Is there still a German Thread?

[BeatrixBurgund]

We've moved back to Germany after 8 years in Switzerland and Scotland, and with the kids in school, I just know I'm going to have lots of questions about the Bavarian education system.

And I'd love to catch up with all the folk I used to chat with (even if I can't remember their usernames!). I'm on a namechange - it's MmeLindor here!

Congratulations to Doradoo. I am very envious but in a gallant way of course! I am only now dragging myself out of a fog of dismay about Brexit, or 'fecking Brexit' as l tend to call it, and am trying to see how it might affect me personally. I am not resident in Germany, would like to but still don't know if it's practical for me now.

Congratulations to preginHK too. I've been thinking about German baby names as I was writing some fiction that required it. You can find lists of names online of the top 20 and more for different years. That might give you ideas of what to choose or avoid. Generally, there are names like Thomas that are spelt the same in both languages. Girls' names that end in a or ie can often cross over. E.g. Sophia, Isabella, Julia, Julie. Hebrew names - l see Welsh has given examples above but there are others such as Rachel, Hannah/Hanna, Ruth, David, Michael, Rebecca. Also some flower names, such as Poppy, Holly, Lily, in English aren't too hard for Germans to pronounce, l think. I'm out of ideas now! Anyone who recognises me will think l've just copied a pile of names off my families' birth certificates.

A practical question. I am trying to change my iPad keyboard to a German one. It happened by accident a couple of months ago, but has now gone back to English only. Quite spontaneously. I loved having Umlauts and German ss and enjoyed posting on a German language forum l am involved in. I've been into Settings several times, clicked on keyboards and German and l just can't budge it. Help me please.

Congratulations pregoinhk - the only thing I'd say about names is that even if you spend ages finding a name used in both languages everyone including the child will pronounce it differently in each language (assuming the child speaks both languages from birth). There is no name pronounced identically in both languages unless it is distinctly specific to one language so that people don't "translate" it.

Doesn't matter, just something to be aware of. My older kids have "international" names but automatically pronounce their own and siblings names slightly differently in each language. I pronounce their names the English way whichever language I'm speaking, meaning very occasionally people who only speak German don't connect the way I'm saying the name with my child if there isn't enough context!

Obviously J and th names are pronounced very differently, but there's a subtle difference for most names.

Lily is a totally standard "German" name now - we know several - as is Emily which had a huge popularity surge a few years ago meaning it's one of those names you often find two of in the same school/ kindergarten class.

Really popular international names amongst my kids friend's include Max (one of the few pronounced almost the same, but often cutified to "Maxl" or "Maxi"), Alexander and Paul (totally different pronunciation) for boys (Felix is also really popular here and works though unusual in English), and Emma, Emily, Anna, Clara and Sophie/ Sophia for girls.

Congratulations on citizenship Dorado ! It certainly makes life easier and less worrying.

Greetings everyone, it's a while since I was on a German thread but I am looking for some advice on setting up home. We are going to buy a flat in Munich in the next few months, with a view to using it ourselves for a while and then letting it out as an upmarket furnished apartment to professionals on shorter lets, via Mr Lodge or similar.

I have just realised that while I know Munich quite well, I haven't actually lived there and I don't know things like where I might buy a kitchen or a new bathroom, where to get kitchen appliances, where to buy good curtains/blinds, where to get flooring and so on. Here I would be looking at John Lewis and so on but Kaufhof seems not to do the big stuff, am I right?

Does anyone have good tips about where to go for all the good setting up home stuff (apart from IKEA, obv)? And firms to use?

'Fraid I can't help with the question about München, but have a question of my own: does anyone know what 'Bohenkraut' would be in English? Its a herb, a small bunch would always be included when buying broad beans, especially fresh, un-podded. I really miss the something extra the herb gives to the summertime treat of fresh broad beans.

Google suggests summer savoury, can anyone confirm or is that just more generic?

