International children
Anonymous Gaijin
daughter. We are planning to move to England next summer. Our
daughter's Japanese is equivalent to a Japanese 4 year old, but
her English is very poor. Japanese friends assure us that she will
pick up English in no time and will probably forget Japanese.
Ideally I would like her to be fluent in both languages, like
Hirofumi Nagamura in sci.lang.japan. I'm also worried about the
effect of moving to a different country will have on a young child.
Any advice on making the move easier for her or preventing her
from forgetting Japanese gratefully received.
Haluk
yazdi:13aaccf7.03101...@posting.google.com...
In Turkey we have weekend schools for Japanese children who attend regular
Turkish schools. I'm sure there are some in UK. I had a list of those in
Turkey from Japanese embassy. I'm sure Japanese embassy in UK can provide
you information.
Friends recomended us a method widely used by South American and Mexican
immigrants in US. Having the child attending to school in national language
and speaking only the second language at home. I couldn't try this myself
though
Haluk
yazdi:13aaccf7.03101...@posting.google.com...
In Turkey we have weekend schools for Japanese children who attend regular
Turkish schools. Upon graduation they are awarded with a diploma equivalent
to Japanese 8-year education diploma. I'm sure there are some in UK. I had a
list of those in
Turkey from Japanese embassy. I'm sure Japanese embassy in UK can provide
you more information on this.
Also there is a method widely used by South American and Mexican
immigrants in US. Having the child attending to school in national language
and speaking only the second language at home. Children are smart, they can
handle more than one language if there is a logic to it.
Regards,
Haluk
Sean Holland
at anonymo...@yahoo.co.uk wrote on 10/16/03 10:14 PM:
We moved to Canada from Japan when my eldest was 6 and my middle kid was
2. My youngest hadn't been born yet. Neither of the Japanese-born kids could
speak English when we arrived in Canada, although they understood a bit. At
present, some 12 years later, all three kids can speak Japanese. The eldest
retains a native-speaker's accent and fluency, the middle kid is fluent
enough but has a bit of a Canadian accent (I've heard it said that she
speaks a bit like dear old Dad, poor kid), and the youngest can babble away
well enough. The kids' abilities are thanks to my wife's stubbornness in
speaking Japanese almost all the time. The term "mother tongue" means what
it says. Your wife should always speak Japanese with the kids, especially
when they are small. Don't worry about her learning English. When she gets
into the society of other children she'll absorb it fast enough. My eldest
went from virtually no English-speaking ability to native ability in less
than two years.
Children are adaptable creatures. I would expect that your daughter will
adapt to life in England faster than you will. (I experienced greater
culture shock upon returning to Canada after 8 years in Japan than I did
when I first went to Japan.)
--
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/seanhollandmusic.htm
pantssea...@telus.pants.net Remove pants to email me.
mr.sumo snr.
news:BBB4D92C.3B66%seanh...@pants.telus.net...
Hat's off to mom - must have been had sometimes - especially when having to
ignore requests until they are spoken in Japanese.
How about reading and writing in Japanese?
--
jonathan
--
"Never give a gun to ducks"
Ryan Ginstrom
"Anonymous Gaijin" <anonymo...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:13aaccf7.03101...@posting.google.com...
> I've been in Japan 4.5 years, have a Japanese wife and a 4 year old
> daughter. We are planning to move to England next summer. Our
> daughter's Japanese is equivalent to a Japanese 4 year old, but
> her English is very poor. Japanese friends assure us that she will
> pick up English in no time and will probably forget Japanese.
It seems like this happens in most cases. Keeping up the second language
takes a lot of work -- it doesn't just happen naturally.
You might find the bilingual families mailing list useful.
http://www.nethelp.no/cindy/biling-fam.html
> I'm also worried about the
> effect of moving to a different country will have on a young child.
Kids are pretty resilient. And at least at this age, she isn't old enough to
have a real life outside the family to miss. I would just avoid making the
moves too frequent.
> Any advice on making the move easier for her or preventing her
> from forgetting Japanese gratefully received.
As far as the move, I would say get her involved, and try to keep familiar
things around. For not forgetting Japanese, check out biling-fam. There are
also a few good books. One that I liked was
The Bilingual Family : A Handbook for Parents
Here is a link to the Amazon page:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?K1AD65046
--
Regards,
Ryan Ginstrom
Louise Bremner
> The kids' abilities are thanks to my wife's stubbornness in speaking
> Japanese almost all the time. ... Don't worry about her learning English.
