This is Taka actually sitting still (thanks to the thought of getting some candy) and where he got in trouble for laughing.
Monday, October 18, 2010
October, 19th 2010
On Sunday, Takafumi attended his undokai (athletic meeting) for the morning daycare he goes to twice a week. Recently he does not want to attend the daycare stating "Taka sick, Taka sleeping all day. Ringo no Ki no, Taka sleeping (snoring sounds included)." Nonetheless he went and participated in the Undokai.
So I would like to point out two cultural issues that I noticed. The first was something I really did not like because of my belief that children are creating their identities and should be allowed to express themselves as long as it does not hurt anyone else. All the children were sitting down on the benches watching while the father`s were participating in a game. One of the father`s did something that Takafumi thought was funny, so he laughed out loud. The teacher scolded him for laughing, and showed him how to clap instead. I understand that in Japan, you must be like everybody else in order to survive, and basically you have to throw away your own ability to think in order to survive here.....but one can not even laugh? I am sure the Japanese teachers would not agree with me, but I was proud when Takafumi again laughed outloud when he saw his own dad do something that Taka thought was funny. Go Taka! LoL!
Another culture issue to address about the Undokai. The daycare Taka attends is slightly religious based. Their our short prayers and some religious songs I believe. The main 2 owners have quite a bit of expeirence working at a Lutheran International School, and all the staff really have great talent. They are definately Japanese in their strict adherance to rules and 1 way to do things, but use many techniques/styles that resemble the Western way of educational thinking. The one point that amuses me most is their use of bribery. I think the only reason Taka was sitting still during all the waiting time at the undokai is because he was expecting to get candy. He always says "Taka eat the candy at Ringo no Ki." I too sometimes rarely use bribery, but try not to because I know it will bite me in the butt all too soon. (Taka already says "Let me see." if he asks for something and I say I do not have money. If I do not let him see, he goes into my purse to see for himself. He caught on to how money works really quickly.)
Speaking of bribery, let`s turn to the issue of potty training. I know several people who have done this and have seen this advice in books. What? You will get candy if you poop in the toilet. You will get a bike if you poop in the toilet. I do not think the Japanese use this technique. I think they just do it as a matter of fact. When you go poop in the toilet it feels better than the hoozy, squeezy, stinky poop in your diaper chafing your butt. I went with the matter of fact method in toilet training and it worked for us. I can only imagine how using bribery would have backfired for me in the toilet training process.
Now on to a new topic. This does not have as much to do with TAka`s bilingual/cultural upbringing as it has to do with my Japanese language and cultural learning/experiences. I do believe what happens to me/and my reactions greatly effects/affects Taka, so I will include some of my memoriable experiences. (First let me say, that I am greatly trying to become literate in Japanese not only for myself, but so that I never have to rely on Taka to translate/interpret for me. That is not his job. ) So on to the most recent JAPAN experience.
I took Taka to a Sports Center in order to go swimming. I forgot that we had to wear swimming caps and to take off my necklace. As we entered the pool, a lady staff came out to tell me of the rules. She gave a detailed explanation using normal Japanese all of which I understood, and started to turn to go buy the swimcaps. As I did that she throws in the cross the hands in the x (or no position) and says "no" (something you might do to a toddler or a person with a cognitive disability). So my question is...why did you bother to give the detailed explanation if you just assumed that I was not going to understand it and in order to help me you had to throw in the Insulting "no". Ugh! Spreading awareness of difference takes so much patience. I really wanted to throw a tantrum like a child since she felt she had to treat me like a child. Living in a foreign country makes you understand the plight of all foreigners living in a foreign country.
More adventures in Japan and raising a bilingual child (and self) next time....
So I would like to point out two cultural issues that I noticed. The first was something I really did not like because of my belief that children are creating their identities and should be allowed to express themselves as long as it does not hurt anyone else. All the children were sitting down on the benches watching while the father`s were participating in a game. One of the father`s did something that Takafumi thought was funny, so he laughed out loud. The teacher scolded him for laughing, and showed him how to clap instead. I understand that in Japan, you must be like everybody else in order to survive, and basically you have to throw away your own ability to think in order to survive here.....but one can not even laugh? I am sure the Japanese teachers would not agree with me, but I was proud when Takafumi again laughed outloud when he saw his own dad do something that Taka thought was funny. Go Taka! LoL!
