Could we be turning a corner?

I jumped the gun just a bit with my post yesterday about the kids starting to use German more. Today, there was another indication that we may have turned a corner with all the kids, that they have all become more comfortable using German.

James read a comic book in the car on the way home from school today and only when we got home did I get a good look at it.

Calvin and Hobbes auf Deutsch. When I asked James if he understood it OK, he answered, "Yeah, OK. But there are still some things I don't understand."


I was really impressed. When I was a senior in high school, on my fourth year of French, I found some old French Peanuts comic books in our school library. So, I checked one out, very excited to read something in French besides the worksheets our teacher gave us. On the very first page, it became clear I was not going to be able to read the book. There was slang, contractions to make the written language more like spoken language, unfamiliar vocabulary, verb tenses I hadn't learned yet. I remember thinking, "Four years of French and I can't understand a Charlie Brown comic strip? Good grief!"

Becca has recently become enthralled with a German Leapster game (an educational video game system). Santa gave her Disney's Cars and Hund-Babys (Pet Pals), both in German, but she wasn't interested. All of a sudden this week, she picked up Hund-Babys and can nagivate through the game just fine, following the oral instructions auf Deutsch.

When David and I talked all this over, he added that he's noticed Micaela beginning to use more German as well. This is all quite exciting for us former foreign language majors.