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Imagine that you and your family moved to the USA when you were little. How would you learn the language your parents speak? Write down three possible ways. Then listen to Benedict who moved to the USA when he was four.

So uh, I live in Dubuque, Iowa, the United States, but my whole family is from Germany. Uh, my dad’s from Lübeck and my mom’s from Itzehoe. I have a brother that was born in Germany, too. And we moved to the United States in 2003, because both my parents were doctors in Germany and wanted to try out the United States medical system. So we lived in Iowa City which is … still in Iowa, it’s a coup-, two hours from here. And we lived there for seven years, and then now we’re living in Dubuque.

And uh, I mean … We speak German at home. It’s a big-, I, w-we’re fluent in German. But every year we try to-, or … every … uh … Every year we try to have our relatives come or we try to go to Germany, so we can uh, reconnect with our culture, our German culture, and not lose any of that heritage. So … my grandparents would come one year, we’d go to Germany the next and … it really helps you with your language, because, I mean, we speak German at home and it’s fine, we can speak it, but it’s not as refined as it would be if we lived there. So every two years going there, having my grandparents come here – it’s a good way to … relearn German and keep, keep that culture alive.

Crossroads

Living with two languages

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