Language of the house

Recently Yoshie introduced me to a blog she's been reading called ジャパメリカンズ(Japamericans), which is authored and illustrated by a Japanese Tokyoite currently living in Colorado with her husband and kids.

It's always interesting to me to hear or read about children from multi-lingual households and how they grow up learning language. One of my best friends is from a Dominican family. His parents raised their first two kids by speaking Spanish to them at home, and they learned English at school. In my friend's case, for some reason I guess his English was a little slow to catch, so they got scared and started using English at home. As a result, his Spanish is pretty stunted.

I think about this and wonder...if I were to get married to a Japanese woman (say Yoshie) and settle down in the US and raise a family...would we speak Japanese at home? I find myself with somewhat mixed feelings.

On one hand, I'd like to be able to speak to my children in my native tongue. I'd have to improve my Japanese a lot to be able to convey everything I might want to say to them.

On the other, growing up bilingual would be such an advantage, and they kids would definitely be able to learn English at school. If my Japanese were inadequate, they could always speak it with Mommy while I crawled by with whatever fit at the moment. Although the idea of an exclusively Japanese household is a little daunting to me, that wouldn't necessarily be the case...especially when the kids would get older.

Plus I'm picky about living in America and raising my kids in accordance with my faith...so I guess language is somewhere that I should be willing to give ground.

Do any of you have thoughts on this? What's the best way to raise children to speak more than one language? I'm especially interested in hearing from parents current or future, or those who may come from or be close to multilingual families.

Denizens of Japan #4: Kodomo (Children)

(Photo by Gobbler)

One indisputable fact about Japanese people is that they have cute kids (子供). They may have the same capacity for mischief as Western kids; they may have the same potential to be annoying at times and throw tantrums when it suits them. But it all falls to the roadside as quickly as a spent cigarette butt flicked out of a car window. Most of the time, especially when you're just an observer, they're friggin adorable.

One behavior I've noticed about Japanese children that enhances their cuteness is a byproduct of their culture. Bullying (いじめ) is another byproduct. In early school life (and perhaps with groups of children outside of school), teachers and other adults don't interfere much with the interaction of young children. There are classroom rules, of course, but it's up to the children to enforce them and bring each other to task. As a result, many young children appear relatively responsible, and you'll often see older children taking care of younger children.

My sister has vocalized her (wish?/prediction?) that I one day sire an Asian baby. While I'm not going to make that a priority in what I'm looking for in a woman ("Ability to produce Asian offspring? Check"), I wouldn't be opposed to the prospect. I mean...look at how precious that girl in the kimono is, for crying out loud. I've almost got it all worked out:

1. Father half-breed Asian baby.

2.

3. Profit.