I've MOVED! Come and Join me...

Here's the deal folks. in an effort to consolidate my "internet life" I have decided to consolidate things under the umbrella of BusanKevin Dot Com. I have started posting the videos from my BusanKevin YouTube channel there as well as new written blog posts. I will soon move all of my posts from this site over there.

I will no longer be posting here so if you want to keep reading the strange things I write...come on over to BUSANKEVIN DOT COM and "Like" the site or sign up for my BusanKevin email list (the tab i on the site).

Love yas and see yas over there :)

Kevin

Raising a Bilingual Child: Constant Questioning

Raising a Bilingual Child

Teaching Tip: Constant Questioning

I learned a lot working as a kindergarten teacher for five years. I closely observed my students and I watched their parents carefully as well. I asked students about their interactions with their parents. Do they read stories to you? Do you sit together as a family and eat meals together? When you get home from school do you mostly watch television or play with your parents? When your parents take you to the park, do they play with you or sit and watch you?

I learned a lot about what to do as a parent and most importantly, what not to do!

Simply put, many parents don’t talk to their children. They may bark commands at them from time to time or even talk to them as if they were babies, but many don’t engage them.

At one school I worked at, teachers would take their classes to a large public park each morning and play at a playground. I often saw parents who would take their child there, let the child play by themselves while he/she just sat on a bench with a coffee and stared at their smart phone. Other times, a group of mothers would take their children to the park and then ignore them. They saw it as “social time for Mommy” as opposed to playtime and learning time for their child.

On a Summer insect hunt with my son.

All parents are guilty of letting their kids watch a little too much television (especially when you’re trying to cook dinner or clean the house). I’m guilty of that as well. I also find myself at time not engaging my kids as much as I probably should. Luckily, I tend to “snap out of it” and realize that I need to interact more.

Constantly questioning your child is a great way to engage them. Constantly asking them a mixture of closed and open-ended questions about what they are doing and the world around them helps them develop critical thinking skills as well as their language.

When I go for a walk with my son I often find myself asking him a wide variety of questions about everything around us.

Here’s an example:

Me: “Hey Kai, what’s that? (pointing to a leaf on he ground).

My son: “It’s a leaf.”

Me: “What color is it?”

My son: “It’s brown.”

Me: “Why is it brown?”

My son: “It’s dirty.”

Me: “No. It’s brown because it’s old and dry. Why is it on the sidewalk?”

My son: “Cause the tree is broken and the leaf jumped.”

Me: “Ha ha! The leaf didn’t jump off the tree. It fell off. Can you say, ‘It fell off the tree’?”

My son: “It fell of the tree.”

In that exchange I asked him a variety of questions. I also corrected his logic and language when he said the leaf jumped off the tree. Of course, I always correct him in a nice way. Correcting children’s grammar and vocabulary usage is something some parents don’t do enough of. That can definitely lead to fossilization of speaking errors (that’s for another post).

So, remember, if you’re a parent of kids who are in the developmental stages of language acquisition, question them a lot. If you are a teacher, do the same. Even if children are older and their language is developed, by constantly questioning them, you are encouraging them to think and always acting as a teacher.

That’s a good thing!

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter: @jlandkev

Raising a Bilingual Child: The Daddy Show

Raising a Bilingual Child

 

Teaching Tips: The Daddy Show

A constant thought in my mind is “What can I do to help my two children develop their English language skills while living in Japan?”

I have done and am currently always researching and looking for new ideas. Also, my background as a kindergarten and elementary school teacher has helped a lot. It is a constant learning process however and I want to share some helpful tips I’ve learned with anyone else their raising children in a multi language environment.

 

The Daddy Show:

I came across this idea while reading a blog sometime ago. I can no longer remember when I read it exactly of even which blog it came from, but it is an idea that stuck in my head.  Since I have a background in video editing (one of my hobbies being video blogging) this seemed like such an awesome idea. Even with very limited skills in using a video editor, anyone could do this as well.

I have basically created a short “television” show that my son can watch when I am not at home. He of course has a small library of English DVDs that he watches throughout the day, but I wanted him to have more of a chance to listen to my voice and “interact” with me when I was at work.

Basically what I did was choose 3 short story books that my son likes. I chose “Me and My Dad” by Mercer Mayer, “The Daddy Book” by Todd Parr and “The Feelings Book” also by Todd Parr. I chose 4 or 5 songs that my son enjoys like “Bingo”, “Open Shut Them”, “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, etc. I then mixed a lot of dialogue in there. I would ask my son questions like “How do you feel today?” and then leave a pause so he had time to answer.

I set up my iPhone on a counter, sat down and started filming. I had to make several takes of some of the sings, but it was a lot of fun to do. I then downloaded all the video clips onto my MacBookPro and began to edit them in iMovie. If you have a PC you can easily use can editing program like Windows Movie Maker. There are also many free editing suites out there that are relatively easy to use.

