre-school to grade 12, has a fantastic international staff & the curriculums/diplomas are recognized internationally. The school fees are based on your earnings, so should be affordable for everyone: metropolitanschool.com/en/admissions.html

Whereabouts are you located? We live in Köpenick but will eventually be moving back to the mitte area...Köpenick is wonderfully green & the river & forest are only 5 minutes away BUT the people are horrendous, extremely unfriendly & downright rude - no matter how smiley & German-speaking I am, the local people make it obvious that 'auslanders' (even those with German husbands & Berlin-Born babies) are not welcome in this part of the city...sigh...

Here's a link to the articles I've written about Life in Germany on my blog: awesomesauceasshattery.wordpress.com/category/life-in-germany/

Let me know if I can be of any help =O)

[CakeBump]

Thanks for the advice Ploom. I'm not sure what my objection to DH speaking English to the baby is, exactly, it just feels wrong!

I said that I wanted the baby to have traditional German rhymes, songs and books as well as all the English ones I loved when I was little, and am looking forward to passing on. However DH says he can't remember ANY nursery rhymes, books etc from his childhood so wouldn't be much help with that aspect of German culture anyway (typical man!).

I kind of don't want home to be an English "oasis" whereby we shut the door on Germany as soon as we come into the house, but maybe that's necessary to push the English language sufficiently to achieve bilingualism?

In a way I was looking forward to seeing German childhood "in the real" as it were, passed on from DH to the baby. I suppose we'll still get that, it will just be achieved at nursery/toddler group/kindergarten...

[AliceIsOffToTea]

dh away for yet another week

Travelling through Europe then giving talks


Im longing for a routine,

I have no idea what day it is,

well bye for now ..

[wantingmore]

Hi awesomesauce we have looked at that school but can not afford it but thanks anyway.
We are living in prenzlauerberg at the moment but its only temp and want to be out if here latest a month hopefully. We are not looking for any particular area at this point just anywhere that has a reasonably good place not too far from DH work. He is working in Mitte.
Sorry you are having such a hard time where you live. I really like this area but not the apartment but renting here is quite expensive.
I will have a look at your blog now thanks for the link.

[wantingmore]

Hi Alice sorry your DH is away for a week. Feel free to get in contact if you want someone to chat to. Same for anyone else.

[TheEnglishWomanInTheAttic]

cakebump we do minority language at home - i.e. we all speak English at home, including DH. DH is a funny one because although he learned English as a teen/ adult, English speakers don't usually pick him out as a German - people guess South African or even Australian (slightly bizarrely) I think it's just that he has a very slight accent that they can't put their finger on - his grammar and vocabulary are "native speaker" standard - I am not totally sure how he's managed it, as I don't think I've a hope of getting to that point in German even if I live here til I'm 90...

Anyway we do English as a family language for reasons similar to the ones your DH suggests - I cannot stand the idea of the kids refusing to speak English or sounding really odd when they do (when we first moved here we met a woman from Texas who didn't even seem to hear that her 8 year old daughter spoke "English" with a heavy Texas accent but with German sentence structure and lots of German words thrown in - she was almost incomprehensible to anyone but her mum and older brother, and you had to speak both languages to even begin to understand her English, though she understood "real" English at least, and apparently her German was fine). When we go back to the UK nobody can tell the kids are not "just" monolingual English speakers, and when DD started school her teacher told me that after meeting the class she had to check her paperwork to see which was "the English girl", so I am happy that so far this approach is working and the 4 and 6 year olds both seem to have both languages at native speaker level.

I don't like the people who say you "have to" do 1 parent 1 language, because I think different approaches work for different families, depending on the environment and parents etc. We are very rural here and virtually nobody we see regularly speaks any English to us, so the kids are fully "immersed" outside the house in German, and as they are very sociable they spend most of their waking hours playing with German friends.

[TheEnglishWomanInTheAttic]

Haha Antique :o Our postman hates me as I keep the gate locked and he has to buzz and wait at the end of the drive - I can't see how this is worse than coming in the gate and walking up the drive to the door and buzzing there, but he seems to take it as a personal insult, even though I have explained I have to keep the gate locked as the toddler can open doors and gates and I don't want him to run out onto the road!

[admylin]

wantingmore hope you find somewhere soon. We found our flat in Mitte by a sign on the door saying that the flat was for rent. It was such a relief as dh had signed his work contracts and was due to start within 3 weeks and we still hadn't found a flat. I almost had a breakdown with that move!

awsome I never ventured as far as Köpenik when we lived in Berlin. Your blog brings back so many memories though!!

cakebump we have an english speaking oasis and always have had as dh is Indian (but with a German passport) and I think the Germaniszation of our dc only began in Kindergarden and now my dd aged 12 refuses to speak English at all! They got plenty of the traditional German rhymes, songs and books at the local library and at friend's houses and of course kindergarten. We did all the Laternen Laufen, Nikolaus and traditional Easter/Christmas stuff and a few other celebrations that I can't remember the name of (something to do with a goose and a knight and his cloak?!!)! Oh, and don't forget all the Krabbelgruppen you will be able to join!