Another culture issue to address about the Undokai. The daycare Taka attends is slightly religious based. Their our short prayers and some religious songs I believe. The main 2 owners have quite a bit of expeirence working at a Lutheran International School, and all the staff really have great talent. They are definately Japanese in their strict adherance to rules and 1 way to do things, but use many techniques/styles that resemble the Western way of educational thinking. The one point that amuses me most is their use of bribery. I think the only reason Taka was sitting still during all the waiting time at the undokai is because he was expecting to get candy. He always says "Taka eat the candy at Ringo no Ki." I too sometimes rarely use bribery, but try not to because I know it will bite me in the butt all too soon. (Taka already says "Let me see." if he asks for something and I say I do not have money. If I do not let him see, he goes into my purse to see for himself. He caught on to how money works really quickly.)
Speaking of bribery, let`s turn to the issue of potty training. I know several people who have done this and have seen this advice in books. What? You will get candy if you poop in the toilet. You will get a bike if you poop in the toilet. I do not think the Japanese use this technique. I think they just do it as a matter of fact. When you go poop in the toilet it feels better than the hoozy, squeezy, stinky poop in your diaper chafing your butt. I went with the matter of fact method in toilet training and it worked for us. I can only imagine how using bribery would have backfired for me in the toilet training process.
Now on to a new topic. This does not have as much to do with TAka`s bilingual/cultural upbringing as it has to do with my Japanese language and cultural learning/experiences. I do believe what happens to me/and my reactions greatly effects/affects Taka, so I will include some of my memoriable experiences. (First let me say, that I am greatly trying to become literate in Japanese not only for myself, but so that I never have to rely on Taka to translate/interpret for me. That is not his job. ) So on to the most recent JAPAN experience.
I took Taka to a Sports Center in order to go swimming. I forgot that we had to wear swimming caps and to take off my necklace. As we entered the pool, a lady staff came out to tell me of the rules. She gave a detailed explanation using normal Japanese all of which I understood, and started to turn to go buy the swimcaps. As I did that she throws in the cross the hands in the x (or no position) and says "no" (something you might do to a toddler or a person with a cognitive disability). So my question is...why did you bother to give the detailed explanation if you just assumed that I was not going to understand it and in order to help me you had to throw in the Insulting "no". Ugh! Spreading awareness of difference takes so much patience. I really wanted to throw a tantrum like a child since she felt she had to treat me like a child. Living in a foreign country makes you understand the plight of all foreigners living in a foreign country.
More adventures in Japan and raising a bilingual child (and self) next time....
Sunday, October 17, 2010
October, 18th 2010
Yesterday, there was an athletic meeting for Taka`s Ringo No Ki Daycare that he attends. A while back he had made a fan for the meeting and when he saw the fan he would say "undo kai" or so I thought. I am not sure if he heard and older child say this, was mistaken or playing with words, but last night he kept calling the undo kai the "unko kai" which basically means the "poop meeting". He sometimes plays with words and sounds between Japanese and English.
Flashbacks:
1. When he was just acquiring a few words he realized that the English word "car" and the sound "cah" and the Japanese word for mosquito "ka" all sounded simular so he would say all three quickly and laugh to himself.
2. One time he also realized that he could play with the sounds of the English word "bye bye" and the Japanese word "ba ba (his aunt)"so when his Aunt would leave for work he would go to the window and laugh and say "bye bye ba ba" "bye bye bab ba" repeatedly.
3. One time on a walk we stopped to talke to an elderly neighbor lady. Taka was trying to ring her bell on her bike (which he always did) this time when she said "cheen cheen" for the sound of the bike Taka got a very confused look on his face. I think he was trying to figure out why the grandma was talking about a penis "chin chin".
Starting back in September Taka started saying "daddy says...." and "mommy says....". Sometimes he makes mistakes and puts the English word in for daddy says but usually does not do the opposite for me. I wonder why? Now when he sees written Japanese he says "Japanese" and when I ask him to go get me a book, he usually brings back and English book. His dad does not like to read to him, so he only brings a simple machines book in Japanese to his dad. He is in the stage of pretending to be able to read.
A few days back Taka ate a persimmon "mmm, yummy" and now when he sees a persimmon he says "Taka eat persimmon.!"
I asked Taka his favorite color and he said "purple". Recently because of the Blues Clues DVD Shapes and colors...he always says "magenta", for some reason he likes that color. Sometimes he gets Magenta, pink and purple confused.
Recently he likes to use emotion words. When he is laughing at something funny he says "Taka happy" or "Taka funny" and when he is angry he says "Taka angry. Emma took toy. Taka bit Emma. Taka angry." He also uses "Taka hungry" and "Taka thirsty" "Taka drink the water." After seeing Elmo become scared because of a fire, he says "Taka scared" when he hears a siren.