I added some titles at the beginning and then before each song and story, clearly introduced what I was about to do. When I shot the video I looked straight into the camera as if it were my son. I also addressed the camera as my son. That way, when my son watched the DVD, I was making eye contact with him and he really felt it was “for him.”

In the end, my first episode of “The Daddy Show” was about 20 minutes long. I plan to make more in the future and now I’ll be including my daughter in them. Of course, you can make it “The Mommy Show” if you’re a mother or name it anything you want.

If you have any problems with using an editor like iMovie, there are free and easy to follow tutorials on apple.com and of course, as with any editing program, there are many video tutorials on YouTube. Just do a quick search and any questions you have can be quickly answered.

Hope you liked my teaching tip and hopefully you can make your own “TV show” for your kids or friends.

You can follow me on Twitter: @jlandkev

 

 

Raising a Bilingual Child: Parents Communicating

Raising a Bilingual Child

Good Communication and Planning With Your Spouse

 

One of the keys to being able to raise bilingual children is strong communication with your spouse. It’s also good to have a clear action plan and make sure that you’re on the same page.

In an earlier post about only speaking English at home I talked about a Japanese wife who had anxiety about her husband only using Japanese with their kids. The situation in itself is absolutely fine. If you have no interest in your children learning English (or another language) and fine with only one, there are no issues at all with both parents speaking Japanese. The mother was feeling anxiety though because she wants her children to speak English as well as Japanese. By the sounds of it, the two parents are definitely not on the same page. Have they ever sat down and talked about their children’s language development? Have they discussed future plans? Who knows, but these are things that parents need to talk about.

I think my wife and I have been pretty good so far with discussing our children’s language learning.  After the kids have gone to bed at night we have sat up and talked about what DVDs would be good for our son, which kindergartens would be best and how my wife will use English in the house. We thought about English kindergartens as well as Japanese kindergartens for my son. We’ve decided to send him to a Japanese kindergarten next year and are now thinking about how will reinforce his English once his Japanese language development takes off.

About a year ago, when my son’s Japanese language skills really started to take off I started to feel stress and anxiety. I thought to myself at times, “Man…I wish I was raising him in Canada now.”

Although I am a trained teacher and have read a lot about the topic I couldn’t help myself, but get stressed. I KNOW that we are in Japan so of course he’ll develop Japanese first. I KNOW he uses Japanese all day long so of course it would be his first language. I said to myself, this is all ok. No problem. I said this to myself, but still started to feel anxiety when I saw one language developing more rapidly than the other.

I then talked to my wife about my feelings. She was great. She listened and reassured me that she would also work hard to make sure our son learned as much English as possible. Her reassurance definitely made me feel better. I think that fact that we have been communicating our feelings about teaching our children has helped reduce stress a great deal.

 

I think some important questions spouses can ask each other if they are in a similar situation are:

What language goals do we want for our kids? (Bilingual, unilingual, trilingual?)

How will we help develop our child’s second language?

Will we be solely responsible for the second language development or send our child to an English-language preschool/kindergarten/international school?

If our child goes to an international school, how will their primary language develop? How will their understanding of Japanese culture (where they live) develop?

If our child goes to an English kindergarten elsewhere, how will they have a chance to make local friends?

English kindergartens tend to have very small class sizes. Will my child lose out on social opportunities and his/her ability to develop social problem solving skills (ones they would develop in a larger class)?

Will I get cable/satellite television so my child has English language television to watch?

Will I buy them English language DVDs? Which ones? (Put some serious thought into this one. It’s easy to choose DVDS that have no educational quality or your kids will have no interest in.)

Will I make my home an English-only environment in the evenings? (Forcing a language on someone may cause him or her to resent it.)

Will studying my child’s first language help me teach him his second language? (Probably yes since you will know what they are saying in their first language and then you can teach them how to say the same thing in their second language).

How can we make language-learning fun?

How and at what age will we start to teach them to read and write? (Speaking and listening comes easily compared to these. Speaking and listening can be learned passively just by being immersed in the language environment whereas reading and writing must be actively taught and reinforced with much practice).

What do we do if at some point our child refuses to use his/her second language? (language rebellion)?

 

There are many other questions families will find them asking themselves and each other through out their child’s education.

Communication within the family is a key to raising successful language learners. It’s also an important factor in reducing any stress that may arise in the family. It’s extremely important for parents to be on the same page!

 

You can find me on Twitter: @jlandkev

 

 

 

Raising a Bilingual Child: Only Speaking English to my Children

Teaching Tips: ONLY Speaking English to my Children

Some of you out there may find yourself in a situation similar to the one I’ll talk about today. You may be in a different country and the language in question may not be English, but your situation may be similar.

I am in Japan. I have two very young children and a Japanese wife. We want our children to be completely and effortlessly bilingual. I work during the day and my wife stays home raising our kids. She takes them out everyday to play with their friends in the playground and they are very active in other ways. They go to the local community center, kindergarten and day care for various classes throughout the week. My son even takes swimming lessons. All of these are done in Japanese of course. We are in Japan after all. This means the majority of my kids’ days are spent immersed in the Japanese language.

