germanprof

brittlebloodbrittleblood
edited February 2011 in whirling dervish
come spring break we're taking the somewhat cross-country trip to get up close and personal with harry potter in the deep south. we happen to have one of those vans with a dvd system for the kids to keep theyselves occupied. we typically load up on educational materials (the "imagineering" series from disney is deep and engaging - highly recommended!) and this trip needs more of the similar-same.

the caveat is we really need to find something to elevate our 6th grader's use of german to another level. his shyness is killing him in his grade as he continually hits the wall at participation. odd to peg me having a shy kid, but there you have it. is there anything - audio/video - which we can use over the 20 hours there + 20 hours back you would recommend?

thankee.
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Comments

  • GermanprofGermanprof
    When I get back to home base I'll check with a colleague who knows resources for younger learners better than I do and get back to you with what I find...
  • brittlebloodbrittleblood
    x.
  • Dr. MutexDr. Mutex
    How about cartoon shows and other kid shows in German? You'll probably have to push the lower age limit he's willing to put up with to get something he can mostly understand.
  • GermanprofGermanprof
    edited February 2011
    OK, only real suggestions I dredged up so far on the educational DVD in German score are for young children: the BBC Muzzy series (available on Amazon), and various Sesamstra
  • Dr. MutexDr. Mutex
    edited February 2011
    The Guten Tag, Wie Geht's series is good, although somewhat dated. They've all got humor in them. You'll need a download extension to grab them off YouTube. Dirndln sprechen Bayerisch is my favorite. You can find the rest of the series from the uploader.

    edit: The extension I've got is called "Download YouTube Videos as MP4"
  • BrighternowBrighternow
    Schnappi Das Kleine Krokodil

    - 14 million can't be wrong. . .
  • frogkopffrogkopf
    Have him listen to Lilipuz - Radio für Kinder. It's kind of a Deutschewelle with less vocabulary so kids can understand.

    Tell him not to worry if he understands everything - the more he listens the more he'll pick up. Also, a big part of languages that most learners miss is tuning into the musicality of the language, so listening will help. They have podcasts you can download.
  • brittlebloodbrittleblood
    hmmm...once again the unspeakable power of the "x"entry lights a fire under the emuser community. thankee thankee thankee.

    i'll dig into all this...we leave around the 25 of march so decent amount of lead time.

    we do have one series set aside - "from the earth to the moon" (and back!) - a 5 dvd set covering manned space flight to the moon (and back). and last night we watched the criterion collection "for all mankind"...brian eno scored it - 100% nasa documentary material stitched together into a movie format. garrett kept saying "i like this music..."

    extending the digression: early in the movie an astronaut is quoted "i was so focused on my tasks, the deep responsibility, i don't know if i ever even gave a thought to how i felt..." this would be syncing up with scenes from "pre-flight" - the movie progresses and we get to the "on the moon" scenes. the damn astronauts are constantly goofing off and not concentrating on anything - they're euphoric. with 10 minutes left before they have to leave the moon, one astronaut discovers "the rock"...and his audio feed is akin to "woot! i don't know how we missed this! it being right here in plain view and along a path we've taken 30 times! but dizzam! it's the real deal!!! woot!" his partner on the flight is hustling him up and is this close to telling him to ditch it.

    just remember kiddies, when you get to the moon, act like you've been there before.
  • Bad ThoughtsBad Thoughts
    Brittleblood, are you going to areas of the south settled by Germans? Borrowing from Dr. Mutex suggestion, you could identify the areas in Germany from which they came and learn something of the dialect and culture from that region. Chances are they came from (what we call today) the Pfalz, the area of the Middle Rhine and the Moselle. It might not push forward their linguistic skills in the purely academic sense, but it would cast them more broadly.

    (BTW, always be prepared for the ugly truth that many German-Americans find difficult to acknowledge: that their ancestors came from rural areas around Metz, fleeing from the repressive policies of the diocese. These ethnic Germans are nationally French.)
  • frogkopffrogkopf
    edited February 2011
    The big thing is that if your kid is an introvert, it may be a matter of being self conscious. Is he getting good grades on the other things like grammar and composition?

