Mmmm.....Can I just say it in German?

Emilie and I were sitting in the car today waiting for Micaela and James after school and she was talking about money and paying for things. I was only half-listening until the conversation took an interesting turn:

E: Blah, blah, blah.....Mom, if you were going to buy something that cost....nine.....ninety.....mmmmmm....Can I just say it in German?
C: Sure. (ears suddenly perking up)
E: OK, if you were going to buy something that cost neunundneunzig Euro fünf, you could use a 200 Euro bill.

That was a first. Our kids are all learning German, but that was the first time one of them was stumped for how to say something in English and opted for German instead.

Before we moved here, so many people said to us, "And just think! Your kids will become fluent in German! Kids learn languages so fast." But David and I knew better. Our kids would be attending an international school where all instruction except for German class would be in English and kids (even the German ones) were expected to speak English outside of class. I have seen for myself teachers wagging their fingers at groups of kids milling around in the lobby after school speaking German or Korean and saying "In English!"

Our kids then come home to a family where everyone speaks English. We knew they would learn some German, but was becoming fluent even a possibility? It would have been a certainty if we had chosen to put our kids into public German schools, but they would have undoubtedly had to repeat a year as the first year would have been all about learning the language. We didn't want to return to the U.S. and have them be a year behind all of their friends.

So, where do things stand now? Micaela, James and Emilie all have daily German classes at school (Micaela also has Spanish) and seem to understand most of what they hear when we're out and about. I often ask the kids to translate what Spongebob or Hannah Montana just said and they do a good job. But speaking...that's another story. They are all hesitant about speaking, afraid to make a mistake, but just recently, James is using German at home with us here and there. And now Emilie resorting to German (I think she couldn't figure out quickly enough how to say "Ninety-nine dollars and 5 cents") was a sure sign that their German is coming along.

Rebecca attends a daily all-German Kindergarten and is a bit of a puzzle for us. When I pick her up and drop her off, she seems to understand everything being said to her. She just doesn't talk a lot, in German or English, so it's hard to gauge where her German language skills lie. For the last few months, however, she has shown a preference for some German words over their English counterparts: water is now Wasser, blue is blau, horse is Pferd...etc. If she would only start talking in complete sentences more often!