an aussie in austria

Being home with Sammy for the first two years of his life, I just assumed that he would be more proficient in English than German, at least until he started daycare.

Turns out I was kind of wrong.

I guess it’s because it’s the local language, so although he tends to hear me speaking English most of the day, German is the thing that’s on in the background all the time. He also spends plenty of time with his grandparents, who obviously speak German to him, and I’m also in the habit of speaking German when they’re around so they understand me.

Sam absolutely understands everything I say to him in English, and speaks a lot more English when it’s just the two of us around, but he tends to do a lot of his babbling in German… which can lead to some confusing moments. Because understanding a toddler’s babbling is hard enough, but understanding a toddler and also trying to discern which language he’s speaking is another thing entirely. I also wrongly assumed that he wouldn’t have learnt words that I don’t know yet… but this is absolutely not the case!

For example, the other morning I was in bed and Sam woke up. He’s generally happy to roll around on his own for a bit, and I try to encourage him to stay in bed until 7. Seeing as he’s still in a sleep sack, there’s no worries about him climbing out of the crib.

But on this particular morning he kept repeating a certain word. Ausziehen! Ausziehen! And I was wracking my (recently woken up) brain to try and work out what it meant. Is it get dressed? Nah… that’s anziehen. Is it to raise? Nah… that’s aufziehen. What on earth is he saying?

So after pondering for some minutes I went in to see what was up.

Luckily I did. Because ausziehen means to undress. Sammy was happily sitting in his crib, sliding the zip back and forward, ecstatic because he’d worked out how to undo his sleep sack.

Which taught me an important lesson. I have to try and keep up with Sam’s German. Though I have to say, partly because my husband is always talking German (in simple terms) with Sammy and partly though my German course, I think I am getting better.

And Sammy’s sleeps with his sleep sack inside out now, so that should hold him a bit longer!