Finally en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satureja

Boffin we got our kitchen from Ikea when we arrived here in a big hurry ten years ago (I was heavily pregnant and we had a toddler, so installing any kitchen asap was a far higher priority than getting a fancy one!) so not much help. There are plenty of independent showrooms which will sell you a kitchen and fit it for you obviously.

We've got a lot of other furniture from Roller and Danisches Bettenlager. Roller does fitted kitchens, but we've only had beds and desks and bits and bobs of soft furnishings from them.

Thank you very much indeed, 5moreminutes.

I think I might do a reconnoiter in that case and check out some showrooms in advance of the project. Currently looking at Bogenhausen (bit pricey), Laim (slightly better) and possibly Freising (out of town) for preferred areas.

Thank you very kindly 5moreminutes, my mother and I ate dicke Bohnen with Bohnenkraut, such nostalgia, thank you very kindly.

Oh that's sort of "our" side of Munich Boffin - hop on the S2 at Liam and straight on til morning you can't go any further - then get on a bus

Is it nice there then? Have I picked out good areas? My family is from South Munich so I don't really know the north.

Hi all, update from me on our move to Munich

We have a house rented in Allach-Untermenzing, looked at so many areas and in the end found a great house. DH is working out there at the moment and is back and forth quite a bit, it's rubbish tbh.

Almost have a place for DS1 in the local school, though we may need to decide between a transition school for a while or delaying him a year to help him learn German. Any advice on this from anyone? He's just turned 7 (y2) so would be going into second year in September. The school do language support but only for first years.

Also a bit worried about Kindergarten for DS2, he's 5 and finishing yR. The local ones have no spaces at all and we've been advised to register on a kiga finder. What should I do if we can't get him in? Keep him at home until a place comes up at the local one or go further afield? DD will turn 3 in April so we might be able to get her a place but don't want them to be in different ones!

Also how many hours do kids tend to do? I'll be at home so don't need it for childcare whilst working but would like them to go for their benefit.

Was feeling all positive but every decision or something we need to do takes bloody ages so only got house and moving date sorted for now!

Waaah stupid app didn't let me do paragraphs! Sorry it's hard to read!

Hey schlob we moved over in spring to Hessen, and our DS1 is 3.5 now. He does Mond-fri 8:30-14:000and that is a lot for him. From august he'll only be going mon-thurs until 14:00 with lunch. It's a lot for them and also the language and cultural differences are overwhelming. Some bedtimes he's really hard work because the day was hard (someone didn't let him play or they learnt a new song etc). Hopefully from winter or spring we can up the hours. DS2 12mo will join next year as they only take them from 2 where we are. We were going to go to another kindergarten from 12mo but it would have been too much logistically in order for me to go to work.

Congrats on the move! Just in time for the good weather eh?

Schlob - I found Kiga hours much better than Grundschule. Kiga was 7.30-14.30 - I could drop off anytime up to 9.00 and pick up from -13.00 onwards.

Grundschule - I have two in the same school at the mo and they're not there at the same times each day! Start at either 7.45 or 8.40, then finish at 11.30 or 12.30 or 13.15....... yes I have some Betreuung but they don't always like to use it.

Actually something else, it's really physically tiring doing the whole thing in German for them - it gets easier, but they'll probably need more down time than your used to. I find that too for me and it was the same when I did an Erasmus year at Uni - I'd not anticipated the physical toll the constant thinking would take

Schlobbob when I was a sahm and my older two were at Kindergarten and youngest at home, the Kindergarten children did 08:30-12:30.

At our Kindergarten 8:30 - 12:30 are "core hours" when they have a Montessori-esque type curriculum (not that the kids realise) with small and larger group activities and 1:!, the rest of the day is essentially babysitting, although lovely especially in summer as its mostly spent outside.

Only people who need childcare tend to leave children for lunch.

