It's always 1 September somewhere

[starfishstar]

Happy first day of Hogwarts! Because of course in the wizarding world, September 1st is magically always a weekday. ;)

I was just reading about the fans who gathered at Kings Cross to celebrate today (which is adorable) and ALSO I just learned that the departures board at Kings Cross today listed an 11:00 departure to Edinburgh "via Hogsmeade." (Photo here.) I checked on the Scotrail website, and yes there really is an 11:00 train from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley, so that's a real train, and the folks at Kings Cross are cool enough about the whole Harry Potter thing to put Hogsmeade on the official departures board. I'm dying. <3

Comments

[shimotsuki]

So I'm poking my nose back into DW again, and I find this! Which makes me extremely happy.

[starfishstar]

Oh!!! What a delightful surprise to see your name pop up. Hello!

[shimotsuki]

Hello back! I hope things are well with you! What adventures are you having these days?

I'm doing fine. Little Bird is now three and talking up a storm. She has also (entirely unprompted by me) recently announced that she is going to write more books for her favorite series when she grows up, so, I'm sure she'll be writing fanfic in just a few years. ;) You might actually be familiar with canon and appreciate this -- I believe some of her proposed titles were "Franziska und die Marienkaefer" and "Franziska und die Maulwuerfe".

Work is less fun right now, and actually rather stressful, so I'm making an effort to put some fun things -- like DW -- back into my life. Currently optimistic, but we'll see if I can stick with it.

[starfishstar]

She's three already!! Wow, it really has been a while.

Let's see, in that time, I decided for sure about doing the library science masters, moved to Scotland, did the degree, moved back; I'm actually still finishing writing up my thesis, after ongoing health setbacks, but I'm – hopefully – getting close to done. Since 2016 is also pretty much the time period in which I went from "goes to Iceland occasionally" to "goes to Iceland constantly", so that's also a thing!

Ooh, I don't know those books; my knowledge of German children's books isn't nearly as comprehensive as I'd like, though I do always check in when I'm there about what my friends are currently loving to read to their kids. But that's adorable! I've forgotten the details now – is she growing up bilingual??

[shimotsuki]

Iceland! Very exciting! I imagine you've already picked up lots of Icelandic.

And congratulations on nearly completing your MLS -- I wonder where that will take you next! I think I did know you were in Scotland for a while, because I think the city you were in made me ask if you had tried any Scottish country dancing.

We are indeed doing bilingual input with LB. So far, she accepts it as completely normal and is willing to speak 100% German with my partner (he is only an L2 speaker, but he lived in Franconia for a while in his wild youth). LB even tells me I should practice German more, and she offers to tell me "all about it," hee. I sometimes read out loud to her from her German storybooks, and my comprehension is actually getting pretty good after three years of eavesdropping, but I still can't conjugate verbs or inflect nouns to save my life.

Books, yes, lots of fun ones -- for some reason, it seems like the cool or popular German children's books that my guy finds out about online are mostly translated -- some from English (like the Gruffalo!) and some from Swedish (the Franziska books, and a series about an old farmer called Pettersen and his talking cat Findus, are current favorites with LB; we haven't introduced her to Astrid Lindgren or Moomintrolls yet). We also have a lot of "Conni" stories, which are plenty German through and through. Those are great for the cultural details as much as the language.

I should make my own post about this, but we took LB to Germany for a week or so this summer. It was definitely a kid-friendly itinerary (zoo, beach, playground, story hour), but we all had fun.

[starfishstar]

I’m really impressed that you’ve got her not just understanding but speaking German – especially since neither of you is even a native speaker! It seems more common among my friends who are raising (or who were themselves) bilingual children, that the kid understands the other language, but replies in the dominant language/the language of the surrounding culture. But then you’re the experts in this, being linguists, so I’m not surprised you’re making it work! (Still impressed, though. My German is very fluent, but still I think I would want to be able to speak to my own kid in my first language, the one I never have to think in.) I love that you’re learning German from it, too!

And you went to Germany with her! That sounds super fun. Some friends of mine are in Germany right now visiting family; they have two little kids who are *sort of* growing up with German (it’s only Opa who speaks it to them, but apparently they understand some) so that should be neat to hear how they do when suddenly surrounded by the language, and by German-speaking cousins.

[shimotsuki]

I actually think LB's German has nothing to do with my partner and me being linguists, and everything to do with her just being a spontaneous language geek. ;) Just as you say, I have various linguist friends whose kids understand two or more languages but are only willing to speak English, and when LB started to talk (and her friends at daycare started to talk) I kept expecting her to balk at using German. But instead, she's really into it -- the only time she ever uses English with her father is when she doesn't know a German word and has to ask what it is. Often at dinner she will tell one of us something in one language, and immediately turn to the other parent and translate. It's really cool to watch.

I'm with you on wanting to parent in my native language, though. Sometimes I feel guilty for not doing more Japanese with LB (we do some, but more as play) -- but I like to speak English with her! On the other hand, my partner is having a blast making himself use German all the time, so more power to him. It still could be that at some age, she'll decide she's had it with German. But for now, it's definitely fun.

On our trip this summer, LB once turned to me with a huge smile and said, "We're in Germany! That's why everyone is speaking German!" The one thing she didn't seem to understand was that there are some people who speak only German, since all the German speakers she sees at home speak English too.

How neat for your friend's kids! I bet having same-age cousins is a really big motivator.

[starfishstar]

A spontaneous language geek! A child after my own heart. (I just had a friend from Iceland visiting me these last few days, and I had to really try not to constantly bug him with, "Why is that pronounced that way instead of this way? Do you know why there's an exception of this instead of this? What does this mean? Is it the same as this...?") Anyway, that's so fantastic that she's actually really *into* speaking two languages, not just doing it by default or because she's supposed to.

I wonder what she'll think when she gets older and figures out that your partner actually *isn't* a native German speaker, and has raised her on German her whole life just for fun! Hopefully it'll be a cool thing, like a secret language the two of them get to share.

[emily_in_the_glass]

whaaat? how did i never know this? once upon a time i lived across the road from king's cross station (although admittedly i've never been there on september 1st, and it was many years ago, so maybe the hogsmeade stopover is a recent thing?)

and shimotsuki we haven't met but i recognize your name and fanfics -- i also have a writerly 3 year old kid! it's delightful. i guess my new goal in life now is to finish my own writing projects before she grows up and publishes her own books, not that it's a competition :)

[starfishstar]

Isn't that Hogsmeade thing wonderful?? It may indeed be a more recent thing, though; it seems like the big public fan celebrations are actually increasing with the years, which is awesome!

And yes, you and shimotsuki should absolutely meet! (Though I don't know if she'll see your comment, since Dreamwidth – unlike LJ – doesn't seem to send notifications if you're tagged in someone else's comment? Or at least it doesn't send me notifications? Which is definitely a missing feature, because that facilitates people talking to each other.)

But yes, I met shimotsuki through stereolightning, and I feel like I also know you more or less through stereolightning (is that true?) and we're all swimming in the same soup of R/T fans from back from the old days when there was still a bit of an active R/T fandom...so, yes, I feel like you're part of the same crowd already. :-)

[shimotsuki]

Hello! Three-year-olds really are delightful, aren't they? I was never really a kid person, but then I had one, and suddenly kids are pretty interesting after all. (For context, let's just say that I'm waaaay older then Remus was when Teddy was born.)

And ha, I wouldn't be at all surprised if my kid published a story before I did.

[starfishstar]

Can I just say how happy it makes me to see two people having a conversation here in the comments – feels almost like the old days. :D

Also, how much do I love that you express your age on a scale of Remus!