My wife works hard to add some English throughout the day. She speaks to them at times in English and they watch DVDs of children’s programs from America, Australia and Canada. When I come home from work in the evening and on weekends that is really their chance to learn English. That is their opportunity to interact with a native English speaker using natural English. Time for them to play with their Daddy!

In a way, my poor Japanese skills have worked to an advantage for both my kids and me as I try to teach them English. At three years of age, my son already knows that English is his father’s language and Japanese is his mother’s.  Since I don’t speak Japanese (trying to remedy that at the moment), I must communicate with him in English and vice versa. Within our household it is a win/win situation.

Now, even if I could speak Japanese fluently I wouldn’t use it in front of my son during our day-to-day interactions. If I did, I would be robbing him of his chance to hear and utilize the Native English speaker living under his own roof. I would be taking away his teacher.

We live in Japan and every time my children head out the door Japanese surrounds them. They practice the language constantly and it is of course their first language. They don’t need me to speak it to them. Understanding Japanese does of course help me though. Often, my son may not know how to express himself in English. He asks me a question or makes a statement in Japanese. If I understand what he is saying, I can model the language for him in English. He speaks to me in Japanese; I repeat what he just said in English and then make him repeat it. The “modeling” style of language teaching works extremely well and the more Japanese I understand, the better I will be at using this method.

My wife has told me that some Japanese women she has met who are married to foreign men such as myself worry when their husbands only speak Japanese to their kids. Pre-school to early elementary school is what is known as the critical phase of language acquisition. That's the time when a child can learn a new language with no accent and sound like a native speaker (or at least close to it).  One mother shared her worries with my wife. She said that her kindergarten-aged children could only speak Japanese and was stressed because when they travel to America to meet her husband’s family, the kids would not have the ability to communicate. 

That’s something I think about often. I live far away from my family in Canada and someday I plan to return there with my family. For whatever reason, even if we stayed in Japan, half of my son’s family (and the majority of relatives) are Canadian and don’t speak Japanese. When we visit Canada and spend time with them, how will he be able to communicate with his grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles? He simply wouldn’t be able to. He’s be missing out on so much.

I suppose, another thing I would worry about, if I spoke Japanese to my son would be teaching him my bad pronunciation and broken grammar.

At the end of the day, whether my family moves to Canada or stays in Japan, my children will have wonderful advantages if they are able to communicate flawlessly in two languages. By using only English when I am with them, I am giving them the chance to always be with a teacher. I just have to remember to always be encouraging, make them comfortable to speak English and correct (in a caring way) the mistakes they make.

You can follow me on TWITTER: @jlandkev

Raising a Bilingual Child: Code Switching

Code Switching  - Up close and personal

I have to admit that watching my son’s language development is absolutely amazing. I grew up in “one language” household. My family used English. Now, my family in Japan uses both English in the house and outside as well.

My son is now a newly minted 3 year-old. As I’ve mentioned before, his first language is Japanese and his second language is English.  His speaking skills are quite high and it is clear that he can communicate much more fluently in Japanese, but what I have noticed recently is the dramatic increase in his code-switching skills.

In linguistics, code switching is switching between two or more language varieties, in the context of a single conversation.

When my son was only one year old he started conversing in both English and Japanese with family and friends. At that point he didn’t realize that there was a difference between the two languages he was learning. He would speak to his little friends in a mixture of English and Japanese and they would just look at him blankly. Their Japanese skills were also just emerging, but of course, they didn’t understand any English. Not long after he was two years old, a switch in his brain was flipped and he realized that when he was at the local kindergarten, community center or playground with his friends and their mothers, he should only speak Japanese. 

The most basic and obvious examples of code switching with my son are in the home when he interacts with his mother, who is Japanese and myself. When I come home from wok in the evening, he runs down the hall yelling “Hello Daddy” and then he commences to tell me about his day’s adventures in English. When I respond to him in English, he runs back down the hall and tells my wife what I just said, but in Japanese.

At the dinner table he sits at the end and we sit on either side of him. The majority of his day is spent “living in Japanese” so when I come home my wife and I speak English to each other and to my son (and now daughter). We haven’t set an “English Only” rule in our house that some other people do. We just tend to use English because my Japanese skills are not strong. Also, even though I am currently learning Japanese, I choose not to use it around my son since his only daily opportunities to hear natural English are with me.

Our normal dinner experiences are in English. At times though, my son will tell me a story in English and then immediately turn to his mother and repeat the story in Japanese. Other times, he will share it with her in English.

Watching his code switching skills evolve is a constant and wonderful process.

You can follow me on Twitter: @jlandkev

Second Baby Blues?

T-minus 6 days. That's the due date of my second child. If she comes then, I'll be home with my family during Golden Week. If she comes earlier, I may be racing to Kobe from work and hopefully will get to the hospital in time to see my new little daughter arrive. Hard to say though, I hear the second one comes quickly.

Amazing, the way that I feel. I've been through this before. My son was born nearly 3 years ago, but now I'm filled with nervous anxiety again. It feels like I'm becoming a father again for the first time. I'm assuming that emotions like this are common among parents about to have a second child.