Yes, I know I've edited out a bit in the middle, but it took me a while
to work out what the antecedent of that pronoun is.... I'm still not
sure.... I do so hope you don't mean your wife there.
________________________________________________________________________
Louise Bremner (log at gol dot com)
If you want a reply by e-mail, don't write to my Yahoo address!
Sean Holland
dame_...@yahoo.com wrote on 10/17/03 4:37 PM:
> Sean Holland <seanh...@pants.telus.net> wrote:
>
>> The kids' abilities are thanks to my wife's stubbornness in speaking
>> Japanese almost all the time. ... Don't worry about her learning English.
>
> Yes, I know I've edited out a bit in the middle, but it took me a while
> to work out what the antecedent of that pronoun is.... I'm still not
> sure.... I do so hope you don't mean your wife there.
I know, I know. I noticed that after I had sent the post. I meant the kid.
She will acquire English with little problem once she enters the society of
other children and teachers and so on.
Worry about the wife. Mine works with other Japanese. Sometimes I think her
English is worse than it was when we arrived in Canada 12 years ago.
However, at that time she didn't know the word "redneck," but she
understands and uses it appropriately now.
I would say that 90% of the time I don't understand something my wife says
it will be because I thought she was saying a Japanese word but it turned
out to be English.
Louise Bremner
> Worry about the wife. Mine works with other Japanese. Sometimes I think
> her English is worse than it was when we arrived in Canada 12 years ago.
Ouch.... My spoken Japanese got worse after I stopped working in-house.
I think it's still deteriorating.
> However, at that time she didn't know the word "redneck," but she
> understands and uses it appropriately now.
And that's a good sign?
Sean Holland
dame_...@yahoo.com wrote on 10/18/03 3:36 AM:
> Sean Holland <seanh...@pants.telus.net> wrote:
>
>> Worry about the wife. Mine works with other Japanese. Sometimes I think
>> her English is worse than it was when we arrived in Canada 12 years ago.
>
> Ouch.... My spoken Japanese got worse after I stopped working in-house.
> I think it's still deteriorating.
>
>> However, at that time she didn't know the word "redneck," but she
>> understands and uses it appropriately now.
>
> And that's a good sign?
Well, it's a sign of something, anyway. Maybe a sign of our neighbourhood.
Don Kirkman
<BBB5D679.3BB0%seanh...@pants.telus.net>:
>in article 1g30nuz.1u2v3go11m8yqsN%dame_...@yahoo.com, Louise Bremner at
>dame_...@yahoo.com wrote on 10/17/03 4:37 PM:
>> Sean Holland <seanh...@pants.telus.net> wrote:
>>> The kids' abilities are thanks to my wife's stubbornness in speaking
>>> Japanese almost all the time. ... Don't worry about her learning English.
>> Yes, I know I've edited out a bit in the middle, but it took me a while
>> to work out what the antecedent of that pronoun is.... I'm still not
>> sure.... I do so hope you don't mean your wife there.
>I know, I know. I noticed that after I had sent the post. I meant the kid.
>She will acquire English with little problem once she enters the society of
>other children and teachers and so on.
All this hassle from a misplaced apostrophe. :-)
>Worry about the wife. Mine works with other Japanese. Sometimes I think her
>English is worse than it was when we arrived in Canada 12 years ago.
>However, at that time she didn't know the word "redneck," but she
>understands and uses it appropriately now.
>I would say that 90% of the time I don't understand something my wife says
>it will be because I thought she was saying a Japanese word but it turned
>out to be English.
I sometimes hear people around me using English words but I have to
parse them with Japanese or pidgin grammar and idioms to get the sense.
Ah, the travails we endure for love and/or friendship. :-)
--
Don
Old age is when you start saying "I wish I knew now what I knew then."
Jed Rothwell
first. Neither of them ever lived overseas. In college I taught ESOL to many
kids, and I live in a part of Atlanta with many immigrants in our high
school. In my opinion:
It all depends on the child.
Some have difficulty adjusting, others do not. Some maintain fluency, others
do not. Of course you should make opportunities available, including things
like television, VCR tapes, opportunities to play with other kids who speak
Japanese and so on, but in the end, it will depend on the personality,
skills and the desires of the child.
I have known people who immigrated to the U.S. as children who spoke with an
accent and made mistakes with idioms all their life. A wonderful guy I knew
in his 70s, who came to the U.S. around age 10 from Russia, once said to me
"you have blue paint in your hairs" instead of "your hair." Some of these
people have written books in English, but they still had minor difficulties
and accents.
- Jed