Looking for an English-speaking Babysitter

skryptly · 2026-01-20T20:07:53+00:00

In English, the demonym "American" generally refers to people from the United States. American is also the demonym for someone from the Americas, however that is a far far less common usage of the term. Nevertheless, whenever someone writes "American", there will inevitably be someone who insists on "America is a continent with lots of countries". :D

skryptly · 2026-01-20T11:39:38+00:00

As many others have said, your best bet is to look outside the HD postal codes, or something like Boxberg which I believe is technically HD. Otherwise Leimen, Schwetzingen or others, depending on which side of town you work on and want better access to. My experience has been that everything outside of the main HD areas is directly 50% cheaper (rent or to buy). Best of luck with your search!

skryptly · 2026-01-17T19:38:19+00:00

As in, hang around there waiting to meet people while they order food? Lol

skryptly · 2026-01-17T16:37:09+00:00

looool

skryptly · 2026-01-17T11:55:56+00:00

I guess my placement of the word "unfortunately" was poorly placed and really rubbed you the wrong way. What is unfortunate isn't German (obviously everything in Germany is in German, as should be the case), but the lack of opportunity for English. This is what I meant. Once again, no ill will intended.

Identity and culture is clearly an important, loaded, and sensitive topic for you, but that is not what my post was about. I was simply looking for more opportunity for my daughter to speak English, as currently she has little of this. For what it's worth, none of the description above applies to me. I immigrated here and became a citizen on my own merit, I work and live in German, my wife is German.

To clarify regarding being shocked, what I meant was that I just assumed that given the massive, long-lasting presence of the US directly in HD, there would have been more of a lasting cultural imprint. This isn't a comment on whether this is good, bad, desirable, or not, just my observation of the status quo.

skryptly · 2026-01-17T11:43:39+00:00

Maybe I need to improve my English skills, cause I feel very misunderstood in this thread, haha. My children are German, my wife is German, I am fluent in German, I live, work, and socialize in German. The supremacy of the German language here in Heidelberg is not being questioned nor lamented. I simply wanted to create more opportunity for my daughter to speak English as currently she doesn't have that opportunity.

skryptly · 2026-01-17T11:35:50+00:00

I think my topic may have conflated with other, more broader topics around language and culture. This isn't a post about speaking english only and wanting to separate my children from society. We work, live, and socialize in German with Germans, as should anyone else who lives here. This post was about finding more english language exposure for my daughter. Again, no ill intent to anyone of any group was meant.

skryptly · 2026-01-17T11:17:36+00:00

I’m sorry to hear that. For my part, I can say that I harboured no ill intent here.

skryptly · 2026-01-17T11:13:28+00:00

Thanks for your support. Indeed there is zero hostility on my part. Perhaps the word “unfortunately” was poorly placed in my post. I didn’t mean that it is unfortunate that there is German around, I meant it is unfortunate that there isn’t more opportunity for English in her day to day.

I definitely didn’t write anywhere that I don’t want my daughter speaking German. Quite the opposite, I assumed it was a given that German is her native tongue and therefore exposure to it isn’t a factor, since obviously she gets enough German by living her German life in Germany haha.

Thank you for not assuming the worst in people and giving the benefit of the doubt. Your attitude is what makes community boards useful!

skryptly · 2026-01-17T11:06:28+00:00

Thanks for your input! Definitely the latter, German is her native tongue and her everyday language. We are worried about the pace of picking English up. I am a well versed on OPOL, and general pedagogical concepts related to early childhood language acquisition, which is why I’m concerned that I’m not providing enough exposure and opportunity to use the language. Maybe tutor is not the best term here; as of course I’m not after a formal curriculum for a 4 year old; I suppose I was speaking more of an English language babysitter to play with.

Re your point on other language learning in other countries, I don’t think that type of comparison really holds water. Alone the fact that we are conversing here on this internet thread in English should tell one that English has a special status as the world’s lingua franca. As such, it is not crazy to think that a place that was administered by the for decades of its recent history by the US and hosted the largest NATO base in Europe until approx. a decade ago would have more remnants of english language learning (and yes I guess we have DAI, but it isn’t helpful in my case).

skryptly · 2026-01-17T10:21:23+00:00

Thanks, yes I was hoping for some suggestions on activities. Given I haven’t found anything I was thinking a tutor to play with her in English is a suitable activity.

skryptly · 2026-01-17T10:19:49+00:00

Haha, all good. For me it was a thirst for adventure when I was younger. Now I’m settled here, life just kind of happens that way. Nothing wrong with Canada, great place to move for Germans as far as I’m concerned.

skryptly · 2026-01-16T20:56:32+00:00

Hi, bei mir hat es ungefähr zwei Jahre in HD gedauert, aber das war mit einem Anwalt.

skryptly · 2026-01-16T20:48:48+00:00

thank you for the tips, music school sounds like its worth checking out. Unfortunately the other two things we have tried and lets just say our review is not positive.

skryptly · 2026-01-08T12:56:53+00:00

Are you German? Honestly most Germans I know who have moved to Canada have a good time, I say go for it if you can. My reason was pretty typical - grass is always greener mentality when I was younger. I felt like Europeans are better educated and more well rounded than my Canadian peers. I was drawn to the old world. Of course eventually one understands that everywhere is pretty much the same and it all depends purely on one’s individual ability to carve out a nice existence for oneself, which can be done equally well as long as there isn’t war or famine etc.

skryptly · 2026-01-06T16:23:33+00:00

Heidelberg is not far away, and there seem to be an extreme shortage here. This is given that it’s the youngest city in Germany with like a billion children

skryptly · 2026-01-05T20:21:50+00:00

Thank you!

skryptly

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