Ah well...I'll keep you fine folks posted.

Until then, I'll just try to have fun and be silly with my family!

Learning Japanese and English at the same time

Late last year and earlier this year I began writing about raising my son to be a bilingual child. His first language, Japanese, was progressing quickly and his English was coming along as well.

Fast forward ahead to April 2013 and my son is now 2 years 8 months old. Naturally, both languages have been progressing rapidly and his ability to communicate with others and express himself has grown by leaps and bounds. He can speak to his mother and Japanese adults/children in full, yet simple sentences. He is also able to understand most of what he hears.

Having entered the world of the Terrible Two's so his favorite phrases in both Japanese and English are, "I don't want to" and "I can't."

In English, his basic vocabulary continues to grow quickly. His language bank of nouns, verbs and adjectives is expanding, but he can struggle when it comes to putting them together. Sometimes his storytelling sessions are very easy to understand while at other times it's more of a challenge for me to fully comprehend.

I think one of the most interesting recent aspects of his language development has been his language switching. He now seems to have made the distinction in his mind that he speaks Japanese to Mommy (who is Japanese) and English to Daddy (moi...a Canadian dude). My wife often speaks English to him and even a few months ago he would reply to her in English, but now he won't. He only speaks to my wife in Japanese no matter what language she uses with him. On top of that, he even seems somewhat annoyed when she does speak to him in English. I'm assuming that people out there in a similar family makeup have had similar experiences.

We're continuing to give him the opportunity to watch lots of English TV and movies which have helped. He definitely learns from watching Cars, Toy Story (1,2 and 3), Finding Nemo and others and it's obviously helping his listening skills as well.

His English progress may start to slow over the next two months though. He will be attending Japanese day care leading up to the time my wife has our second child and for about a month afterwards. That coupled with my longer working/commuting hours with my new job means he'll be exposed to almost no English on a daily basis until June.

I'm sure he'll be fine, but I have to admit that I'm somewhat stressed about his upcoming "lack of English."

I'll let you know how things go in upcoming posts.

I'm back and mobile....in Osaka

Long time, no see!

I'm alive and doing well and still in Japan of course. I've long been neglecting this blog for far too long. Things have changed as of today and maybe I'll be able to share with you more often.

As of today, I now work in Osaka, Japan. I still live in Kobe with my family, but now have a much longer and more uncomfortable commute everyday. I've just downloaded the Blogger app and will try to write posts while I travel everyday.

I'll continue to focus on my son's bilingual upbringing and share things we're doing in my house to make sure his English language skills grow while submersed in a Japanese world!

Constantly Talking: a teaching tool

One piece of advice I give to new teachers, especially ones teaching second language learners is to constantly speak to them and ask them questions. This of course gives them more opportunities to hear English as well think in the language and speak it.

Practice, practice, practice! 

The more you practice anything, the better you will become. Learning a language is no different.

This of course carries over to parenting and raising a child to speak more than one language. I suppose it will even help a child who is learning only one language.

When my son was an infant, I read in a book about raising children that I should have a constant running dialogue when I am with them. Even when he was too young to speak or communicate in any way, aside from crying, I should speak. At bath time, the running dialogue might sound something like, “Now I’m going to wash your arms. I’m cleaning your arms with soap. Isn’t the water nice and warm? Now I’m rinsing the soap off your arms. Does that feel nice?”

It completely makes sense why this would be good for your child. While they are with you they hear your voice and are surrounded by the language they will someday speak. It’s another form of mental stimulation. Sounds straightforward and easy, but I often find this type of running dialogue difficult to maintain. I suppose it is a little mentally taxing for me and sometimes I simply forgot to do it.

When my son was younger and even now I find myself zoning out when I am doing something that required concentration such as giving him a bath. When I would zone out, I would stop speaking.

Today I went for a walk with my son and spoke to him the entire time. I asked him questions about the vehicles we saw as well as the plants and flowers we walked past. “Is that a white or a blue car? Look at the ambulance. Is it loud? Did you see all of the pink flowers on the tree? Do you want to go to the supermarket? What kind of juice do you want?”

I realize that English is my son’s second language and I need to pick up my game and start exposing him to more of it.

I have to admit that while I need to pick up my game as a teacher at home, my wife has been doing a fantastic job all along. She has that constant dialogue with my son and speaks to him in both Japanese and English.

Another thing we have been doing all along, but more now that our son is speaking a lot is discussing his “linguistic future.” We spend a great deal of time talking about how we can work together to make sure his English skills are strong. We have been discussing what type of schools he should attend. We have also been discussing how we will teach him to read and write English if he attends a Japanese school.

Luckily I’m not stressed about that since I have been teaching of many years and have spent the last 5 years teaching young children phonics and writing.

Interesting times!

More updates and ideas to come.

