Moving to Hebden Bridge!

My daughter has to apply for primary school (actually it's reception class just before year 1 starts)  this month. What a panic that brought us when we found out just a few months ago!! So considering her future, we decided to move somewhere a bit nicer than where we are now, with better schools and a better environment.

My daughter's English is now better than her Japanese. In just six months, she has flipped from using Japanese as her main language to English. It is totally fascinating. Now we have to make sure she doesn't lose her Japanese...or should I say, her Osaka-ben??!!

バイリンガル子供達 Our bilingual kids

My little girl and boy have both been living in the U.K. now for just over a month.
My little girl is almost 3. Her primary language is Japanese but since moving here I've definitely noticed an increase in her English skills. She lives with us and her uncle as well as meeting her grandad and grandma every day.
She can already sweet-talk her grandad into giving her cookies and grapes. When she comes back home, she calls out, 'Hiya Uncle Jon!!!' or 'Hiya Grandad, hiya Grandma' when we visit my parents. At the moment we are trying to get her to say, Oh yes' instead of 'Oh yeaaay! Example: Do you want a cookie? 'Oh yeaaay', Do you want to go to the park? 'Oh yeaay' and so on. I guess she's copying my 'Oh yeah' so it's up to mummy as well to sort her English out!!
She still chats to herself in Japanese, which her daddy is also trying to change from standard Tokyo dialect to his Osaka one.
Bless her, it's as if she has 3 languages going on in her head at the moment!! She takes it all in her stride though.
More than anything, I want to move and get settled so she can make friends and start school in September.

私のバイリンガル・キッズ

私のバイリンガル・キッズ
娘は二歳半です。週に一回、半日だけ保育園に通っていたが、日本語がすごく上手になって来ました。短い間に、急に話せるようになっています。それだけでなく、テーブルをセッティングしたり、飲み物を配ったり、掃除をしたり、変な顔を作ったりします：）
家で英語と日本語を両方使いますし、たまに同じ単語を二つ言葉に言ったりします。「おいで、Come on!」とか「Look!見て!!」を結構言いますね。自分の世界に二つ言葉があると気づいています。その上に、私と英語を使う方が多くなっているの気がします。
でも彼女の普段の言葉は日本語。お父さん、友達、先生、ベイビーシッター皆日本語を話していますから。私は頑張って英語で話さないとダメと思うけど日本は長いで、普段私も日本語を話しています!! そういうわけで娘は英語と日本語を混ぜたりします。でもイギリスに引越すと英語が上手くなります。その時から日本語を忘れないようにしないと！


My Bilingual Kids
My daughter is two and a half and attends a Japanese day care for half a day, once a week. Her Japanese language is coming on in leaps and bounds! Even just for this short period of time we have noticed a great improvement in her speaking skills. Not only that, she is doing so much more....setting the table, pouring drinks, cleaning up and pulling faces to name just a few!!
She uses English and Japanese at home, sometimes saying a word in both languages to express herself. Often she says, 'Come on, oide' or 'Look! Mite!' I have a feeling that she is starting to realize that there are two different languages in her world now, and that she has started to use English more with me now.
However her dominant language seems to be Japanese, as all her play friends are Japanese along with daddy, her teachers and baby sitter. Mummy has to try, try, try to keep her own language in English, but after being in Japan for so long, I often use both.
And so that's why she mixes up her sentences in English and Japanese. I'm sure it will sort itself out once we move to the UK. Then we hope she won't forget her Japanese!

What is your Mother Tongue?

Just the other day I had lunch with a group of Japanese friends and their kids. My daughter was running around screaming laughing and generally having fun with everyone. Her Japanese is great I thought. It seems to be her dominant language these days. Funny how 'mother tongue' is used to refer to our native language. The language from our mother. But right now, my little girl speaks more Japanese than English, which is my mother tongue. Japanese is the language of the country she lives in. So it doesn't go to say that your children will speak their mummy's language when living in another country. Is that why we don't hear the expession mother tongue so much these days? The power of friends and community seems to be stronger than that of mummy when it comes to language learning!! Oh and I must not forget the power of daddy too!!!