I work in a kindergarten in Germany as part of a cultural program call "Bundesfreiwilligendienst". This program is actually for young people, who recently graduated from school, with the purpose to offer them the possibility to see and to participate in a working environment. But I am not either 18 years old or German. I'm a twenty-something who holds a psychology degree and a bunch of short work experiences.
I emigrated to Germany 18 months ago with the goal to learn the language and find a job. Until this moment I would say that I am doing pretty well: my certificate C1 (advance level that let you study in a university) is almost done and I started to have jobs interviews. But the kids in the kindergarten are making fun of me due to my accent. They are only children and I am the adult. I shouldn't pay attention to their comments but it simply hurts me.
Before coming to Germany I had never worried about sound like a native speaker either talking in English or in German. Last year I worked as an Au-Pair (international babysistter) nearby Frankfurt and I didn't receive the kind of jokes that I am receiving right now although my German was far more rudimentary. I have to say that this kindergarten is in the countryside of Germany and I am probably the first foreign that those kids know.
I trying to take this situation as an inspiration to improve my pronunciation. I hope it works.
Good job @Amandis! I can understand what you mean pretty easily. Interesting subject matter too. Hope all my edits aren't overwhelming!
I'm so sorry to hear this! Kids can be really mean sometimes. But it's good that you are taking advantage of the opportunity to improve your pronunciation. Have you tried shadowing? By that I mean listening to a recording of a native speaker and trying to mimic exactly what they say.
Hola Amandis! Los niños pueden ser muy crueles, te cuento que tuve una situación parecida en el Perú. Enseñaba ahí alemán a niños de 7 a 17 años. Los más chicos se reían al inicio de mi español que entonces estaba bastante rudimentario. Lo que me sirvió a mí fue contarles de Alemania, de mi lengua materna y de mi esfuerzo para aprender su idioma. Hay que tener en cuenta que los niños no se imaginan esas cosas pero si uno se las cuenta, te entienden y quieren saber más. Ánimos!
Hallo Amandis, it's not nice that the kids are doing this. But I was thinking if you could somehow use it to learn the language better. I mean if you could think of a game in which they'll correct you and help you with your pronunciation. Maybe you could even teach them some Spanish words. I'm not sure how you actually could do this, but maybe you'll asked the other people working in the kindergarten who know the kinds if they have an idea. Kids love games...