WEBVTT 00:01.000 --> 00:14.000 Yes, so I definitely have two mother tongues, so German has always been one of my mother tongues, even if I no longer speak German on a day-to-day basis as often as I used to, 00:15.000 --> 00:30.000 I still have a close connection to the German. For example, I listen I listen to German podcasts in the morning and I always try to be up to date with what's going on in Germany. 00:31.000 --> 00:50.000 I always read the German newspaper, for example and I have always been interested in the current debates. It's true that I'm very interested in what's happening in Germany. 00:51.000 --> 01:03.000 Culturally, politically, everything... I always try to be informed. And I often use Germany as an example. I often say things like: "Wells, in Germany it's like that." 01:04.000 --> 01:19.000 And sometimes, the Portuguese friends and family say things like: "Her again, talking about Germany all the time." (laughs) But I definitely have two mother tongues. And I would also love to live here again. 01:20.000 --> 01:31.000 So maybe not forever. There's no such thing as planning something forever, but living here again for three or four years? I would like that. 01:32.000 --> 01:42.000 One of my children is 19 years old now, that means the younger one is 13, once he is a bit older and then they don't live at home anymore, then maybe that might be a plan for the future. 01:43.000 --> 01:45.000 In which language do you speak with your children? 01:46.000 --> 02:06.000 Portuguese. Yes, unfortunately they are not bilingual. My sister also went back to Portugal five years later. She studied computer science but works at Fraunhofer in Portugal. 02:07.000 --> 02:18.000 And she got the job because she knows German. She didn't study German, but if you can speak German in Portugal, you can get a job. And that was the case for her. 02:19.000 --> 02:37.000 And we spoke a lot of German at the beginning, but it has decreased. That is, we sometimes send a few messages in German on WhatsApp, but we don't really have a conversation in German. We only do that 02:38.000 --> 02:48.000 if the children or our husbands are around and they are not supposed to understand what we're saying, which annoys them. Sometimes we do it on purpose so that they get annoyed. 02:49.000 --> 02:55.000 But it's not really a language between us any more. Which is a pity. We think it's a great pity. 02:56.000 --> 03:05.000 But you said you used to speak Portuguese with your parents as the family language and you spoke German with your sister . Do you have any explanation as to why that is the case? 03:06.000 --> 03:19.000 Yes, that's typical. My parents insisted that we speak Portuguese. And that means that when we were alone, we spoke German. That's natural. 03:20.000 --> 03:26.000 But as soon as they came in, for example in the living room, it was immediately "No, no Portuguese". They really insisted. 03:27.000 --> 03:40.000 And I have to say my Portuguese... of course I had it as a speaker of origin in Portugal at the beginning. And now, it still happens to me that I am often unsure. 03:41.000 --> 03:52.000 For example, idiomatic expressions I don't know in Portuguese, I get everything wrong (laughs). And I'm often unsure, but I know I write good Portuguese. 03:53.000 --> 04:07.000 And at the beginning of my studies, for example, I was afraid. I moved to Portugal and I thought that I would be back in Germany a year later because it would be too difficult. 04:08.000 --> 04:27.000 And in fact I had much better grades than my Portuguese colleagues, even in Portuguese literature. For example, I had already read much more than those who also studied Portuguese and linguistics. 04:28.000 --> 04:36.000 So I already had a good basis. And that was of course because my parents insisted that we spoke Portuguese. 04:37.000 --> 04:51.000And that's what I'm trying to show now, in my research, that has not influenced my German. So, if you insist on speaking the family language at home, that doesn't mean that it has a negative influence on the German language. 04:52.000 --> 05:03.000 So I didn't. It wasn't necessary for my parents to speak German to somehow help me do my homework. It wasn't necessary, but I succeeded. My Abi was very good. 05:04.000 --> 05:16.000 And my parents, they never spoke German. I am a good example that this idea of "oh no, otherwise the children are bad at school", is really not necessary. 05:17.000 --> 05:20.000 Und Sie sprechen ja noch zusätzlich auch noch Englisch. Sie sind dann ja eigentlich trilingual. 05:21.000 --> 05:28.000 Yes, English, there's a funny story about that. I learned English here in Germany with a German teacher. 05:29.000 --> 05:41.000 and my English really had a German accent. And when I speak Portuguese I don't have an accent and I think when I speak German I probably don't either. 05:42.000 --> 05:54.000 But as soon as I spoke English, people in Portugal looked at me: "Where are you from?" If they didn't know my German background, because it was really quite German. 05:55.000 --> 06:22.000 And that has changed over the years. That also shows that the language changes, even the accent. There is a lot of literature about how the context already influences the language, and my English did indeed change. 06:23.000 --> 06:35.000 Of course, that's also because of the conferences and writing in English and so on. But yes, I don't think I sound that German when I speak English anymore. 06:36.000 --> 06:45.000 But yes, three languages indeed. Although I wouldn't call English native or even really near native really.