He has been saying "fire engine" "ambulance" "airplane" "hikouki" since coming back from the states in July. He was saying "kyuukyuu sha" before we went to the states. His English and Japanese usuage skyrocketed after the trip to the US. Now that he can talk, he brings up quite a few memories from his trip to the states. When we go over bumps on the street to warn you to stop, he says "Uncle Ted bumpy too." Once he said "mama, Taka airplane to aunty`s." Last night he said "Uncle Nels" for the first time. "Uncle Nels drive lawnmower". It is interesting to see the associations he is developing and they usually recall the language/vocabulary that the event occurred in, but if they happened in Japan and he heard both English and Japanese while the event was happening...which (or both) word will come out when the memory is retrieved. (He said "Uncle Nels" when looking at a picture of a book with what looked like a lawnmower on the cover.)
Before we went to the states, he had a stressful life for quite a long time because of me being pregnant and sick and the death of the baby in February. Then in April his grandma was admitted to the hospital until her death while we were in the states on July 17th. Since we have come back from the states, Taka often says "baby died" "baby up in the sky". Once day when he was not feeling well and could not sleep he asked me "Mama? miki chan sick, miki chan died. Taka sick. Taka die? Just a few days ago he requested to play with his grandma. "Taka play with this grandma." He is only 2.7 months, but he has a lot of processing going on about the recent deaths surrounding him. (Our elderly neighbor whom we spent a lot of time talking to also passed away shortly after grandma, and when we pass her house he asks about her too.)
Currently Taka`s vocabulary is much more advanced in English which leads to a lot of frustrations when interacting in the strict "you must be like everyone else Japanese society". He does not see his dad enough to improve his Japanese enough. I am debating if I should send him more to Japanese preschool so that he will not stick out as much as a "sore thumb" as he already does just because of his looks and speaking English. He is clever and quick to pick up language but seems like he needs more exposure to his peers. I will watch closely for a while and then make a decision.
Flashbacks:
1. When he was just acquiring a few words he realized that the English word "car" and the sound "cah" and the Japanese word for mosquito "ka" all sounded simular so he would say all three quickly and laugh to himself.
2. One time he also realized that he could play with the sounds of the English word "bye bye" and the Japanese word "ba ba (his aunt)"so when his Aunt would leave for work he would go to the window and laugh and say "bye bye ba ba" "bye bye bab ba" repeatedly.
3. One time on a walk we stopped to talke to an elderly neighbor lady. Taka was trying to ring her bell on her bike (which he always did) this time when she said "cheen cheen" for the sound of the bike Taka got a very confused look on his face. I think he was trying to figure out why the grandma was talking about a penis "chin chin".
Starting back in September Taka started saying "daddy says...." and "mommy says....". Sometimes he makes mistakes and puts the English word in for daddy says but usually does not do the opposite for me. I wonder why? Now when he sees written Japanese he says "Japanese" and when I ask him to go get me a book, he usually brings back and English book. His dad does not like to read to him, so he only brings a simple machines book in Japanese to his dad. He is in the stage of pretending to be able to read.
A few days back Taka ate a persimmon "mmm, yummy" and now when he sees a persimmon he says "Taka eat persimmon.!"
I asked Taka his favorite color and he said "purple". Recently because of the Blues Clues DVD Shapes and colors...he always says "magenta", for some reason he likes that color. Sometimes he gets Magenta, pink and purple confused.
Recently he likes to use emotion words. When he is laughing at something funny he says "Taka happy" or "Taka funny" and when he is angry he says "Taka angry. Emma took toy. Taka bit Emma. Taka angry." He also uses "Taka hungry" and "Taka thirsty" "Taka drink the water." After seeing Elmo become scared because of a fire, he says "Taka scared" when he hears a siren.
He has been saying "fire engine" "ambulance" "airplane" "hikouki" since coming back from the states in July. He was saying "kyuukyuu sha" before we went to the states. His English and Japanese usuage skyrocketed after the trip to the US. Now that he can talk, he brings up quite a few memories from his trip to the states. When we go over bumps on the street to warn you to stop, he says "Uncle Ted bumpy too." Once he said "mama, Taka airplane to aunty`s." Last night he said "Uncle Nels" for the first time. "Uncle Nels drive lawnmower". It is interesting to see the associations he is developing and they usually recall the language/vocabulary that the event occurred in, but if they happened in Japan and he heard both English and Japanese while the event was happening...which (or both) word will come out when the memory is retrieved. (He said "Uncle Nels" when looking at a picture of a book with what looked like a lawnmower on the cover.)
