Sydney - When the mother goes to Sydney with her daughter...

Diterbitake: 29.10.2019

Langganan Newsletter

Short explanation why Sofia and I flew alone to Sydney for 4 days:

Rene and I wanted to encourage the children to speak English outside of school, so in the afternoons and evenings within the family. Initially only two hours a day, which led to the absence of the obligatory arguments among the children on the first day. Cool, we thought, now it will be more peaceful! On the second day of the "speaking English at home" project, they switched to English in the middle of the sentence and continued arguing. Uff... but it's nice that they learn so quickly!

So the children have improved their English rapidly, while Rene and I have been left behind a bit. "Where does this lovely accent come from?" is not necessarily what I wanted to hear in every conversation. Or the confusion when I wanted to order a coffee and the waitress just couldn't understand me.

"A caffe latte please!"

- ? -

"I would like to have a latte...?!"

- ?

- "Latte?!?"

- "Ah, a Hlade!" (Now I always think of Carmen and Christian when ordering, so that I can get the Aussie pronunciation...)

Finally our idea of speaking English every day (except Sunday). But how do you get the children to do that? As is often the case in educational everyday life, we also resorted to good old bribery in this case. The children can be paid with computer time for the "English time".

At some point, Sofia lost interest in Hayday or Brawlstars and suggested that instead we should take a trip to Sydney. The boys declined politely and so Sofia and I went to the East Coast on our own!

And my English? Unbelievable how many words you have to look up every day! For months! And Leons teacher Mr. Watson, who speaks in the broadest Aussie slang, is still a mystery to me. I have given up hope of ever not being identified as a German speaker within the shortest possible time. But: By now I can order coffee - what more could you want?!