my baby is international?

Question

my daughter is 10 months old, and she is starting to kinda repeat stuff. my wife wants her to learn japanese (she is japanese) but i am american so i want her to learn english also...but i feel like i am the only one who speaks english to her (we live in japan by the way), and i am at work alot..so i dont spend alot of time with her..and my wife doesnt really speak english to her when i am away..just japanese and all of her family doesnt speak english so they always speak japanese to her..i feel like she is only to know japanese...should i be paranoid about this?

Answer 1

Nothing to worry about let her learn both languages.
I grew up with two languages German and French and it didn't do me any bad.I would even say if a child grows up bilingual it increases the ability of learning other languages later on.

Answer 2

I would try to teach your daughter both languages at the same time, or possibly japanese first if she will be growing up there. literacy is important in japan. When I went to Japan I met an american man with a japanese wife who had 2 daughters of elementary age. He knew japanese very well, but not as well as his daughters. They were amazing and sounded just the same as the other japanese schoolchildren. Their english was only okay. They understood english just fine but their spoken english was a little off. They were way better at english than their japanese peers though. I think this might have been because the man knew so much japanese. He may have even spoken to his wife in japanese. They lived in a very small village in fukuoka where they had a tiny little school with only like... 7 students. The daughters were 2 of them.
Children pick up language very easily until the age of 9 or so, so this is the best time to be introducing languages to her, don't wait to teach her one or the other.

Answer 3

My neighbour is a chinese woman whose huband is japanese. They don't know each other's language so they speak french at home (we all live in France). She spends a lot of time at work too and had the same tears as you.
So she spoke chinese with his elder daughter every time she had a chance. The girl is turning 4 and seems to possess all 3 languages.
She read somewhere that babies in this situation can learn up to 6 languages. I'm not sure that's true but 2 or 3 seem to be OK.
My advice is to speak english every time she is with you and tro to spend a little more time with her. She will naturally learn english and start with two languages, a tremendous advantage in life.

Answer 4

My brother was in the same situation, he was working, his wife too, they were living and working in a third country and hired a nanny from there. The baby boy captured first the language of the nanny, and none of the parents. My brother speaks German, his wife Urdu and the nanny Turkish, my brother and his wife used English for to make themselves clear, a real weird mixture. Since my brother and his wife were very busy people in their jobs, coming home the baby slept, going to work, the baby slept and only the weekend was left, but not enough to teach the baby neither German nor Urdu. The hope, that the baby when growing up will learn any of their languages easier, did never come true. The bitter result was, that the boy spoke only Turkish, later English. He visited English schools and till now, he does not speak German or Urdu. The boy grown up now, experienced a lot of difficulties with his language problem. His nationality is Austrian, but he doesn't speak German, a big drawback. And now since he is busy with his studies ,doing them in English language, he has no time left to learn German.
I do understand your fears about languages and they are intitled. Since we experienced such a situation, i only can advice you to do whatever you can to teach your baby English and your wife too. If you intend to spend your life in Japan, so it is a less problem but as soon you go back to your home country, problems will start.

Answer 5

Basically children till 5-7 years of age are very fast learners (languages). U can teach her english too. Just talk to her in english regularly. She will soon pickup. Since u stay in Japan, learning japanese is also important. So do not discourage ur wife.

Answer 6

well,i had read an article from a book.That said little kids are better to learn or speak only one language when they growing.because languages are very complicate things and children might be mixed.There are many examples in our life...their parents are from different countries and they speak different languages,so,the childrens are both speak two languages from their parants when they grow up...but guess what ?at the final,children cannot really speak the langauges from their parents exactly.the pronounciation or the understanding are so badly...
Well,that what i mean.In my opinion,English are more useful for your child's future because everyone have to learn english when they are in school if they are not native english Speaker.
But if she will grow up in japan,i think you have to obey your wife...because we all don't wanna your daughter's languages skills get down.
What about English?
The better way is when your daughter can speak really japanese and know how to pronounce it ,like in 8 ,9 or 10 years old .Its the golden times to teach her English.
Thats what i think about it ...

Answer 7

I think it'd be good for your daughter to learn both languages. I'm not sure which language first, I guess Japanese since you all live in Japan. But she should definitely learn English too.

Answer 8

im japanese. living in the us now.
i speak only japanese to my kids at home.
my husband speaks only english to them.
our consent about our kids is their first language must be japanese.
we spoke only japanese when they were small. (they're still small lol.)
when they turned 4 we started to speak english and japanese.

your daughter is still 10 mo.
dont worry.
our kids doing great at school in the us.
i think you can speak japanese and english to her. but not much english yet. coz she's gonna confuse.
you can talk to your wife later like after 2 years.
your dauthter must speak english too. but not now.

Answer 9

Nothing to worry.Children are master linguists.Let her grow a bit and she can learn any language then.As A matter of fact,knowing one language before starting to learn another makes it faster due to mental attempt of auto comparison and translation.

Answer 10

maybe your baby can pick up both languages. try to spend more time with her if you can and when she is with you you try to get her to say english words. which should be a whole lot easier to learn.