My two children and I were
discussing recently how it is, even though German is their dominant language, they
do not feel as if they possess an extensive or differentiated German vocabulary.
Their father is originally from Italy
and learnt to speak German as a 10-year-old. He does not speak anymore the Sicilian
dialect of his childhood. He studied to be a translator and linguist and so
acquired a further four languages along the way.
The way we communicated when our
children were living at home was; I spoke English, which my husband and
children understand, and they spoke German the whole time, which I’m fluent in.
So, I naturally assumed their German would be comparable to all their German
schoolmates. Apparently not.
My daughter says she feels as if
there was still something missing, some depth to the language, they never learnt. She
proposes it has to do with the fact that none of her grandparents were German.
Maybe family history and shared family memories are an intrinsic part of the
passing on of language. What a lovely notion.
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