Is imperfect German better than no German?

[EvieBear]

Hi

Just wanted some opinions on speaking German to my daughter. I am half Austrian, grew up in an English speaking household, but went to an international school and half of my lessons were in German. My German is quite good but grammatically it's not great i.e. sometimes get the Artikel wrong and so on...

I want to know if this is ok when talking to my 10 month old in German, not now but as she gets older and starts to copy me? I would love her to have some German but am not sure if semi-good German is better than no German at all?

Also: how often should I speak to her in German? Our household language is English (ie with my partner I speak English).

Any tips/advice would be appreciated in order to encourage me to keep up or increase the little bit of German I do talk to her!

Thanks

I think it's great to do what you're doing, as long as by "quite good" you mean that you can express everything you want in German - ie you have some weaknesses rather than any gaping holes.

I am doing something very similar in French and it is working.

As for how often - ALL THE TIME! Decide, now, that you speak German to your child and never deviate from that.

That's my advice anyway - others will be along soon.

But, basically, go for it. Hard work, but worth it and very doable.

Also, why wait? Do it now!

I'd say go for it too, and speak as much as possible (without excluding your partner). Perhaps you could use German books/DVDs too as she gets older, so that she's not entirely reliant on your German input. Do you live somewhere where there might be other German-speaking families nearby?

I think you have to do it pretty much all the time you are talking to your DC, especially if you are working and they have to deal with English CM/nursery.

My Mum used to talk to my DCs in Polish, but it was only a couple of afternoons a week - as a result they have only learned a few phrases (though my DD1 has a surprisingly good polish accent)

There are so many German speaking parents in the UK, especially in London. A German buddy would be great for your child.
I agree with the other posters: if you don*t have gaping holes, speak German all the time to your daughter, the "wiring" in her brain will benefit her all her life.

I would speak german to her as much as you can - most of the native speakers have to get the grammar ironed out at school anyway.

Thanks- will do my best!!!!

Also get CDs and DVDs; nursey rhymes, songs, stories, etc. As much as possible.

Good Luck Evie.

I would love to speak Swiss German to the DCs but I know that DH would feel majorly excluded, so I don't. He struggles with my talking Swiss to my mum & brothers, on the rare occasions I see them, as he feels I'm being rude, even though that (speaking Swiss to them) is what I did for years when I lived out there. I do occasionally read DCs a Swiss book at bedtime when DS1, 5 yo, ask for the "gurdywurdyguudy" book.

My half-sister has a German mum, who generally speaks to her in German and Dad in English - as a result she is a 5 yr old with two languages and its great for her - especially as her German Granny doesn't speak any English.

Please carry on and I am sure your German is better than you think! I'm a native speaker but have been in the UK for so long that my German has suffered. I still speak it to my dcs and my dd1 is now totally bilingual at less than 3 years old. It does not seem to bother her that I speak to dh in English in the evenings either. And my dd2 already gives me funny looks if I speak English to her - she prefers German - and she's only 3 months.
swissmiss feel sorry for you that your dh feels excluded. My dh actually did some evening classes, so has some basic knowledge now. He thinks it's fantastic for our children to be bilingual.

Thanks BG. It's frustrating as he's got a decent grasp of German, thanks to 12mths on a construction site in Dresden but Swiss dialect is so different he can't just take any classes in it He's also seen my kid brother grow up bi-lingual so I would've hoped for more enthusiasm.

Best of luck with it Eviebear - I think it is definitely a good idea for you to keep on with the German. When your DD gets a bit older, you might like to consider a Samstagsschule if there's one nearby.

They're at www.germansaturdayschools.com

Another option if you have internet radio (also on Astra satellite if that's available in the UK) is a German kids' radio station based in Berlin called Radio Teddy.

www.radioteddy.de

It's aimed at younger children between 3 and 10, so maybe you could have it on in the background sometimes and then talk about it together when your DD starts talking. The DJs love hearing about listeners from other places!

I have to say, though, as a station it gets on my nerves (that sodding talking Kühlschrank!) and we have limited it to school run in the car only.

Just seen that there's a parallel thread on the German School in Richmond and someone mentioned that they can get the TV channel KiKa on satellite. KiKa (KinderKanal) is just great, and they show the Sandmann every evening at 6.50 CET. Die Sendung mit der Maus is on Sundays.