Dear Blog, Long Time No See!

Boy, have I been busy over the last few months.  I am trying to finish writing the last substantive chapter of my dissertation and have written approx. 90 pages of this one chapter over the last 2 months.  I am not sure how it got to be so long but apparently I did have something to say about the identity of the rulers of Dynasty XXV!?!?

My daughter has been growing like a weed over the last two months and is now talking non-stop!  I know that is surprising given who her father is! (amused sarcasm)  Since we speak German exclusively at home and speak English when we are visiting with my family, she is using both German and English and has recognized from context which of the languages she should use at any given time.  At less than two years old, Nuria recognizes that there are two words for every object and oftentimes will give the word for an object in German followed immediately by the phrase “in english…..”.   It took me years to get to the point in German where Nuria is right now.  It will not be long before she is correcting her poor father’s German!

It seems to be so easy for young children to pick up new languages.  I am so happy that we have decided to raise Nuria speaking German from the start.  Although we speak German exclusively at home, we do speak English when we are out in public or with my family.  Nuria seems to be picking up both languages very easily.  Many folks are frightened that using two languages will confuse the child, but in our experience that has definitely not been the case.  The only danger seems that you might facilitate the development of a pidjin-type of language development if you start to mix the two languages within the same sentences.  We have been working very hard at speaking exclusively German or exclusively English, depending on context, to ensure that she learns each of the languages properly.  Sometimes it has been hard on the members of our family that speak exclusively English, but in the long run it was definitely the right idea.  Nuria amazes us every single day.