You can follow me on Twitter: @jlandkev

An Explosion of Language

My son is now almost two and a half years old and recently has been speaking quite a bit. He says things at night like, “Daddy, go to bed?” “Daddy, boat coming!” “Kai, neh neh (baby talk for sleep in Japanese).” He also speaks a lot more in Japanese, his first language. His language has been progressing at a very surprising and exciting pace.

I started a three-week vacation about three weeks ago (sadly only one day left before I head back to school). I have been spending a great deal of time with my son during that period. Both my wife and I have noticed a sudden explosion of language in the last month and luckily I have been present to enjoy so much of it.

The amazing thing that has happened is he can now express his needs and wants in English and Japanese. He was able to tell us what he wanted Santa Claus to bring him for Christmas (Santa got him the TOMICA City parking garage set he so desired).

He can also use both his English and Japanese to play with Mom and Dad. The other day he walked up to me, placed some toy food on the table and said, “Daddy, eat this.” His favorite phrase in the past few days has been “Come here Daddy” which he has said at least thirty five thousand times!

I think my mind was really blown the other day when my son said, “Daddy, two boys going over there.” I looked up and sure enough, there were two young boys running across the street in front of us!

I realize that often children in Canada, where I am from, at my son’s age may be able to communicate more, but my son has to process twice the information. He doesn’t just have to learn the word “cat” for example. He must learn that Daddy says “cat” and Mommy says, “neko” (my wife is Japanese).

Language switching:

This is another impressive thing (in my eyes as a father) that amazes me. When I am alone with my son, he pretty much only speaks English. When he is with his mother, he pretty much only speaks Japanese, the language he can communicate more in. When we are together as a family, he mixes it all together and at this point, really only his mother knows exactly what he is saying.

I suppose that in the little world that is “my family”, we are going through some fun and exciting times.

As someone who was raised in a unilingual household, it is amazing to see someone raised bilingual. It’s like looking into a new world!

You can follow me on Twitter: @jlandkev

A Fresh Start

2012 is finished and the new year has begun. Hello 2013.

2012 was a year of challenges and small triumphs as well. The biggest milestone for me creatively was completing my first book, "Teaching in Asia: Tales and the Real Deal." I learned a lot about the writing and editing process while penning my first self-published work. I know what I will do differently the next time and how I can make future works much better. I was proud to finish my book and at the same time happy to learn how I could improve my writing and editing process.

I am happy to say that there will be a new book in 2013. I have already begun putting it together. This one will involve a lot of time interviewing people and gathering anecdotal data and stories. This one won't be about teaching in Asia, but in a way will be about teaching. If you have been reading the last few posts here on the "Far Away Blog" you might already have an idea about the topic.

As far as other creative endeavours have gone, I have continued to be active on my YouTube channels and have met some great people through my hobby. In 2013, I plan to continue with my fun video making hobby and hopefully bring it up a few notches.

I can inform all you fine readers out there, if you don't already know, that I will become a father again in 2013. In late spring my wife and I are expecting "little person" number TWO! Exciting and interesting times for sure.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by this blog in 2012 and if you re new to it, welcome. 

I hope you all have a safe and happy 2013 and a productive year as well.

You can follow me on Twitter @jlandkev

Watching Television to Learn a Language

Many people will say that the best way to learn a language is to immerse them in it and interact on a daily basis with native speakers of that language. I can’t argue that that is probably the best way to do it, but how do you learn a language when that ideal situation isn’t an option?

I live in Japan. You may have already figured that out if you have read any of my previous posts. I live in Japan and I am trying to raise my son to be fluent in both Japanese and English. The Japanese part is easy. He lives in Japan and everywhere he goes he hears Japanese. Every time he sees television it is Japanese.

Now, what do we do about his English? I leave for work about 30 minutes after he wakes up each morning and normally I am running around like a chicken with its head cut off getting ready to go to work. I have very little time to sit and interact with him linguistically. After work, I get home between 6-7:00pm. He normally goes to bed shortly after 8:00pm. This doesn’t really leave me with a lot of time to talk to him. I do as much as I can and try to read a story or two to him before bed time, but realistically, he only gets about 2 hours of English each weekday.

To supplement things, I do what many parents in my situation do. I have him watch television. It isn’t the best way, but it is one of the few options I have and it works. I know it works because he has been learning vocabulary and phrases that I didn’t teach him.

My wife teaches him some English throughout the day, but he picks up idiomatic English from various DVDs he has and is able to apply that English correctly when playing or interacting with me.

We of course want our son to lead an active life and be outside as much as possible so we do limit the amount of time he spends indoors watching television. On a daily basis, he probably watches about 1 to 1.5 hours of English programming.

Again, it is the best we can do in the current situation.

Some of the shows that my son seems to really react to and enjoy the most are:

Thomas and Friends (my son is OBSESSED with all things Thomas)

Dora the Explorer

Go Diego Go

Theodore Tugboat

Blues Clues

His favorite movies are:

Wiggles Music DVDs (songs)

Toy Story

Cars

Wiggles Magical Adventure

You can follow me on Twitter @jlandkev

“Big Surprise” Language Moments: Part 1

When you are raising any child, there are definitely special language milestones that you remember as a parent. When your child first says, “Mamma” (word may vary according to language). When your child first says “food.” When your child first vocalizes that they need to go to the toilet (an important step in toilet training).

