Alana in Munich, Germany from the UK
Jul 13, 2014 22:02:41 GMT 9
Post by Alana on Jul 13, 2014 22:02:41 GMT 9
Hello All
I am Alana and moved to Munich with my 13 year old daughter 8 months ago. My partner was working here whilst I lived and worked in London. But we decided that we should all be together here.
My daughter had been studying German at school for a year. But anyone who knows the UK system, will understand that languages are not driven in the way English is in other countries. She had some intensive sessions with a private tutor before we came and the week we arrived in Munich she started in a German school. They were able to take her into a class designed for non-German speaking children to develop the language, and we paid for her to attend a language class in the evenings. We also got her to join a local hockey club to do something she would find fun, as well as create a nice team environment for her to practice her language skills.
It has been an emotional and challenging time, not only dealing with the transition to another culture and language, but managing a teen as she deals with it all. But she has done amazingly and is now fairly fluent in the language. She understands people day-to-day and can converse with her friends and teachers etc easily.
Her subjects in school are now her focus, and our challenge is to develop her language to be at the high educational level we know she is capable of. This is where I would be keen to get some ideas.
I have moderate French skills, but I have not been as advanced in German. I do not have many friends here yet and have not been working with German speaking people. But I have now started classes and will be working in a more German speaking environment from September. So I hope to be able to provide more support.
We also hope that if we have more children in the future, we would encourage them to be multilingual right from the start. We have no doubt that language skills have such a valuable place in the world today.
I am Alana and moved to Munich with my 13 year old daughter 8 months ago. My partner was working here whilst I lived and worked in London. But we decided that we should all be together here.
My daughter had been studying German at school for a year. But anyone who knows the UK system, will understand that languages are not driven in the way English is in other countries. She had some intensive sessions with a private tutor before we came and the week we arrived in Munich she started in a German school. They were able to take her into a class designed for non-German speaking children to develop the language, and we paid for her to attend a language class in the evenings. We also got her to join a local hockey club to do something she would find fun, as well as create a nice team environment for her to practice her language skills.
It has been an emotional and challenging time, not only dealing with the transition to another culture and language, but managing a teen as she deals with it all. But she has done amazingly and is now fairly fluent in the language. She understands people day-to-day and can converse with her friends and teachers etc easily.
Her subjects in school are now her focus, and our challenge is to develop her language to be at the high educational level we know she is capable of. This is where I would be keen to get some ideas.
I have moderate French skills, but I have not been as advanced in German. I do not have many friends here yet and have not been working with German speaking people. But I have now started classes and will be working in a more German speaking environment from September. So I hope to be able to provide more support.
We also hope that if we have more children in the future, we would encourage them to be multilingual right from the start. We have no doubt that language skills have such a valuable place in the world today.
was actually one of the series I was thinking of - the other was TKKG, I think they are still around, though I hope the more recent one have been updated with stuff like computer access and cell phones.
Very positive podcast review of my book Bilingual Success Stories Around the World at Kletsheads 
