**German Chat**everyone welcome* - macht es euch gemütlich

[ZZZen]

reden wir weiter...

Admylin
I would do something like

anbei erhalten Sie die Sparbücher von unsere Kinder, X und Y Adymlinname. Wir bitten Sie, die Konten zu schliessen und der verbleibende Guthaben auf unsere Konto (12345) zu übertragen.

But perhaps a native speaker will have a better formulierung.

Did you do Shahjahan - emperor of TajMahal fame? And don't forget to tell her about Bollywood and the likes of Sharuk Kahn (not sure about spelling)!

i'm no help to you admylin but i'm sure someone else will help!!

ds1 came home today with a letter from the kiga inviting him to english lessons!! not being funny but he's 4.6 - not sure he needs to be taught to count to 10!! but he can go for something different to do - it only half an hour!!

was having a nap when all the chat about accents was going on - got a sticky cough and bunged up head the last few days so not slept so well!! that youtube link just sounds like people in the village talking - funny how it doesnt bother me!! heard some man from the black forest on the tv the other night and he had a shockingly bad accent!! but will get dh to have a look at that wurzburg thing - it looks spooky!!

need to go and rescue kids away from german mickey mouse!! they love it so much but its lunchtime!!

so she did

Thanks alot mmelindt, my brain has totally switched off in German. Yesterday even the dc agreed to get rid of their globes because all the countries are in German.

ps i agree admylin that primary school unifroms in the UK are a good thing but i agree with whoever said about the secndary ones!! they are expensive and ridiculous - when after school do you wear a tie and a formal blazer!! they could all wear polo shirts and jumpers and a choice of trousers or skirts and still look smart!! and still learn!! not sure why they're made to wear such ridiculous formal clothes for school!

we didn't really do him admylin but we did read something about the Taj Mahal and look at some videos of it. Dh went there when he was in India on business and got some nice photos. Dd likes Bollywood, she doesn't know the names of any of the actors though.

The more in fact we read and talk about it, the more amazing India seems.

I wonder if once the dc have been in the UK for a year or two , their interest in all things German will rekindle?

sent you a mail admylin btw

I'm not sure with ds. He even has bad memories of Kindergarten so he's not going to be coming back here fast. Dd made some good friends and has some good memories so she'll be OK with it I think. Infact she'll have a little half German girl to go to school with so she might kepp up the langauge more so than ds.

I'll read it when I get back from picking dd up ZZZen, thanks.

That's interesting that there's a part German family in your home town

Canella
The Nachtwächter is not at all spooky, he is incredibly funny and interesting. We have done the tour several times and it is fab. I love it when he has some Fischköpfe in his audience as they spend half the time trying to translate what he is saying.

what are Fischköpfe?

Btw in case it sounds unpleasantly cliquey talking about emails on here, I just wanted to tell you mine is [email protected] in case anyone wants to mail - you too stickylittlefingers if you want to ask anything about Berlin you can post on here or mail me too if you like.

da bin ich wieder! The one who wants to know about Berlin and schools and stuff. Don't worry, I wasn't feeling kicked off, I just had a spot of work to do... That was a very helpful thread - the Europa schools sound like a good option, cos we do want both girls to have proper language exposure (they'll realise that Kika isn't just some weird made up thing then!).

How did anyone find their children coped with the language - and what preparation would you recommend (apart from watching kleiner roter Traktor!)... I find the whole going to another country and learning a new language just tremendously exciting, but I am sensible enough to realise that I only did that as an adult, and I happen to find learning languages pretty easy (hopefully something the girls will have inherited). I hope that doesn't sound to show offy, just trying to be realistic

If you choose an Europa school, you need not prepare, they are geared towards teaching English native speakers German (as well as v.v). Being in class and being in a German speaking environment generally for two years will probably take care of it.

The difficult thing is more likely to be keeping up a standard comparable to the NC in maths/English so the transition back doesn't leave them far behind their peers. However at primary, I don't honestly think this is such a huge issue personally.
Should be a great experience for you all.

Do you know what part of Berlin your dh will be working in?

We recently moved to Switzerland, and our DC have learnt reasonable French in just over 6mths. They both understand most of what is said and can communicate quite well with their classmates. Our DC are 4yo and 7yo.

Fischköpfe are folks from up north, who live at the seaside.

wonder if your dc will end up speaking German (or indeed English) with a French accent one day ML. I have a niece and 2 nephews in France (well Alsace so not that French) and they learn German of sorts at school but they have a very thick (very sweet) French accent: isch 'abe nischt gese'en.

Luckily a Fench accent sounds quite nice in other languages. Ma

The Europa school would be perfect for you but I would suggest doing some searches for available flats really near teh school so it's less of a hard day. They do 8am to 4pm so you don't want to have to add toomuch time on to the day with getting there and back.

When we moved to Berlin that's what I tried to do, aiming for the school in Charlottenburg but we didn't have long to flat hunt and didn't manage to find anything nearby so we ended up in Mitte. Was OK as h was working at Charite hospital and could walk to work and pop home for lunch if he had time.

I have no hesitation in saying that I want to stay here for as long as possible. (even more so when the alarm system is sorted out). That is the only cloud on the horizon here.

that's good, remember you were torn about having to move. What's happening with the alarm system then`?

Guy coming out tomorrow to quote it. Should be installes shortly IF the company approves it quickly.

I think Dahlem (tho not sure, just that that's where the department he would be linked to (I think) is based). Your other thread (I wonder if the OP did go to Berlin after your big sell there!!) makes it sound quite nice, and handy for the Quentin Blake school (whyever is it called that? I assume it's after the spiky drawing man!). Last time we were very lucky with accommodation, which I think rather made it for us (we were based in the black forest and it was all quite beautiful), so would hope to find something nice again.

That is encouraging, MmeLindt. I was hoping that they would just pick it up without too much bother.

I think you're right Zzzen about not being to hassled about standards. Dd1 is very enthusiastic (atm anyway) about learning and asking lots questions at home, so perhaps I could get some worksheets from school, or buy something just to keep her going a bit. I might check out the homeschoolers threads to see what they do. Don't want to overburden her tho.

Yes Quentin Blake is apparently an illustrator of dc's book. Had never heard of him before I read the school website. No idea why they chose that name. Charles Dickens and Nelson Mandela are much more well-known.

That school has quite nice grounds. If you call up the website, I think they have pictures. As long as your dd is keeping up her reading in English (and there is a reasonable school library with English books), she should be ok. The Berlin curriculum in maths covers different things at different times to the UK curriculum and the maths will be taught in German by a German teacher so perhaps you could hunt for a decent maths book or 2 to take with you in case your dd struggles with the classwork in that subject (since she hasn't yet mastered the language). Mind you year 1 in Germany it will be just adding and subtracting numbers up to 20 in those various new-fangled mental arithmetic ways so she may have already done it in the UK?

As admylin says, it is a very long school day and they are tired when you pick them up so if you are looking at the Quentin Blake, love for a place to stay in Dahlem, Zehlendorf or possibly overthe border in Brandenburg in Kleinmachnow which is a shortish drive and a bit cheaper.

argh don't love for it
LOOK for

I will do whatever it takes!!

Last question before I really ought to go and earn my keep: can you recommend any good websites for accommodation searching? I'm hoping that the academic contact might give us a steer (the one last time was fab, I'm afraid we can't be so lucky again) but I should do some research. Possibly I don't need to be researching right now, but am just very excited at the whole prospect!!