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

Flash cards with a 2 year old

Today my son turns two and a half years old. He’s growing like a weed as they say back home and his language continues to grow at a frightening (for me anyway) pace. He simply loves speaking in both English and Japanese.

Last Monday, I began work after a three-week holiday. During my holiday, I spent most of my time with my family. That of course meant that our house was pretty much an “English Zone.” Living in an English environment for almost a month was a great boost for my son’s language, but as with every vacation, it had to come to an end. Last Monday I started work again and it began with a six-day work-week for me.

Yesterday when I got home from work I took my son to the supermarket to buy some pancake mix. He babbled in English the entire way, curiously pointing t everything he saw and sharing a running dialogue about those things. “Look Daddy, blue car. Big red car. Pigeons are walking. Building is yellow. Look, leaves are green. Tree is tall.” I loved every minute of it.

After dinner last night, while he was playing with Lego I spent sometime showing him various flashcards. Most of them were animal flashcards, but some were also shapes. He is quickly learning them, but I plan to add flashcards to our daily routine more often. Again, I almost have to think about English as if I were a teacher (which I am). He doesn’t get exposed to much English on a day-to-day basis so I need to work hard to help him learn.

Last year I bought a few sets at the local English bookstore, but have realized that at my son’s pace of learning it would cost me a small fortune to continue buying them so I have begun to make flashcards for him. I have relied on some of the great free sites I use for teaching such as MES English and Sparklebox. I simply print the cards at home and I even bought a laminator so I can make them last for years. I think it was a worthy investment.

Some flash cards I bought at Junkudo Bookstore. He already knows about 85% of these so I have begun making them myself at home.

You can check out a video below of me showing some color flashcards to my son the other morning while he was playing. To be honest, he really enjoys playing with the flashcards. He sees them as a toy. I suppose that’s a good thing!

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.

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