We speak English at home (more rigidly then than now) and DC1's teacher didn't realise she was "the foreign child" until she checked the list (she said). DC1 has never had any non native speaker help or issues (except that she rolls her R oddly, but only teachers notice and say some native speakers do that too). She was only 20 months when we moved here, but only learnt her German at toddlers groups, in the playground, and then at Kindergarten.

I was actually unhappy with the minimum 20 hours thing when we first put her in as I would have liked her to just go 3 days, but actually the routine of going Monday - Friday seemed to work well (for the kids, fewer longer days might be better for parents!) and almost all sahp (we have a couple of sahd) do core hours only and pick up before lunch (which is at 1).

My youngest is enrolled for 7am - 3pm and has to do those hours on my work days, though I don't take him til 8:30 and pick him up at 1 when not working. His German is no better than DC1's was at the same age (i.e. its normal for his age with a few random English words occasionally) and he can't simultaneously translate like DC1 could! :o
He is far tireder than DC1 was pretty much all the time :(

"Playdates" for lack of a better word for Kindergarten children tend to be 2:30 - 5 or 5:30 between sahp - take kid home for lunch then drop off. Works well for 3 and 4 year olds (no need to feed visiting kids a meal and be waiting for them to be picked up near bath time) and I think the 1:1 friendships and play with a native speaker child help their language acquisition more than the same amount of time spend in a group at Kindergarten.

Boffin Freising is a massive Landkreis and really varied, from the properly rural to suburban. You could be really near the airport, noisy but international with all the facilities on your doorstep, or way out in a village with mostly locals and quiet but peaceful... Overall though I'd say most parts of Freising would be nice places to live. I don't know Laim at all tbh, it's just a stop on the S bahn to me...

Wow thank you everyone for the Kiga advice, its incredibly useful. Especially about the down time, I think 5 hours max will be plenty for DS2 but as he is used to the routine of daily school I think M-F would be fine. Hopefully we will all get used to being up and out of the house earlier too!

We have registered DS2 for the nearby ones on the KITAfinder so hopefully we will hear something soon. DH is in Munich until tomorrow, home for 9 days then back out again so we have been doing all of this via video chat!

Movers booked to take our stuff, notice given on our house, just need to decide whether to bring the car now then we can book our actual travel. Getting real now!

I'm such a lurker on this thread

We are going back out in October for a visit, can't wait. I'm seriously considering doing some re-learning; for now it might have to be with an app as I can't commit to a class (freelancer with VERY weird hours).

Part of me can't ever see my German being good enough to actually live properly/work over there... please tell me there is hope! I got a B at A Level...

My German expands to about 200 words owl, I'm sure you will be fine!!

I've been using DuoLingo when I can but it is very daunting - I did Spanish to A level and French to GCSE and thinking it took me 5 and 7 years to get that far!!

Really hoping immersion and a fluent DH will see me through!

Visiting for Oktoberfest perchance?

I'm missing home shopping! We haven't got a car yet as we need to save and DH doesn't want an old banger (apparently that is not wise on German Autobahns), and so we're schlepping to and from the supermarkets every 2-3 days for bits and bobs.
Grrrr!!!!! Grrrr!! Grrrr!!!

If an old banger is not advisable on the autobahn, could you not just get one for everyday and avoid driving on the autobahn, rather than just not get a car? Not that I have seen many old bangers on the roads more recently.

I know, but apparently if a car is older than 5-8years, it's an old banger. The repair costs outweigh the value for older cars a lot quicker than in the UK where an old banger might be +15yrs.

We've agreed to hold out until autumn (me: October, DH: Jan) but it feels so prehistoric nonetheless carrying milk boxes and potatoes in cloth bags on the buggy. I know that others have it harder with having to chop wood and walk to water wells each day, but I just can't get my head around the fact that they have Packsations here but next to no home shopping
Do you all head out weekly or do a big shop as per in the U.K./ US?

TeaAddict do you mean online grocery shopping? You can do that with rewe. Delivery can cost up to €5 depending on day/time but well worth it IMO!