I am sure that many of you out there vividly remember your child’s language milestone moments. If you don’t have kids right now, let it be known, you will be VERY excited about these moments.

I have to admit that part of me now wishes that I had been recording a lot of my son’s “language milestones” on this blog from the moment he started to communicate vocally, but I did not. I am now though and am happy to share many of his linguistic accomplishments, both Japanese and English, with you.

I mentioned in my previous post that my son’s L1 (first language) is Japanese. At times I feel some anxiety about the fact that his Japanese language ability is higher than his English ability. I feel anxiety (a topic for a full on blog post/chapter in a book…in the future) about this, but of course I shouldn’t. My half Canadian/Japanese kid lives in Japan so of course his Japanese is stronger than his English. He spends every day with his Japanese mother going to the local community center for classes. He goes to the local day care for classes as well as the local pool for swimming classes; all of them of course in Japanese.

My brain is boggled though at how much English he is picking up. He can now use basic sentences and basically communicate his wants and needs. He was even able to tell us what he wanted Santa Claus to bring him this year (in English) and that communication ensured that “Santa Clause” was able to get him the gift he indeed desired!

My recent “Big Surprise” moment:

Last week as I was pushing him in his stroller while we were coming back from our local IKEA (I’m on a 3 week Winter holiday and at home with him a lot), he said to me, “Daddy, two boys are going there.” I looked across the road and sure enough, there were two little boys, maybe six or seven years old, running across the road in front of us.

Amazing for me. Not only did it surprise me that he spoke the words, but that they were legitimately connected to a real-world observation.

Cool stuff!

You can follow me on Twitter @jlandkev.

Should I bother learning Japanese?

Recently, I have been writing some posts about raising my son to be bilingual. A lot of you out there have been interested in reading about this topic. Of course, everything I write are my own thoughts and opinions. Some of you out there may not agree with the methods we take in my house to make sure my son speaks both Japanese and English fluently, but you of course are entitled to your own opinions. I have my own and am pretty confident about them.

Now, what I have been thinking about lately is my own language development and how that will influence my son’s language.

My Japanese sucks! That is a very true statement.

I was in South Korea for about five years and now, I am coming up to that point in Japan. My Korean was MUCH better than my Japanese is.

Why is my Japanese so terrible? I am lazy. I can make a million other excuses: “I work in an international school and never hear Japanese throughout the day.” “I met my wife outside Japan and we have always communicated in English.” “”When I speak Japanese my left ear gets itchy.” “I’m really dumb!”  (The last two excuses are only partially true).

At the end of the day, I am a lazy guy. Well, I am not lazy in general. I work long hours. I work six days a week often. I produce TONS of online blog/vlog content. I run at least two full marathons a year. I just wrote a book about teaching. I am not lazy about life. I am lazy about learning languages.

At this point in my “Japan journey”…wait…not Japan journey…that makes it sound as if I am a traveler or someone passing through for a year or two to teach and then move back home.

I am pretty invested in Japan. My wife is Japanese and my son is half Japanese. My son was born in Kobe and I was there when it happened. I hope to leave Japan and start our life in Canada within the next couple of years, but even when we move to Canada, I will always have a foot in Japan. I will be coming back to visit my wife’s home, to visit my in-laws, to visit my son’s grandparents and aunt.

What am I getting to with all of this?

Language. Will my lack of Japanese skills work to my advantage as my son learns English? Will it make my life far more difficult?

I see both things happening.

Don’t get me wrong. I can speak some Japanese and understand a lot. I probably know as much Japanese as the average 2-3 year old Japanese child! Problem is, my son is now two and although he speaks Japanese often and I understand it, within the year his skill level will surpass mine.

Now, when my son speaks in Japanese, I just say “Ah yes.” And then rephrase what he just said in English. I am able to do that and it helps a lot. It is a great teaching tool. I never speak Japanese in front of him (he hears it all day from everyone else), but I understand what he says and then I help him say it in English.

Eventually I will have trouble doing that. What do I do when I am alone with my son and he wants/needs something and I don’t understand what he’s saying to me? That is a legitimate fear I have. When I think about that, I start thinking it is time to study again.

Then I hear what other foreign fathers in Japan have to say about the topic.

I have received advice from men who have been here far longer than I and both speak and do not speak Japanese.

Some fathers who speak little Japanese have told me that their kids speak English well because of that. Their children were forced to use English to communicate with their fathers. They knew they couldn’t use Japanese so were motivated to improve their English.

On the other hand, I have met some foreign fathers who speak fluent Japanese and said that it caused issues. Their kids knew that they spoke Japanese well and would understand everything they said in Japanese so never bothered to practice their English. The father’s Japanese skills made the kids lazy!

