New mom from US - Non-native wanting to teach
Dec 23, 2016 17:48:01 GMT 9
Post by Kara on Dec 23, 2016 17:48:01 GMT 9
Hello, everyone. I'm Kara and I live in the US, with my native language being English. I have a 4 month old with my spouse who is a monolingual English speaker, but I speak other languages as well. I am conversationally fluent and functionally literate in Japanese and I want to bring up my daughter bilingually. (I lived in Osaka and Kyoto for some time in the past.)
I do have some tools for that. In addition to the fact that I speak about 85% in Japanese to her, I have books in Japanese I've bought and read to her and there is a small but active group of Japanese ex-pats living here in my area with whom I am active, and speak only in Japanese to. Among that group, I've made friends with one young woman who babysits my daughter from time to time, speaking to her in native Japanese, and I make sure to let her keep in earshot of me and my friend going back and forth to hear how conversation is supposed to flow.
A couple of problems:
1) I am getting a little better, but I rarely speak to her in Japanese out in public. The fact is I am a European mutt, as is my spouse and daughter, so I am a little self conscious about being in the United States, speaking a clearly Asian language as a white person. I usually ease back into Japanese only after I've established with whomever I am around that I am teaching Japanese to her, but sometimes that isn't possible.
2) Since I learned Japanese as an adult, my knowledge of baby talk is quite limited. I actually end up using the time when I drop off or pick up my daughter from my Japanese friend as study time for me, to listen to her syntax and word choice with the baby. For example, I might say as an adult "nemasu ka?" but to a child you'd say "ne ne suru no?" (Oh and all the wonderful onomatopeia words, bata bata, paku paku, muchi muchi etc) I have picked up on some of these things, but ultimately I'm afraid of giving my daughter a funny, overly formal and adult Japanese while she's still young. (I do plan to bring her to Japan in the future, although living there long term is unlikely since the spouse, while he likes Japan, is not so much a language enthusiast.) Along the lines of this, though, I am fairly confident at least I am giving her a pretty good Japanese accent. Japanese has fairly easy sounds to pick up from the perspective of an English speaker, and I've been told from people on the phone that they didn't realize I was a non-native speaker.
3) Japanese is not my only language, it is just my strongest. As a result, while Spanish would probably be much more useful, I am even less confident at passing along that. I don't want to add two languages...right now. Since the spouse is taking on the job of English, and I am doing Japanese, I figured we should leave it at that, and add on Spanish later when she starts going to school, as there are many resources for English/Spanish bilingual education around here. Ultimately, I'd rather have her very strong in two languages, English and Japanese, than strong in ML, and weak in two ml. When that time comes, I'm wondering what I should do. Since the spouse speaks neither Japanese nor Spanish, it would just be me at home speaking to her. Is there a way to make it clear, today is Japanese day, or this week we speak Spanish?
4) Finally, I do continue to learn more languages too. I speak very basic Chinese and try to strengthen it with my Chinese friend, I have taken on Slovak (the one second language my ancestors actually spoke!), and have dabbled in French from time to time. My plan, thus far, is not to involve her in any of these adventures, and leave them as mommy's hobbies. Unless she starts showing an interest in simply learning languages like mommy. Anyone try to co-learn language with their child? What were the results? I am curious because it would be really cool to learn together at some point...
The reasons why I want to teach my very Caucasian child a foreign language: 1) I want her to benefit from the neural development afforded bilingual people and 2) with the cost of college in the states becoming increasingly absurd, I think by the time she's ready to go, I'd like her to at least have the option of going abroad, or rather, more options outside of English speaking countries (or being relegated to the bubble culture of English speaking universities in foreign countries).
I do have some tools for that. In addition to the fact that I speak about 85% in Japanese to her, I have books in Japanese I've bought and read to her and there is a small but active group of Japanese ex-pats living here in my area with whom I am active, and speak only in Japanese to. Among that group, I've made friends with one young woman who babysits my daughter from time to time, speaking to her in native Japanese, and I make sure to let her keep in earshot of me and my friend going back and forth to hear how conversation is supposed to flow.
A couple of problems:
1) I am getting a little better, but I rarely speak to her in Japanese out in public. The fact is I am a European mutt, as is my spouse and daughter, so I am a little self conscious about being in the United States, speaking a clearly Asian language as a white person. I usually ease back into Japanese only after I've established with whomever I am around that I am teaching Japanese to her, but sometimes that isn't possible.
2) Since I learned Japanese as an adult, my knowledge of baby talk is quite limited. I actually end up using the time when I drop off or pick up my daughter from my Japanese friend as study time for me, to listen to her syntax and word choice with the baby. For example, I might say as an adult "nemasu ka?" but to a child you'd say "ne ne suru no?" (Oh and all the wonderful onomatopeia words, bata bata, paku paku, muchi muchi etc) I have picked up on some of these things, but ultimately I'm afraid of giving my daughter a funny, overly formal and adult Japanese while she's still young. (I do plan to bring her to Japan in the future, although living there long term is unlikely since the spouse, while he likes Japan, is not so much a language enthusiast.) Along the lines of this, though, I am fairly confident at least I am giving her a pretty good Japanese accent. Japanese has fairly easy sounds to pick up from the perspective of an English speaker, and I've been told from people on the phone that they didn't realize I was a non-native speaker.
3) Japanese is not my only language, it is just my strongest. As a result, while Spanish would probably be much more useful, I am even less confident at passing along that. I don't want to add two languages...right now. Since the spouse is taking on the job of English, and I am doing Japanese, I figured we should leave it at that, and add on Spanish later when she starts going to school, as there are many resources for English/Spanish bilingual education around here. Ultimately, I'd rather have her very strong in two languages, English and Japanese, than strong in ML, and weak in two ml. When that time comes, I'm wondering what I should do. Since the spouse speaks neither Japanese nor Spanish, it would just be me at home speaking to her. Is there a way to make it clear, today is Japanese day, or this week we speak Spanish?
4) Finally, I do continue to learn more languages too. I speak very basic Chinese and try to strengthen it with my Chinese friend, I have taken on Slovak (the one second language my ancestors actually spoke!), and have dabbled in French from time to time. My plan, thus far, is not to involve her in any of these adventures, and leave them as mommy's hobbies. Unless she starts showing an interest in simply learning languages like mommy. Anyone try to co-learn language with their child? What were the results? I am curious because it would be really cool to learn together at some point...
The reasons why I want to teach my very Caucasian child a foreign language: 1) I want her to benefit from the neural development afforded bilingual people and 2) with the cost of college in the states becoming increasingly absurd, I think by the time she's ready to go, I'd like her to at least have the option of going abroad, or rather, more options outside of English speaking countries (or being relegated to the bubble culture of English speaking universities in foreign countries).
),
I think you are right.
