sweetpea3829 Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 And if so, what program did you use? We live in a mennonite community and all of the neighborhood children speak Dutch. I'm thinking about having DS5 learn the language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TengoFive Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Are you sure its Dutch and not Pennsylvania Dutch, which is closer to German? I have looked into learning Dutch, as my grandmother was from Holland, but I haven't done so yet. I think Rosetta Stone offers Dutch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted May 23, 2012 Author Share Posted May 23, 2012 It's probably Pennsylvania Dutch. Pretty sure. Their students study German as a second language in their school...and their Bibles are translated in English and German. Found this out during a dinner we had with one of the neighboring families this past weekend. Such nice people! Somehow I doubt there's a language program that teaches Pennsylvania Dutch...lol! I'd love for him to be able to learn the language, though. Their children and our children play frequently, but there is that language barrier, as their children do not learn English until they start school at age 6. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Pennsylvania Dutch is a difficult language to learn for an outsider (I know this because my entire family has always spoken Deutch; I am the first generation not to understand it). It is not a written language, just spoken. Any writing that is found (that is not in high German) are all variations of how people think it should be written, but there is no standard for writing. There are a couple of local professors who are developing a curriculum for adults. I believe they are from Penn State and Kutztown University. I don't know if it is for sale. I do know that currently they are teaching it in Lancaster County is small groups. Perhaps your children will just pick it up from playing with the other children. But I don't believe their is a curriculum you can buy to use with your children. The Mennonite stores all sell curriculum to teach high German since their children grow up knowing PA Deutch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Pennsylvania Dutch is an altered German. It's very sumilar but not exactly the same as German. (it's reall Deutch, which was butchered by the locals into "Dutch" which is a completely different language -that would be the Language of Holland/NetherlNds.) Anyway if I were you, I would just teach dc German. The Mennonite kids know German by 2nd grade IIRC. I grew up in Barto/Boyertown and we had several Mennonite feiends as well as visiting the Amish booths at Zerns, and seeing the buggies roll by on their way! You are so blessed to live up there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted May 23, 2012 Author Share Posted May 23, 2012 Ok...this is all good to know, lol, thanks! We just moved here from out of state so this is all very new to us. I think I'll see if the neighbors we are closest to, wouldn't mind teaching him their dialect. I had thought the kids would pick it up just by playing together, but their children are so quiet and don't talk much when they are with our children. Are German and Pennsylvania Dutch close enough that a person speaking one, would be understood by a person speaking the other? Calming Tea...we do love it here! As mentioned, we JUST moved here and where we lived before was a pretty rough area. I can't tell you how thankful we are, that we can send our kids out to play and not have to worry about the neighbor kids teaching them profanity and other things we'd rather ours not know about. And we love love love seeing the horse and buggies trotting by. Our neighbor's mare JUST had a colt a little over a week ago and he is SO cute! Moving here has been such a blessing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Are German and Pennsylvania Dutch close enough that a person speaking one, would be understood by a person speaking the other? . I can only speak for our family and I would say probably not. Pennsylvania Dutch for lack of a better way to explain it is a very sloppy German. Even the way it comes out of the mouth, it doesn't have the enunciation that German has. However, like Calming Tea posted, many Mennonite children learn German because the hymnals are written in German. So I would say in that situation, a Mennonite child would understand a person speaking German although it wouldn't be the same. In our family, because we are not Mennonite, but were just Reformed, no one learned German. English was the 2nd language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted May 24, 2012 Author Share Posted May 24, 2012 Hmmm...ok. So I'm thinking he won't be learning Pennsylvania Dutch then...lol. I do need to decide on a language for him. I need something else for him to do, to kind of slow him down a bit because he's blowing through his other subjects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 And if so, what program did you use? We live in a mennonite community and all of the neighborhood children speak Dutch. I'm thinking about having DS5 learn the language. I came VERY close to joining an ultraconservative Mennonite church, and some of their ways are similar to the Amish and some are not. But, my church didn't like "seekers' to do things that were usually only done by people born into the church. They liked to be able to tell people apart by their history. There were so many unspoken rules that they wanted me to figure out on my own, so they didn't have to say things that they knew were petty and unfair and unbiblical. I was supposed to stop doing things I had done all my life, just because it made me look TOO Plain :-0 Being plainer than the Plain is a HUGE no no! Teaching your child to speak their language is NOT the same thing as it is for other ethnic groups. Some of them are using their language as a way to keep separate. Just be careful. There are so many ways to offend. So many :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Hmmm...ok. So I'm thinking he won't be learning Pennsylvania Dutch then...lol. I do need to decide on a language for him. I need something else for him to do, to kind of slow him down a bit because he's blowing through his other subjects. Read Climbing Parnassus. :lol: That will SLOOOOOW things down :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Just wanted to add that I actually ordered the workbooks for their "German". They were cheap!!! Anyway DH just about fell over laughing -- he can teach the kids German because he is fluent but could not even read the script for those workbooks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted May 31, 2012 Author Share Posted May 31, 2012 Read Climbing Parnassus. :lol: That will SLOOOOOW things down :lol: BAHAHA! Seriously...he just picks up a book and reads it, usually with very few errors, and we haven't even gone through all of the phonics lessons yet. I do have one reservation about teaching him a foreign language...his articulation in English is below average for his age. He's just now graduating out of speech therapy, but his scores are still low. His brain is moving too fast for his mouth to keep up, and he tends to jumble words together. Plus, he speaks softly, AND he has a TON to say. So if he can't pronounce English correctly, how's he going to do with a foreign language? Regardless, I don't think Pennsylvania Dutch is going to end up on our curriculum list for next year. I mentioned it to our neighbors and they didn't seem offended. She mentioned that they learn to read high German, and confirmed that if he took German, it wouldn't really be the same. As for offending them...gosh, our experience with this particular community hasn't been that way at all, though I have no doubt that many of the Mennonite and Amish communities can be that way. But in our community, we have three direct families that live in our immediate vicinity (and gosh, dozens more that are just a bit further) and they have been so warm to us. When DH broke his leg, the father of one family was there to help me with my children while I waited for a family from my own church to arrive. Another family (our direct neighbors....the ones we're very friendly with) took our four children, six and under (on top of her own four children ages 5 and under) many days in a row, while I ran back and forth from the hospital. Another family brought us a huge box of food and a surprising amount of cash. We will never forget their kindness towards us during that very difficult time. We are very new to this area (moved here in September) and have absolutely nobody, except our new church, and our best friends that live an hour from here. We are very curious about their culture and way of doing things. It's like a whole other small little world. We have tried to be very cognizant of things that might offend them, and have sat with some of them and explained that we would prefer they come to us and tell us if something we do or say is offensive, because we just don't know any better. Anyways...so this brings me back to the original point...lol. I need to see about a language for DS. Sawuk, my DH is fluent in Portuguese but could not read it, or write it. I don't think he's ever written or read Portuguese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Sweetpea-- pretty confident he can read typical German. People have paid him to translate business documents. Those books look nothing like normal German. Very ornate-- lots of curly stuff as I remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nestof3 Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Okay, so I was excited because my middle son does want to learn Dutch -- actual Dutch. :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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