Before we went to the states, he had a stressful life for quite a long time because of me being pregnant and sick and the death of the baby in February. Then in April his grandma was admitted to the hospital until her death while we were in the states on July 17th. Since we have come back from the states, Taka often says "baby died" "baby up in the sky". Once day when he was not feeling well and could not sleep he asked me "Mama? miki chan sick, miki chan died. Taka sick. Taka die? Just a few days ago he requested to play with his grandma. "Taka play with this grandma." He is only 2.7 months, but he has a lot of processing going on about the recent deaths surrounding him. (Our elderly neighbor whom we spent a lot of time talking to also passed away shortly after grandma, and when we pass her house he asks about her too.)
Currently Taka`s vocabulary is much more advanced in English which leads to a lot of frustrations when interacting in the strict "you must be like everyone else Japanese society". He does not see his dad enough to improve his Japanese enough. I am debating if I should send him more to Japanese preschool so that he will not stick out as much as a "sore thumb" as he already does just because of his looks and speaking English. He is clever and quick to pick up language but seems like he needs more exposure to his peers. I will watch closely for a while and then make a decision.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Summer Vacation in the USA 2010
Taka and I went to the USA from May 25th until July 21st of 2010. We first stayed with my sister Dawn in StevensPoint, WI, with her husband Ted and their two boys Henry (6) and Richard (4) until about the end of June. For 1 week Taka`s character changed, he did not know how to communicate with his cousins and other playmeates so he took to just watching and clingy to me for support. In about a week he learned the basics (manners, conversation starters, as well as ways to initiate play) of playing with English speaking children in Wisconsin. He develped a jealousy based relationship with his 4 year old cousin, as Taka wanted to be independent and Richard wanted to play the older brother role for once! Taka cried a lot in frustration when he could not communicate his desires and needs. He mostly needed to play with Richards electrical excavator, and usually bit, hit or kicked Richard instead of trying to use words (which were not yet in his developmental nor speaking vocabulary) like "let me play" or " can I play with it?" (Now at 2.7 years he can do that, well most of the time if he is well fed and well rested....tired and hungry is another story!) (Also, now Taka always is asking me what he can say in Japanese in certain situations, and listens (and repeats) my words like they are from God.)
Taka woke up now, so more reflection on his language development while in the states later....
Taka woke up now, so more reflection on his language development while in the states later....
Friday, October 15, 2010
Background Explanation
My name is Vicki and I am a 30-something mother married to a Japanese 50-something man and raising my 2 years and almost 7 month year old son here in the remote countryside of Japan. Of course, my goal for my son is to be bilingual with Japanese and English both his mother\father tongues(and if he choses so multi-lingual). I wanted to start this blog long before, but life circumstances and a bit of lazyness did not allow this to happen. To start I would like to put up a little background, so those who chose to follow this bilingual journey will know where it all started.
I first came to Japan in October of 2005 as a Japanese government teacher training scholarship recipient to research about learning disabilities in Japan. (I spoke no Japanese until coming to Japan. The program finished in March of 2007, I went home for a month and then came back to marry my now husband. We were married in the beginning of May and 1 month later I was pregnant with our first child, my son.
I knew before I was pregnant that if I was going to have children, I would natually teach them English. I hope also that my son will be interested in learning spanish and Chinese too in the future as I see that as a wonderful gift for his future prospects in life.
While I was pregnant I read story books aloud as well as books that I was reading, along with playing music to the womb via ear phones on my belly. During that time, my son would always move a lot when he heard music anywhere we were (he especially liked the rap music that played in random stores). His dad was practicing a piano song to play for a school ensemble and my son would always get excited in the womb when dad played piano. He still loves to move and groove to music to this day and is always begging to play piano with his dad.
Since my son was born, as I am pretty much the only English speaker around him, I have gone about each day in a running commentary of what I am doing, seeing, feeling, etc. Now that he can talk, I do not run my mouth as much, but still try to enhance is vocabulary. I guess I kind of talk to him like an adult. Especially now at about 2 and a half years old, because I am amazed at how big of words he can use. He seems to like sophistated sounding words like "Octagon" "mechanic" "thermometer" "electrician" and such.
When words started to form, he would usually use the English nouns and the Japanese grammar structure. For example he would say "hot da" for "it is hot". He started out saying hot, but then went to "ha sui" for the Japanese "atsui" then "ha tsui" and finally would only say atsui, but around the age of 2 years and 3 months he started to use both.