Hope you get your insurance things sorted and you get plenty of toursits in your restaurant.

alice I'm also looking forward to the routine again. Roll on 3rd of September!

NoHun how about trying to make a fireplace out of cardboard and then painting it? I made one years and years ago for exactly the same reason as you (from an idea in a French magazine) - if I can find the instructions would you be interested? I think I might have kept them as there was some great recipes and craft ideas in it too.

antique lol at the postman story! Atleast you managed to get your shorts on!! dd's flapjacks were amazing. She mixed oats, cornflakes, almond flakes, chocolate chips and ground hazelnuts and added some peanut butter to the mixture with the melted marge and honey. Came out really tasty!

Wave to everyone else, great that the thread has so many new members! I knew there were more of us on MN!! Welcome back Linzer, great that the Germany trip went well and the meeting with ploom and cheaspicks was good. What did you get around to seeing in Hannover then?

[admylin]

NoHun look at these ideas <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.de/imgres?q=chemin%C3%A9e+en+carton&hl=de&sa=X&biw=1024&bih=608&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=R8C7YStf8cAnPM:&imgrefurl=prunillefee.canalblog.com/archives/2008/12/07/11635839.html&imgurl=storage.canalblog.com/88/90/361085/33275947_p.jpg&w=450&h=392&ei=C_k5UMXcC4nOswaoy4GoCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=95&vpy=285&dur=1353&hovh=210&hovw=241&tx=99&ty=168&sig=112655793405662212761&page=2&tbnh=138&tbnw=150&start=16&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:16,i:142" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">voilà and

step by step something like this might be OK and fun to make with ds! Could be some English versions somewhere online too.

[wantingmore]

Thanks admylin DH is viewing a place this afternoon so fingers crossed it will work out.

[CakeBump]

Thanks for the advice admylin and English

English are you sure you're not me? :) My DH is also not identifiable to anyone from the UK as German - he actually speaks "Aussie" English as he has spent quite a lot of time out there and has picked up a lot of the slang and the accent. It's most odd, although I suppose I should be thankful he didn't pick up the Geordie twang from his time living in the North East!

We're also very rural and very "immersed" ie no-one in the village speaks English except us. I think I'll give serious consideration to having English as our "family language" including when DH speaks to the baby. Thanks x

wanting good luck this afternoon.... :)

[wantingmore]

Thanks cakebump

[AliceIsOffToTea]

our dog is spoken to in English and German



she obeys neither

[admylin]

Lol alice - dd's gerbils are bilingual too. Not sure if the listen to either langauage!

Just going to start lunch - where does the time go, we never manage to have 'normal' mealtimes!

[admylin]

wanting hope the flat is good! Have you got your Mietschuldenfreiheitbescheinigung (cool word)? That was one of the biggest pains when we were searching as we never had the right amount of documents with us! Every place we looked at wanted different papers or wanted to send us across town to fill in forms somewhere.

[AliceIsOffToTea]

oh

I made garlic flatbread twas yum

[TheEnglishWomanInTheAttic]

We have a large, elderly English rabbit (from the RSPCA, came over with us in the hired removal lorry) and a German rabbit ("rescued" by FIL from an ex colleague who had got a cat and no longer wanted the rabbit) - they live together happily and have been doing for nearly 5 years, but I am not sure what language they speak :o )

[AliceIsOffToTea]

we have a rabbit too


he flew

[CakeBump]

I have a multilingual dog who in his short 5 year life has been spoken to in Danish, English, Welsh and German....

Yup, he ignores me in all 4 languages :)

[itsMYNutella]

Blimey! Haven't you all been busy without me :)
Cakebump I've been trying hard to keep up with the Dec thread, but now this one has become busy I'm going to have to just pop in there now and again altogether some of the tips have been very handy. As a first timer with limited access to other "normal"- ish mothers.

English I had rabbits as a kid, I don't know why, I didn't want rabbits (I guess my mum or dad did...) and they really weren't nice :( I would have preferred another cat.
But we did go through a bit of a zoo as kids: 2 rabbits, 3 cats, 3 terrapins, many fish, snake, 2 rats, hamster and a dog - a beagle, he definitely only spoke Mum's language, wasn't interested in what anyone else wanted him to do :)

Love the post and story antique! I went through a phase of almost daily accepting a package for neighbours from our DHL man... He was very happy for me when he finally brought a packet for me :) he seems a nice friendly man but always manages to ring when I'm about to step in the shower - ie I'm naked!