Elgarmummy.com

Category: language learning

All about learning languages

  • Today I Am Loving

    Today I Am Loving

    I joined a lucky draw conducted by Miracule and won a book ‘Today I am’. It contains a series of drawings of fish displaying various emotions.

    I showed it to El and he started reading the adjectives and acting them out. When the words were positive, such as ‘happy’ and ‘glad’, he smiled brightly. When he saw the word ‘scared’, he opened his eyes wide, covered his mouth and dropped his jaw.

    He had some trouble with pronouncing and understanding the word ‘jealous’ and understood it after I talked about Gar. He said he was not jealous of his brother.

    I asked him what he was feeling today. He flipped through the pages and said, “Today I am loving.” I made him give me a hug to show he was loving. Then I suggested to him to show he was loving by hugging Gar.

    Immediately, he ran into the room, but seemed hesitant to climb over the fence. He finally went in and gave a hug to Gar who was seated and playing with the flash cards. Gar was unused to this show of affection, so he promptly burst into tears.

    Later on, I told my husband what had happened while El was around. He listened and said that he was loving but Gar did not know how to be loving.

    This book with beautiful drawings is good to learn about emotions, but perhaps they could have a more advanced version with a more extensive vocabulary, with words such as ‘ecstatic’, ‘petrified’ and ‘worried’. They could include phrases too.

  • German Nursery Rhymes and Songs

    Random German song I sing to Gar

    Eins, zwei, drei, vier, DRACULA!
    Fünf, sechs, sieben, acht, DRACULA
    Erwacht, erwacht um Mitternacht.
    Die Uhr schlägt zwölf ich hör es schon:
    Dracula am Telefon.
    Es klappert sein Gebiß,
    Es klappert sein Gerüst.
    Die Leichen tanzen Rock ‘n Roll
    bei Nacht, bei Nacht, bei Nacht im Mondenschein!

    Unfortunately, I can only remember the first few phrases. I had first learnt it in my German class.

    Modo Eins, Zwei, Polizei
    Modo Eins, Zwei, Polizei

    The other German song I sing to Gar is Eins, Zwei, Polizei.  It is a German nursery rhyme, similar to One, Two, Buckle My Shoe. It is also an Euro techno song by an Italian, Mo-Do.

    I like to sing the German ABC to El. I love to see the look of confusion on his face when he discovers it is different from his usual ABC.

  • Upp X Rd

    Before I gave birth to Gar, I would drive El to school. I would rush from my work during lunch, and then pick him up from his grandparents’ place, and then to school, and then I rush back to work. It took me 2 hours each time, but I enjoyed the times. In the evenings, I would rush from my work to his school to bring him home for dinner.

    I would take the opportunity to talk to him, and he would talk about his friends. Sometimes, he would recount the things that took place in class. Usually, they would involve his five other classmates, and the topic was usually about playing in the playground. He liked to use the adverbial phrase ‘just now’ as a time marker, but his ‘just now’ ranged from months to hours. For example, he would say, “Just now R ran after me in the playground.”

    However, it was something that had taken place a few days ago.

    Apart from talking about school, he would look around and tell me about the road signs. One of the signs had ‘Upp X Rd’, ‘X’ being one of the road names, and he would be very puzzled. There was only ‘up’ and no ‘upp’. When I told him it stood for ‘upper’, he was not happy with the answer, and like other children, he continued to ask me five times why it was ‘upp’. It was the same for ‘Rd’.

    Orchard Rd
    Orchard Rd

    “The sign is too small!”

    “RD stands for ‘road’.”

    This was where I had to be creative. Every time he asked me the same question, I had to come up with a better way of answering. I wonder whether it is better to reply the same thing again, or explain in another way.

    Along the way, there was some construction work. He kept looking out for excavators and cranes. Sometimes they were not around, and a lot of explanation was required.

    Unfortunately, after I gave birth, my mother took over the job, and I don’t get to talk to him that much. It is only on a few occasions I get to steal time and get to talk to the little boy.

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