Hello World!

Moin, welcome to Mamaliest Blog!

Learning Deutsch as an adult is already a marathon. Now add a demanding job, a kid, and trying to squeeze in a little time for myself and suddenly, I feel like I signed up for a whole new kind of Deutschprüfung !

Do I really have time to learn Deutsch the traditional way spending hours with textbooks, films, music, and everything else I used to enjoy before having a kid? Honestly, I tried a few times, it was hard to keep up and it doesn’t feel like my real life anymore.

After the day’s weight is done, I can easily knock out by 9:29 pm. So, while I’d love to sit down and study German properly, my brain has other plans 😴.

Then I realised: I already have a German-learning routine. It just happens to involve a small child and a lot of (picture) books.

Reading is a big part of our family daily life. We read when our kid wakes up, after Kita, and before bed. Sometimes, even our mealtime conversations start with something we’ve read. For a long time, I was reading for my kid, not for myself. Until I noticed how much Deutsch (dino names to be specific) I was picking up along the way.

At some point, I noticed I was learning Deutsch without actually sitting down to study. Words and expressions from our books started showing up at Kita and in everyday conversations. That’s when I realised: these books were quietly teaching me the German I actually need in daily life.

But Mamaliest isn’t just about what I learn from these books. The books themselves are the main event. We will read them, talk about them, then I’ll share what the book is about, what my kid and I think of it, and whether it deserves another spot on our bookshelf. As a spoiler, his opinion may not always match mine though!

Alongside our book reviews, I’ll share the Deutsch I pick up from each book: useful vocabulary, everyday expressions, grammar notes, and little language discoveries that might help other parents and Deutsch learners too.

So, if you’re learning Deutsch, raising kids, looking for good children’s books, or simply curious about what a small reader thinks of them, follow along. It is going to be fun!