    If so, then it may be a case of finding him someone who speaks German well (preferably a native speaker) who can sit one on one with him and practice so he feels more comfortable speaking aloud himself. I went through that stage myself. I'm a high introvert by nature (scored an average of 92% on the introversion side of the 4 categories on the Myers-Briggs, for what it's worth). I picked up languages very quickly, but suddenly became instantly mute when I had to put myself out there. Being in a situation where I had to speak the language a lot (in my case southern Austria where most of the older people spoke little or no English) got rid of that shyness fairly quickly.

    One caveat with the native speaker suggestion though - Germany tends to be a country of Besserwissers so be careful not to get someone too pedantic about correcting speech errors, because that can make an introvert pull into their shell ASAP.
  • frogkopffrogkopf
    Of course this might be valuable too:

    German-Kermit-der-Frosch-DVD.jpg
  • frogkopffrogkopf
    Rubber Duckie auf Deutsch:

    Rubberduckie1970.jpg
  • brittlebloodbrittleblood
    not to make this a competition, but i can't imagine a boy more at introvert.

    it has softened a bit over the years.

    early on - 1st grade - i stopped by the school to meet with his teacher and discuss just this issue. winter, but a day the kids can go outside so the classrooms and halls are empty. as i'm walking down the hall i look out into the play field and far far away, at the edge of the grounds bordering the woods is a solitary child - walking on the edge and pretending he is a robot. sometimes pure chance can break your heart and mine fell and fell when it connected that's my Garrett...

    that will always be a point on the scale for me - the very far end.

    we work very hard with him and we've always found ways to progress...in a recent case, i encouraged him to read his German presentation several times and then attempt to record it using his most excellent microphone + garageband - but no notes. at home + being able to pause the recording when he wanted to collect himself - all that made him comfortable (which is the key for him to progress in all endeavors). when the time came to do his presentation in class, he fared well.

    so, on his scale (the one that matters, right froggie!) he is nowhere near that point in first grade.

    more shortly...
  • elwoodiciouselwoodicious
    @brittleblood, I feel you and I'm, in many regards, an adult version of Garrett. I spent much of my childhood and adolescence walking that edge of ground far away from the other kids. You are likely doing it already but for me the most important thing was not connecting with other kids but connecting with my parents and family, as I grew older finding some means to indicate that my being alone did not necessarily mean I was "alone".
  • brittlebloodbrittleblood
    yes - that is one of the wonders of parenting - you find out it's not about me in a way you couldn't predict. it is about your child. as an aside, we always tell Garrett the best gift we ever gave him is his brother. i cannot describe how deep and genuine the sharing/caring/love-thing is with those two...while i come from a family of almost all brothers (one sister, 4 brothers) - and close-knit to this day - it really is notable to see Garrett + Holden together.

    in Garrett's case, it is not my wish to see him at the center of all social activity - he's not wired that way and i'd be a fool to try to push the agenda. at the same time, Garrett has an ability to add. his teachers point to his integrity, his kind heart and his ability to work with anyone he's paired with as tremendous assets. James, we've known each other a very long time...you're sharing is amazingly unique - the intelligence you put into your contributions is immediately evident, but the real meaning (to me anyway) is you are always willing to open and share. you freely give - i hope in some small way these words reflect gratitude, respect and acknowledgment.

    emusers. it's no accident scissorhands is here.

    clink.
  • brittlebloodbrittleblood
    edited February 2011
    @badthoughts: interesting idea re: travel to germany with the boys...that is the plan for 8th grade graduation - a group of kids from school take a 2 week trip + stay with families in a "sister city". garrett would start out with the group + we would then join up with him and continue travels at the end of two weeks. but that's 2 years away and the main driver to get him (and us as well) more fluent in german is this spring break's trip.

    our immediate objective is to load up on a/v materials to use as we travel south to orlando - universal studios has the harry potter world and our boys have read all the books about 3x over - with all the time in the van (20 hours there, 20 back) it is an ideal time to do an immersion exercise. recently, we used the "imagineering" series from disney as educational material...fluids, gravity, levers...all sorts of great material. i highly recommend it for roadtrippers with kids in the age of 7 - 13.

    french??? peters is the german family name for my peoples on my mom's side. on the paternal side, it's movie-list-like. wonder where we came from...
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