Hanis - Mixing Finnish And German

Fräulein has now been in the German Krippe for one year. She has learnt the language quite well. Actually so well, that I noticed earlier that we are raising a bilingual child!

I was a bit worried, what would happen during our seven weeks in Finland. And yes, Fräulein's return to Krippe was a bit difficult. But it was not only the language - most of her friends had moved to the Kindergarten groups as they had turned three years old, there were many new children in the Krippe, and her favorite teacher was on holiday.

Well, after just one week everything was back to normal. Her language and speech (in Finnish) had really developed during our holiday and now her German was improving as well.

Nowadays, she is not only using one word commands sentences, but something more complex. And her vocabulary has improved greatly. She is also able to find the connection between the two languages: "Koira. In the Krippe they say 'Hund'!"

But then there is this one word, which I find highly amusing: 'rabbit'. In German 'Hase' and in Finnish 'jänis'.

Thus, Fräulein calls her bunny 'Hanis!'

Baby and her 'Hanis'

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Paluu Krippeen Suomi-lomamme jälkeen oli Fräuleinille vähän hankala. Hänen suomensa oli kesän aikana parantunut merkittävästi, mutta sitten olikin taas aika palata saksankieliseen ympäristöön. 
Jo viikon jälkeen homma kuitenkin alkoi taas sujua ja saksankielisten sanojen ja juttujen määrä on lisääntynyt huimasti.
Mielestäni hauskin on uudissana, jolla Fräulein kutsuu pupuaan: Hase + jänis = Hanis!

Deutsch Lernen

My German teacher brought me yesterday a German 'dictionary'. I thought this was a great book to introduce, especially to all mothers out there, who are learning German.

The book is a Hueber Bildwörterbuch. In this book you can find 1000 most important German words described as pictures. It is a great book to read with your child. While she or he is looking at the nice pictures, you can 'accidentally' learn new words!

When I was browsing through this book, I noticed I knew most of the words. So, this must mean that I know almost 1000 words in German!

But I have a great problem with the articles. It is not enough to know 1000 words, but to use the language properly, you must know if a noun is 'der', 'die' or 'das'. In most of the children's picture books, the article of the word is not shown. In this book, however, the articles as well as the plural form and the tenses of verbs are shown.

You can buy this book for example from Hugendubel for 14.95€.

Hausfrau's Favourite Hobby: Online Shopping

The world of online shopping has opened up for me since we moved to Germany and had a baby. First of all, the selection in German online stores is so much larger than in Finland. Secondly, shopping is so much cheaper here. The sales are better, plus the delivery is usually free! DHL brings the shopping to your door possibly as fast as the next day.

I'm not a real fan of shopping clothes for myself online, as I'd like to try them on. But for baby clothes as well as other accessories, online shopping is a great option.

I must admit that I have even become a bit of a maniac in finding the cheapest offer. In choosing a product I might visit several 'real' stores, but after that I take the shopping online. For example, after choosing the pushchair I wanted, I spent quite a while online searching where I could get it the cheapest (one year ago Bugaboo Cameleon was cheapest in Dutch Mutti und Ich store, even with the delivery costs).

Another nice thing in online shopping are the Gutscheins (discount coupons). Every time you order something, you are provided with several coupons to other stores. And you would be a fool not to use them, right? ;)

I won't even start to list the online stores, which I visit regularly, but I think there are a couple worth mentioning:

• Baby Markt: for anything baby-related. Very reliable and the delivery is free in Germany for orders over 20€. And if you'd like to order something that costs under 20€, add a Pampers packet to your Warenkorb ('Baby Markt macht den besten Preis!') and your order will be delivered free of charge!
• Buch.de: Good selection of books in English and always free delivery
• myToys.de: good selection of toys always in sale
• There are several nice online stores for baby clothes, but one that I have used a couple of times is Ellerhop. I had thought I'd need to wait until January to get winter clothes with good price, but they already had the lovely Cupcake snowsuit in sale. 

If you still aren't convinced or if you need to explain your hobby to someone, please remember that online shopping is a great way to learn a language!