Trying to read books in the wrong language!

[4KookieKids]

So my son is 4.5 and is beginning to start reading. Mostly it's just a word here or there that he tries to sound out (most recently reading the "Frontier" logo as it flashed in front of us on the mini TV's for an entire plane ride... :) )

 

At any rate, he doesn't yet know which books are English and which are German, because I tend to read them all in German during the day - even if it means translating on the fly. Daddy reads English ones in the evening (no translating involved, since he doesn't speak German). Well lately my son has been trying to read books on his own and is getting frustrated, because he doesn't know which language he should be trying to read in. He knows letter sounds in both languages, but is more comfortable trying to sound out and read English, but he often picks up a German book to sound out, and the result is just frustrating for him, and I worry that it's going to make wrong associations or teach him things incorrectly. Or worse, I worry that it'll just turn him off to reading!

 

If I were helping him do this, I would just clarify at the beginning which language the book is in, but he's more interested in doing it when he's playing independently or I'm busy with something else, and then I just happen to find him frustrated afterwards. (When I'm around, he'd rather do things that are more active!)

 

Short of labeling all our books with "E" and "G" or something similar (the only idea I've been able to come up with!), what else can I do to help him? Or is it something he'll sort out on his own, given enough frustration?

 

For what it's worth, he has no interest in reading in German right now so it's currently only a one-way problem/challenge.

[mom2bee]

I would probably put a sticker on all the books that he can read. Rather than labeling E and G, I'd probably just label a set of books that he can manage in English. So maybe get 5-20 books, put an "E" sticker them.

 

Is there some reason your are trying to avoid labeling the books? I would label the books that he can read through and keep them in a special basket or on a special shelf.

 

 

[4KookieKids]

Hmmm... I didn't want to label *all* of our books, was my thought, but he tries to read certain words from all his books. He doesn't limit himself to books that he can read through, and just randomly picks pages to try to read. I do have a separate place for the books that he can read completely independently, but he rarely chooses to read those, save for before naptime.

[mom2bee]

Maybe when you read to him, even when reading in German, you could tell him "This book is in English, but I am translating it into German" then proceed to read it in German" and vice versa "This book is in German, see [read the title in German], I don't even have to translate it" Thats what I do when translating on the fly Spanish into English.

 

"Okay, you want me to read this book? Okay, its in Spanish but I can read it in English for you." I ALWAYS read the true title of a book, .
Los Tres Osos--the three bears, and then read. I'm not fluent in Spanish so there is some lag between my reading it and my telling of the story.

[wendyroo]

I would teach him to look for "the". If you immediately see the then the book is in English. If you scan a few sentences and don't see the then the book is in German.

 

Wendy

[rzberrymom]

If it were me, I would skip the translating if possible. My hubby used to translate English books to German all the time, until my daughter finally complained that it made learning to read in German harder for her since she couldn't follow along. She was young at the time, and I didn't even realize that she was following along! Even though he's not interested in reading it yet, could it be that he's attempting to follow along and isn't seeing the words that match up with the German? Just another thought. :)

[Mnemosyne]

Could you separate the books? German on one bookshelf, English on the other? That way you can let him know ahead of time, but you don't need to label each book individually. That's what we do with our Dutch/English books, but our kids are still too young for it to matter.

[4KookieKids]

Maybe when you read to him, even when reading in German, you could tell him "This book is in English, but I am translating it into German" then proceed to read it in German" and vice versa "This book is in German, see [read the title in German], I don't even have to translate it" Thats what I do when translating on the fly Spanish into English.

We do often mention the language of the book... He just doesn't seem to remember it! :)

 

I would teach him to look for "the". If you immediately see the then the book is in English. If you scan a few sentences and don't see the then the book is in German.

I may try this! Since "the" is normally taught as a sight word, he'd hopefully find it rather quickly.

 

If it were me, I would skip the translating if possible. My hubby used to translate English books to German all the time, until my daughter finally complained that it made learning to read in German harder for her since she couldn't follow along. She was young at the time, and I didn't even realize that she was following along! Even though he's not interested in reading it yet, could it be that he's attempting to follow along and isn't seeing the words that match up with the German? Just another thought. :)

This is really interesting! I'd never considered this, but I definitely will! It's just hard because we have access to so many more English books than German (e.g., library, where you don't have to *buy* every single one!) that I'm not sure we'd have much variety in our reading if I only read German books.

