Hello from Hiroshima Prefecture!
Aug 3, 2015 10:59:19 GMT 9
Post by Nikoya on Aug 3, 2015 10:59:19 GMT 9
Hello!
I am really glad I found this forum and have to thank Adam for having started this site. I have been lurking around this forum for the past couple of days, just to get a feel of it, and I am completely dumbstruck by seeing the efforts put in by many of the parents here!!!
I am not sure I can see many people with a similar background like ours: I speak Language A, my husband speaks Language B, but we both communicate in English, and now live in Japan!! Can it get more complicated than this?!
We moved here last year. Although me and my husband can understand/speak Japanese, my elder one started to get exposure to this language only since last January. She has been going to a local public school since the last academic year, and had to work a lot to catch up! I had to train her with the basics of the Japanese alphabets for 3 months, when we decided that we would be moving here for long term. Now, she can read/write Japanese, but the problem is that she just won't speak in Japanese, no matter how hard I have been trying to get some exposure to the best of my ability. If I try to talk in Japanese, she starts complaining, but I think she enjoys talking with her dad while shopping, but that too is very rare and not consistent.
I read a few posts written by Adam where he mentions about need and exposure. I guess my elder one is getting the right amount of exposure, but she does not feel the need to talk the language at all!! Maybe that's stuck in her head and she's really a tough cookie!! lol...
While we understand she has a lot of challenges to tackle, it's really important that she starts communicating in Japanese, as the teacher told me that it would become tough for her once she moves to higher grades! Although we seem to have 4 languages to cope up with, myself and my husband speak in English. Until a few years earlier, she would speak my language, but gradually she started responding only in English even when I spoke to her in my language. Anyway, we really don't mind if she sticks to English and Japanese, given that it can become too stressful for her...
Now, the biggest challenge we find is to get her to speak Japanese!! Adam had suggested me to get some playmate for her who can speak exclusively in Japanese, and we are trying to get some sources on this. Hope we get some constructive leads!!
As for my second one, I think he's going to find it much easier than my elder one, as he is not even a year old now... Nevertheless, I need tips on how we could cultivate the interest for Japanese, given that both parents are not natives of Japanese or English!
So I hope to gain more insights from other parents here on this forum. And hats off to all the parents of bilingual/multilingual children!!
I am really glad I found this forum and have to thank Adam for having started this site. I have been lurking around this forum for the past couple of days, just to get a feel of it, and I am completely dumbstruck by seeing the efforts put in by many of the parents here!!!
I am not sure I can see many people with a similar background like ours: I speak Language A, my husband speaks Language B, but we both communicate in English, and now live in Japan!! Can it get more complicated than this?!
We moved here last year. Although me and my husband can understand/speak Japanese, my elder one started to get exposure to this language only since last January. She has been going to a local public school since the last academic year, and had to work a lot to catch up! I had to train her with the basics of the Japanese alphabets for 3 months, when we decided that we would be moving here for long term. Now, she can read/write Japanese, but the problem is that she just won't speak in Japanese, no matter how hard I have been trying to get some exposure to the best of my ability. If I try to talk in Japanese, she starts complaining, but I think she enjoys talking with her dad while shopping, but that too is very rare and not consistent.
I read a few posts written by Adam where he mentions about need and exposure. I guess my elder one is getting the right amount of exposure, but she does not feel the need to talk the language at all!! Maybe that's stuck in her head and she's really a tough cookie!! lol...
While we understand she has a lot of challenges to tackle, it's really important that she starts communicating in Japanese, as the teacher told me that it would become tough for her once she moves to higher grades! Although we seem to have 4 languages to cope up with, myself and my husband speak in English. Until a few years earlier, she would speak my language, but gradually she started responding only in English even when I spoke to her in my language. Anyway, we really don't mind if she sticks to English and Japanese, given that it can become too stressful for her...
Now, the biggest challenge we find is to get her to speak Japanese!! Adam had suggested me to get some playmate for her who can speak exclusively in Japanese, and we are trying to get some sources on this. Hope we get some constructive leads!!
As for my second one, I think he's going to find it much easier than my elder one, as he is not even a year old now... Nevertheless, I need tips on how we could cultivate the interest for Japanese, given that both parents are not natives of Japanese or English!
So I hope to gain more insights from other parents here on this forum. And hats off to all the parents of bilingual/multilingual children!!
), but I was able to pick it up within a year. And I don't remember having been coached by my parents on how to go about it. It just seemed to go on so naturally, and all I did was to follow school. Not sure if my daughter is having trouble due to Japanese, but most of the circumstances are similar to what I had to face during my childhood. That's what worries me now because it's been more than a year since we are here. Now, I think I have made too many wrong assumptions and/or not taken sufficient efforts. 
And as you said, now I feel that I should just let her go at her own pace, don't have a choice I guess. 