Where does this leave me? I dunno. I know I should improve my Japanese skills simply for myself. I would be happier here if I could communicate with others more effectively. I know I should...i know I must improve my japanese. That is a no brainer. 

BUT.....

As for my son’s Japanese/English language development…poses some interesting food for thought!

What are your thoughts?

Great Books for Little Ones

A few days ago I wrote a follow-up post to my “Raising a Bilingual Child in Japan” post from June of this year. My recent post got a lot of attention and to be honest; was a lot of fun to write. I am a father of a two year and one month old boy who is growing up learning both Japanese and English.

This topic is of course near and dear to my heart because I am living it everyday. My son’s mother is Japanese and he is growing up in Japan. His first language is Japanese, but as a trained primary school teacher, I’m trying to build on my knowledge base of language education and help my son learn English as well as Japanese. You of course don’t have to be a trained educator to teach a child a language. I’m not even sure if it helps a lot, but I have tried many techniques I have used on older children here at home. I have of course had to modify them to fit a younger learner.

I think this will become a continuing series of blogs. A lot of people seem interested in the topic.

Today I wanted to talk about a series of English storybooks my son really enjoys. These are bright, colorful and stimulating books that truly engage my son. He simply loves them and wants me to read them to him over and over again.

When my son was a little less than a year old I stumbled across a book called “The Feelings Book” by Todd Parr. It was a colorful board book (made from thick cardboard so young children cannot rip the pages) that had simple and wonderful drawings about various emotions. I brought it home and my son was hooked. Although he couldn’t speak Japanese or English at that point, he enjoyed the bright colors and shapes.

As an elementary school teacher, I have a large collection of picture books in my house. I have read many of them to my son and for the most part, he hasn’t been interested in most. I suppose it has been a learning process for me as well. Just because my six year-old students love a book, doesn’t mean a two year-old child will.

A few months ago I came across another Todd Parr book called “The Daddy Book.” At that point, and it can often change, my son was in a serious “I only want Mommy and have no interest in daddy” phase. I was trying hard to have him show an interest in me. I suppose it was only natural. He would spend all of his days with his mother and only see me after work. It was natural, but I wasn’t happy about it. I thought a book about Daddies would be perfect.

I ordered a copy of “The Daddy Book” from Amazon and as soon as it arrived my son loved it. It was written in simple English, a lot of what my son could understand. The pictures were very simple, clear and colorful. The bright colors stimulated him and definitely held his attention.

My son enjoying "The Daddy Book" by Todd Parr

I loved the book because, like all of Todd Parr’s books, it talked about diversity in the world. It talked about different kinds of Daddies who look different ways and do different things.

Within days my son was requesting the “The Daddy Book” several times a day. It became a morning ritual. Before I would head off to school every morning I would sit down with him and read him the story.  He would even mutter “Daddy Book” in his sleep sometimes.

I have since ordered “The Mommy Book” and “The Family Book” and my son enjoys both of them as well.

I would suggest Todd Parr books to anyone who enjoys reading to their children. They are especially stimulating to preschool children and even babies. They teach important lessons in simple language and their pictures engage young children. His books aren’t just great for second language learners, but for all kids.

Todd Parr himself is a New York Times Best Selling children’s writer who lives in California.

You can follow what I have to say on Twitter: @jlandkev

Parents...Help a Teacher Out!

Soft parents aren’t doing their children any favors. That is something I feel very strong about. I realize that there is now a growing movement of parents out there in Canada, America, Japan, etc., who no longer feel it is right to harshly or even mildly set boundaries for or discipline their children. I realize that parents who feel their children should be free to develop any way they want and explore the world as they, the children, see fit, but I think that’s not the best approach.

That is my opinion and I’m sticking to it.  That is my opinion and I am passionate about it.

As someone who has been teaching for more than eleven years and a homeroom teacher for five of those years, I really wish parents would help me out. I wish they would help me out as a teacher. I wish parents around the world would help all teachers out. Throw us a bone! Give us a break. How? By instilling some amount of discipline in your child. I am not suggesting being authoritarian or cruel. I am not asking you to emulate a Marine drill sergeant, but please teach your children what is acceptable behavior and what isn’t. Please teach your children that there are boundaries in the world and often, if we push those boundaries, there may be consequences. Please teach your kids simple things like table manners, how to share with others and say, “thank you.”

You may think I sound silly asking parents to teach such basic rules of living to their little ones, but so many are not in 2012. I see children every day who have no idea even how to be polite or have no clue that there are such things as boundaries.

I can really only speak for things here in Japan, but am told by many that the situation is similar back in my home country of Canada.

Things seem to start at a very young age, parents simply letting their kids have the run of the show. They love their little kings and queens and feel they are harming them or denying them what they deserve if they say, “No.” Little kids running amuck while parents stand back watching them sheepishly or not at all.

A school I worked at would organize family field trips twice a year. Parents would bring their children and teachers would escort them and lead various activities. I would always warn new teachers to be extra vigilant. Although parents were directly told many times that they were, not teachers, responsible for watching their own children, many if not most didn’t. It became a social outing for them and many of the mothers would just gather around, chat, giggle and not watch their kids. Teachers had to work over time chasing around kids and shocked to have a peek into the world of “non discipline” their students were used to.