 

Could you separate the books? German on one bookshelf, English on the other? That way you can let him know ahead of time, but you don't need to label each book individually. That's what we do with our Dutch/English books, but our kids are still too young for it to matter.

I did try this -- and it worked until the kids were old enough to put their own books away... But they don't separate them when they put them away (they all just end up in a stack), and with three little ones, I just don't have it in me to go through and sort books every day when they're already put away! :)

[rzberrymom]

This is really interesting! I'd never considered this, but I definitely will! It's just hard because we have access to so many more English books than German (e.g., library, where you don't have to *buy* every single one!) that I'm not sure we'd have much variety in our reading if I only read German books.

Do you have a Kindle or other reader? I normally don't read to my kids with one, but it is one way to get German books cheaply. Amazon has decently priced ebooks: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_3?rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A%21133141011%2Cn%3A154606011%2Cp_20%3AGerman%2Cn%3A155009011&bbn=154606011&ie=UTF8&qid=1389035483&rnid=154606011

 

I got some ebooks for free through Project Gutenberg too. Often libraries have ebooks in other languages too.

 

Does there happen to be a German Saturday School anywhere near you? They have good lending libraries, but the teachers and other parents have also let my daughter borrow books.

 

And I got some cheap books from a thread someone posted a few weeks ago. ABC Kinderladen has books marked 50% off right now, and shipping was really cheap since it could go Media Mail. http://www.abckinderladen.com/

[4KookieKids]

Do you have a Kindle or other reader? I normally don't read to my kids with one, but it is one way to get German books cheaply. Amazon has decently priced ebooks: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_3?rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A%21133141011%2Cn%3A154606011%2Cp_20%3AGerman%2Cn%3A155009011&bbn=154606011&ie=UTF8&qid=1389035483&rnid=154606011

 

I got some ebooks for free through Project Gutenberg too. Often libraries have ebooks in other languages too.

 

Does there happen to be a German Saturday School anywhere near you? They have good lending libraries, but the teachers and other parents have also let my daughter borrow books.

 

And I got some cheap books from a thread someone posted a few weeks ago. ABC Kinderladen has books marked 50% off right now, and shipping was really cheap since it could go Media Mail. http://www.abckinderladen.com/

 

We don't have an ereader. The nearest Saturday school is about an hour away, which sounds close, but just doesn't work for us right now (not with a 2 year old and an infant as well as my 4 year old), and last time I went there were very few kids who were actually bilingual (most of them were just learning German).

 

I somehow had forgotten about ABC Kinderladen and gotten in the habit of ordering from bookdepository, so thanks for the reminder! Our "extras" budget is pretty limited right now, even so. It's hard for me to be patient when we can only buy one or two books a month! I think some times I'm worse than the kids... lol. I just love having such a variety of books from the library, and wish we could get that variety in German too. :)  But I suppose I'm digressing from the original issue of reading in the "wrong" language.

[Mabelen]

Why not start reading the books in the language they are written in? I used to translate on the fly until around 2 1/2 yo then I started just saying "this book is written in English, so I will read in English", any discussion, questions, etc would be in Spanish still. I did that mainly because my dd would not tolerate if I deviated from a previous translation and I could not remember from one time to the next. This worked very well for both girls and it avoided confusion. My oldest was reading fluently in both languages by barely 4, my youngest by 6.

[Dancer_Mom]

Why not start reading the books in the language they are written in? I used to translate on the fly until around 2 1/2 yo then I started just saying "this book is written in English, so I will read in English", any discussion, questions, etc would be in Spanish still. I did that mainly because my dd would not tolerate if I deviated from a previous translation and I could not remember from one time to the next. This worked very well for both girls and it avoided confusion. My oldest was reading fluently in both languages by barely 4, my youngest by 6.

 

Books are a huge issue in our house too because we are doing Romanian.  I only have about 25 at this point after finally finding a Canadian bookstore that sells them AND having our tutor bring back as many as possible from her last trip home.  The above is exactly how I have handled it.  When it is a Romanian day (I do a few days a week)  I read the words of an English book in English and then when they ask me about the pictures and / or story I respond in Romanian.  I have always felt like it was best for clarity so that the language matched with what was written.