Sanderling’s German Teacher Reflects On Students Learning Two World Languages & Cultures

Written by Annette Andranian, German Teacher 

A new parent recently came up to me and said, ‘I’m so excited my children will get German. I didn’t know Sanderling offered German. I have always wanted them to learn.’ Shortly into the conversation, he asked if his kids would be fluent by the end of Grade 8. They will not. [But rather,] they will have developed a heart connection to the German language and culture. They will have developed flexibility of their soul. And they will have a broadened horizon – one that goes beyond their own language and culture. [I would like to] highlight some important aspects of teaching world languages and point out differences [between] traditional language learning [and] language learning at Waldorf schools. We teach two world languages in Waldorf Schools. Sanderling [Waldorf School] offers Spanish and German at this time. Which languages are taught [in a Waldorf school] is not as important as that they are different in sound and temperament. Schools may have varying reasons for their choice of [the] languages [they offer], such as the availability of good teachers and native speakers, as well as the cultural background of an area, geographical closeness/distance, [and] cultural differences. [Rudolph] Steiner [founder of Waldorf education] chose Russian and English for the first Waldorf school in the aftermath of World War I to bring the former enemies together and help create the idea of brotherhood. At Sanderling, we teach Spanish which is meaningful due to our proximity to Mexico as well as our Spanish speaking roots here in California. German made sense as well as Sanderling originated in Encinitas, a town with a sizable German community and with German roots in its Olivenhain section. ‘Olivenhain’ means ‘olive grove’ in German. Teaching both Spanish and German gets our students in touch with their roots.

There are so many reasons to learn other languages. When students get to interact with another culture and language in deep, meaningful ways, they not only start to understand others and realize that there are many ways of doing things, but they also change their own ways of thinking, feeling and doing. Students stretch their brains in different ways and realize that there are many ways of expressing the same feeling or thought. Learning other sounds, phrases, and viewpoints creates flexibility of soul. The way of teaching languages in Waldorf schools differs from the way of teaching in public schools in the United States. Most public school students do not learn any world languages until they enter high school. In Waldorf schools, we [begin] teaching two languages starting in 1st Grade. This is a time in the child’s development that their capacity for imitation is still very strong. [Younger] children are able to imitate the strange sounds of a new language with ease and excitement. Waiting past the onset of puberty not only closes the window to that strong ability to imitate, but it also pushes the first encounter with a new language and culture into a time [when] students are (developmentally appropriately) self-absorbed and self-conscious. Besides having difficulty learning a language at that point, there is also the embarrassment of making funny sounds or not being able to pronounce words properly. This is not an issue with 1st Graders, and our children interacting with native German speakers often receive compliments on their wonderful pronunciation. As with everything else, we teach language with head, heart and hand [the three educational pillars within Waldorf education]. Especially in the younger years, children connect through singing and playing games and connecting to characters in our stories. Movement is [also] built into each lesson. There is no reading or writing [in our German and Spanish classes] until Grade 4, when the process of learning to read and write is considered established in the English language. Thus, the new world language is learned much like their native language: through songs, poems, verses, games and stories. The study of grammar arises out of aspects that the students notice in the written language as they are exposed to it. It is part of a whole and not an exercise disconnected from other content [that] they are learning in the language. All of our language teaching and learning is connected to practical things [that] the children get to do. It may be celebrating important cultural festivals like Dia de los Muertos, Fasching or Oktoberfest. It may be setting up a bakery during German class where each student gets to place their own order, or Grade 8 performing a short fairy tale for the kindergarten and younger grades. 

In our language classes, we bring the world to the children and they, in turn, connect to the world and each other.”  [For example, on November 30, 2021, the 8th Graders had a special visitor that they got to interview, Herr Käwert (aka my dad) who was visiting from Germany.  Herr Käwert was an eyewitness to the building and falling of the Berlin Wall -- the time in German history that the students learned about in their last block. The Fall of the Berlin Wall fits in well in 8th Grade, the year students study revolutions. Students had read a novel (in English) that takes place in 1961, the year the wall was built. They learned about reasons the wall was built, about living conditions, and ways people escaped.  They also got to touch a piece of the Berlin Wall on November 9 - the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  After coming up with questions for the interview last week, the 8th Graders greeted my dad, introduced themselves and told him something about themselves.  Then they asked deep, thoughtful, and thought-provoking questions. It was such a special time sharing between cultures and generations.

Ultimately, when our students leave Sanderling we hope to have instilled a love for the language and culture we have taught them. We hope that they have built confidence in understanding someone who speaks in another language and an openness to try and learn. We hope to have instilled a curiosity for others and for learning other languages and exploring the world – and ultimately for embracing their brothers and sisters anywhere on this earth.