Time transcripts of Influence of German Heritage

[00:00:00:00]	[Interview] I wanted to thank you for  joining me today to do this interview.

[00:00:05:16]	 Could you please state your name and  tell us a little bit about yourself

[00:00:09:25]	 before we get into the questions?  No problem.

[00:00:12:17]	 My name is Bryan Baetjer, I am a sophomore at Ohio State. I am 20 years old

[00:00:16:22]	studying Consumer and Family Financial Services.

[00:00:19:26]	Okay, I wanted to start off by asking you  what the main ethnicity or heritage of your family is?

[00:00:28:29]	My family is mostly of German descent.

[00:00:31:28]	Okay and how big of a factor would you say  your ethnicity played in affecting your literacy as a kid?

[00:00:39:11]	Basically, learning to read, write and speak.

[00:00:42:27]	It had a pretty good effect. 

[00:00:46:08]	My parents didn't speak too much German, but my Grandpa was born,  or both my grandparents 

[00:00:51:28]	were born in Germany. My Grandpa was born in Berlin,

[00:00:55:16]	and so they spoke a lot of German.

[00:00:58:02]	But my family never really forced the language on me,  but naturally,

[00:01:03:26]	at like family events,  holidays and such,

[00:01:07:29]	I'd pick up little words and my grandparents  would teach me little words, 

[00:01:11:25]	so that's mainly how I was influenced.

[00:01:15:07]	Alright, and would you say that learning the language  was important to you personally?

[00:01:22:19]	Yeah, I think It was important to me.

[00:01:27:13]	I realize that traditions are like,  important to my family,

[00:01:30:07]	and so naturally it just rubs off on me.

[00:01:33:03]	It's funny, my uncle, who spoke a lot of German,  I would try to hold conversations with him...

[00:01:42:23]	 full conversations, and I would always mispronounce words, and so  he would make fun of me a little bit.

[00:01:48:24]	But yeah I'd say my family's grateful that I'm interested so much in my heritage,

[00:01:54:25]	and the German language as a whole.

[00:01:57:23]	Other than just basically learning little parts of your language  and hearing it through your family,

[00:02:05:03]	did you try to further your studies at all of the German language?

[00:02:09:16]	I never did, no I've never taken one German class.

[00:02:13:23]	But, you know, I've always been interested in it.

[00:02:16:26]	I've thought about taking classes at OSU  but never really followed through.

[00:02:23:03]	So, you know, who knows, in the future  I might do it just to take a class,

[00:02:30:21]	learn a little bit more about my heritage.

[00:02:33:16]	Okay, and overall would you say that your path to literacy,

[00:02:40:12]	to learning to read and write, would have been altered if you  weren't raised in your mainly German descent household?

[00:02:48:28]	Were there any certain particular kinds of literature that helped

[00:02:53:09]	you out a lot as you were trying to learn to read as a kid? 

[00:02:56:06]	Definitely, definitely. Just growing up reading like story books, 

[00:03:06:20]	like Little Red Riding Hood and Dr. Seuss and those. 

[00:03:10:24]	Just being read those as a kid were very influential  in just my upbringing related to literature.

[00:03:21:15]	Okay, well that is all I had to ask you today.

[00:03:30:18]	I wanted to thank you again for being here,  and I enjoyed hearing what you had to say.

[00:03:34:10]	No problem.