Q & A

 My path to school in Goslar/Harz

Betsy asked a question and I thought I’d post the answer here!
"Did your Mom and Dad learn to speak English?  

I know that you kids did..
Did you teach your kids German as well as English?"

Yes, my parents learned English quickly after immigrating to Canada, but they continued to have a strong accent all their lives. They learned to read very well, but when writing, there were always grammar and spelling mistakes. You could still make out what they meant though! For parent/teacher interviews regarding my younger siblings, I was the designated ‘parent’! Oh what fun!! However, when it came time for devotions, prayer and worship they much preferred the German,  because I’m sure that God could understand them better, lol. Family and social times were always mostly German. We as children were even sent to the Saturday German School at our church – which was an all German church where my uncle was the pastor.  After completing the highest grade in that school, I carried on the tradition and taught the younger ones for a few years, before I married and moved away.

Among family and friends we moved in and out of the English and the German with such ease and talked ‘die schoenste language’ - a total mix of both.  If mom was telling a German friend that dad had been painting the fence, she would say, ‘Heinrich hat heute die fence gepainted.’  We would kill ourselves laughing when our parents did that, as I’m sure others did when they heard us do the same thing later on.  However, we were taught to be respectful of those who didn’t understand our language and stick to English only when we were at work or in public places.  While it never bothered me personally when others spoke in their mother tongue when I was around, some folks are very sensitive in that area. 

Hubby and I spoke both languages with our children, preferring the English, much to our parents’ chagrin.  My parents lived nearby for many years, babysat our children at times, and we did a lot of visiting in each other’s homes.  That’s why our children learned to communicate so well with their grandparents in German.  We even sent our children to Saturday German school at the church where my mom taught. The year our son, the youngest, started school he did so in the School District’s brand new bilingual program.  Ken had 9 years of bilingual daily instruction in German at the elementary and later junior high schools. Then in high school everything else was in English, but he wrote all his exams for the German course without having to attend any classes.  He also went as exchange student to Germany and we had an exchange student from Germany living with us for a while. Our province  also offers Ukrainian-English, Hebrew-English, French-English etc. bilingual schools. It’s really cool and such an enhancement for the whole community. Multi-culturalism has worked quite well in Canada – but I’m sure there are pro and con debates!

A few other little facts:
Both my parents spoke German and Polish fluently. They used Polish especially at Christmas to keep secrets from us children!
Our oldest grandchild took French in school, her father’s heritage. Her dad is a teacher in a totally French high school here.
Our second son-in-law speaks low German – being of Mennonite heritage. He is also a teacher, among other subjects teaching one class of German in the public school system.
Hubby and our son have both studied Hebrew and Greek in their chosen career.
Our daughter-in-law also speaks a bit of Spanish I believe.

But really, what’s more important than all of those skills, 

is to speak the language of love!  

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, 

but have not love,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.