Steffen in Tokyo
Jul 1, 2014 22:31:33 GMT 9
Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2014 22:31:33 GMT 9
Hello Everyone. It is my pleasure to join you in this group. By way of introduction, my name is Steffen and I live in a suburb of Tokyo with my wife Tomoko and soon-to-be 8 year old son Hayuma. Tomoko is from Yokohama, a port city about 1 hour away. Although she is Japanese, she studied in the US and is a trained interpreter. Hayuma attended international schools for about 3 years before starting in the Japanese public elementary school system as a first grader.
Personally, I am originally from the San Francisco Bay Area of California, where I lived about 20 minutes away by bike from the original Apple headquarters. I think their new complex at 1 Infinite Loop swallowed up all the apricot and cherry tree orchards that surrounded the property at the time! California was founded in 1850 and was built by the hard efforts of waves of immigrants from all over - Germany, China, Japan, Vietnam, India, and of course Mexico to name a few countries. I grew up in a diverse, multilingual environment that gave me a natural appreciate for diversity and new cultures. As much as I love Japan, I will always be a Californian first and American second.
In college and grad school I studied French and Linguistics (UC Santa Cruz) and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Monterey Institute of International Studies). It was in Monterey that I met Tomoko and found myself in Japan for the first time in early 1996. My first job was with NOVA ICI, an English conversation school which has since gone bankrupt. I went on to other teaching jobs and then fairly quickly found myself in the HR space of the corporate world, where I remain today.
With this background to our family, we recognize the value for Hayuma to be fully bilingual and culturally literate in both English and Japanese. As an only child, he has some tendencies which could be called introverted - he likes to check out a situation for a while before jumping in (such as at a party, meeting new people). He can play for hours by himself happily and is entertained by all the stuff going on in his head. But he is by no means introverted. In fact he loves to talk in either language and is very social by any measure.
We are so grateful that his personality seems to drive his ongoing language learning. So our challenge is providing him an ongoing rich source of input and interaction in English. He attends a Cub Scouts program in Yokohama, which is wonderful but still only a few days per month. And despite the infinite variety of children's books available, we have some difficulty in finding books that match his interest, reading level (which seems advanced for his age), and maturity.
I am so grateful to be part of this group of dedicated parents with a shared goal. What strikes me is that at once our challenges are similar enough that we can learn from each other, while at the same time each of our journeys is unique. I look forward to the dialogue and and happy to be a resource to you.
Finally, a special thanks to the head keeper Adam for all his work to set up this forum and bringing us together!
Personally, I am originally from the San Francisco Bay Area of California, where I lived about 20 minutes away by bike from the original Apple headquarters. I think their new complex at 1 Infinite Loop swallowed up all the apricot and cherry tree orchards that surrounded the property at the time! California was founded in 1850 and was built by the hard efforts of waves of immigrants from all over - Germany, China, Japan, Vietnam, India, and of course Mexico to name a few countries. I grew up in a diverse, multilingual environment that gave me a natural appreciate for diversity and new cultures. As much as I love Japan, I will always be a Californian first and American second.
In college and grad school I studied French and Linguistics (UC Santa Cruz) and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Monterey Institute of International Studies). It was in Monterey that I met Tomoko and found myself in Japan for the first time in early 1996. My first job was with NOVA ICI, an English conversation school which has since gone bankrupt. I went on to other teaching jobs and then fairly quickly found myself in the HR space of the corporate world, where I remain today.
With this background to our family, we recognize the value for Hayuma to be fully bilingual and culturally literate in both English and Japanese. As an only child, he has some tendencies which could be called introverted - he likes to check out a situation for a while before jumping in (such as at a party, meeting new people). He can play for hours by himself happily and is entertained by all the stuff going on in his head. But he is by no means introverted. In fact he loves to talk in either language and is very social by any measure.
We are so grateful that his personality seems to drive his ongoing language learning. So our challenge is providing him an ongoing rich source of input and interaction in English. He attends a Cub Scouts program in Yokohama, which is wonderful but still only a few days per month. And despite the infinite variety of children's books available, we have some difficulty in finding books that match his interest, reading level (which seems advanced for his age), and maturity.
I am so grateful to be part of this group of dedicated parents with a shared goal. What strikes me is that at once our challenges are similar enough that we can learn from each other, while at the same time each of our journeys is unique. I look forward to the dialogue and and happy to be a resource to you.
Finally, a special thanks to the head keeper Adam for all his work to set up this forum and bringing us together!
). 