Even now, as a teacher and a parent, I am so stunned, but at the same time cynically accepting when I see groups of mothers standing around chatting at a playground or on their smart phones as their children run around wildly, playing behind or under parked cars and hurting other children unchecked.

Being soft doesn’t work folks. When you allow your kids to do whatever it is they want, you are sending them all the wrong messages. You are instilling them with a sense of false entitlement. Many kids who were spoiled in an environment with no discipline tend to become those students teachers find all too painful too teach; kids who come to school having no concept of rules. Kids who feel they should get whatever they want, whenever they want it.

I suppose they will grow up to be the sort of people who feel they are entitled to starting salaries of $70, 000 a year walking out of university. That’s not a good thing.

This is a rather ranty post, but that’s ok. I feel strong about the topic and it irks me on a daily basis when I watch people not watch their kids out on the playground. It irks me when I see parents allow their kids to run through a restaurant wildly and say nothing while other diners are being bothered. I get irked when I meet parents who have never taught their children basic life skills and then turn around and get angry with teachers because their child is behind others.

People, get it together, in the long run, your kids will be stronger for it and be more successful as students and young people.

I’m not suggesting being a “hard ass” or whacking your kids around. Too much discipline and too many rules can often be just as detrimental as none at all. I suppose that can at times even be worse.

Parents, be firm with your kids. You are the adults, the caregivers and ultimately the bosses of the relationship. You have a big responsibility. Your job is to get your little one ready for the real world once they leave the nest. Teaching your kids how the real world really works, in a kind and thoughtful way is a good thing. Teaching them that they are the kings and queens of the world, maybe not such a great thing.

My message to folks out there, and you may disagree (but that’s ok cause this is my platform), is to simply do a few things:

 1. Teach your children to respect adults.

2. Teach your kids to respect teachers.

3. Respect teachers yourself (they know more about children than you do).

4. Teach your kids rules and set consequences if they break those rules.     

5. Stick to number 4.

6. Teach your children to share.

7. Teach your children to work hard.

8. Watch your children and keep them safe.

9. Take the advice of teachers. They aren’t attacking you or your child when they address issues. They want to help you and your child.

10. Love your kids.

You can follow my other rants on Twitter: @jlandkev

Raising a Bilingual Child - 2 Years Old

This is a follow up to my original blog post about raising a bilingual child.

If you are a follower of this blog you already are aware of my situation, but if you are a new reader (and thank you very much for reading), I’ll fill you in a little on my situation. 

I am a Canadian teacher working at an international school in Japan. My wife is Japanese and we have a two year, one month old son who we are raising to be bilingual. We want him to be able to speak both Japanese and English. He is a duwl Canadian/Japanese citizen so we want him to have the skills and knowledge to function in both cultures/societies.

My son’s language abilities are coming along very well. I am actually quite surprised at how much he is able to speak and understand in both Japanese and English. I have worked as a teacher for eleven years and at my current school there is a day care. I have observed many children who are a similar age to my son and the majority do not speak as much as my son does. I don’t think he is a “linguistic prodigy” or anything like that, but I have a few ideas to why he speaks so much.

First of all, my son is always surrounded by language. Simply put, my wife talks to him a lot. She speaks to him and very importantly, listens and responds to him. Although I am not an expert and haven’t studied the topic a great deal, from my many years as a teacher I have noticed that the children who have the widest language bases, seem to have parents who engage them a lot linguistically. Many of the children I have met who speak very little, have parents who tend not to speak to them much. Also, I have noticed that many children who struggle even with their native language have parents who “talk at them” ns not “ to them.” They simple command them around and never really have conversations and listen to their child’s responses.

My wife is doing a great job at engaging our son. I try my best as well when I am home, but sometimes my work schedule doesn’t allow me to be at home as much as I would like.

Another thing that has been working very well is the fact that my wife is always actively teaching and asking questions to my son. She is constantly asking him, “What’s this?” Whether they are looking at a storybook, magazine, television or outside of the house in the “real world”, she is constantly engaging and teaching him. I basically try to follow her lead. Her form of teaching seems to be working well so I’m going with the flow!

It has become very clear and to know surprise that Japanese has become my son’s first language. When he does speak in Japanese I just translate in my brain and repeat what he said in English. In doing this I have realized that my own Japanese level is very low and I have to begin studying again so I can attempt to keep up with my son.

I’m hunting for more English dvds for my son as well. I realize that listening to any English is good, but I am hunting for ones that can help him learn meaningful language. Of course, watching English television is not the best option, but some weeks I work six days and a dvd is better than nothing.

At the moment I am home for the next eight days. This is a great chance for me to speak a lot to my son. This is a great opportunity for me to engage my son in English.

I better get going, he’s awake now. Time to talk!

Here is a video blog I shot yesterday morning. It's an unusual style for me. You can follow my son and I during our morning together.