Around the age of 2 years and 5 months he started saying "daddy says .... and mommy says... I will look in my records in order to record in more detail his bilingual development.
As I am really stuck in the countryside and there are not really any English speaking children close by, I rely on myself and DVDs along with trips to the states for his English input. When Taka was 1 year and 3 months, I became pregnant and completely sick where I could not get up, so was kind of forced to have him watch DVDs all day....but through that his English developed greatly. He started out watching Elmo`s World from which he not only learned English but social skills. From Elmo he learned 3 word sentences like "open the door" and "close the door".
I believe that Japanese children begin to speak earlier than their American counterparts. (Many monolingual Japanese children start speaking 2-3 words at 1 and half years and fully speaking by 2 years whereas it seems American children tend to be about a half to 1 year behind that. I have no scientific evidence of that, just what I have observed. I think my son is late compared to Japanese children, but for a bilingual child a little early in his speaking ability. I wonder if it is because of the Japanese influence.
In October of 2008 when Taka was 6 months old, I took him to the states for 3 months. In May of 2010, when he was 2 years and 2 months I took him to the states again for 2 months. He was able to play with his cousins and interact with his grandparents. I will dedicate the next post to his most recent stay in the USA.
Right now, Taka is mostly watching "Blues Clues", "Elmos World", " Barney", "Go Diego Go", "Dora The Explorer", and "The Wiggles" for his English support. I will dedicate a future entry to record his learning from DVDs.
I first came to Japan in October of 2005 as a Japanese government teacher training scholarship recipient to research about learning disabilities in Japan. (I spoke no Japanese until coming to Japan. The program finished in March of 2007, I went home for a month and then came back to marry my now husband. We were married in the beginning of May and 1 month later I was pregnant with our first child, my son.
I knew before I was pregnant that if I was going to have children, I would natually teach them English. I hope also that my son will be interested in learning spanish and Chinese too in the future as I see that as a wonderful gift for his future prospects in life.
While I was pregnant I read story books aloud as well as books that I was reading, along with playing music to the womb via ear phones on my belly. During that time, my son would always move a lot when he heard music anywhere we were (he especially liked the rap music that played in random stores). His dad was practicing a piano song to play for a school ensemble and my son would always get excited in the womb when dad played piano. He still loves to move and groove to music to this day and is always begging to play piano with his dad.
Since my son was born, as I am pretty much the only English speaker around him, I have gone about each day in a running commentary of what I am doing, seeing, feeling, etc. Now that he can talk, I do not run my mouth as much, but still try to enhance is vocabulary. I guess I kind of talk to him like an adult. Especially now at about 2 and a half years old, because I am amazed at how big of words he can use. He seems to like sophistated sounding words like "Octagon" "mechanic" "thermometer" "electrician" and such.
When words started to form, he would usually use the English nouns and the Japanese grammar structure. For example he would say "hot da" for "it is hot". He started out saying hot, but then went to "ha sui" for the Japanese "atsui" then "ha tsui" and finally would only say atsui, but around the age of 2 years and 3 months he started to use both.
Around the age of 2 years and 5 months he started saying "daddy says .... and mommy says... I will look in my records in order to record in more detail his bilingual development.
As I am really stuck in the countryside and there are not really any English speaking children close by, I rely on myself and DVDs along with trips to the states for his English input. When Taka was 1 year and 3 months, I became pregnant and completely sick where I could not get up, so was kind of forced to have him watch DVDs all day....but through that his English developed greatly. He started out watching Elmo`s World from which he not only learned English but social skills. From Elmo he learned 3 word sentences like "open the door" and "close the door".
I believe that Japanese children begin to speak earlier than their American counterparts. (Many monolingual Japanese children start speaking 2-3 words at 1 and half years and fully speaking by 2 years whereas it seems American children tend to be about a half to 1 year behind that. I have no scientific evidence of that, just what I have observed. I think my son is late compared to Japanese children, but for a bilingual child a little early in his speaking ability. I wonder if it is because of the Japanese influence.
In October of 2008 when Taka was 6 months old, I took him to the states for 3 months. In May of 2010, when he was 2 years and 2 months I took him to the states again for 2 months. He was able to play with his cousins and interact with his grandparents. I will dedicate the next post to his most recent stay in the USA.
Right now, Taka is mostly watching "Blues Clues", "Elmos World", " Barney", "Go Diego Go", "Dora The Explorer", and "The Wiggles" for his English support. I will dedicate a future entry to record his learning from DVDs.
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