NC86 wrote:
> etaka wrote:
> 
>> That's an interesting situation NC86's student is in, her parents have
>> letting her conversational Japanese slip that way. My kids can now have
>> spontaneous simple arguments with each other in English "It's mine!"
>> "No, it's mine!" but I don't see us not speaking to them in Japanese
>> soon. I doubt my wife will ever give up speaking Japanese as they grow
>> up.
> 
> 
> She said her father was korean, so that's why she said she moved there. 
> If I was the father in that situation I would have made sure she didn't 
> lose the Japanese language ability.
> 
> In fact I don't understand why so many international couples allow their 
> children to become mono-lingual. A half-Japanese friend of mine was 
> quite bitter that his mother never taught him Japanese; it was a 
> mono-lingual English household. He is trying to catch up now but will 
> never reach native level.
> 
It's interesting that you think it's a choice we have. Let's take a look 
at the challenges my wife and I face. Though we both speak Japanese, 
nobody else in our neighborhood, son's school, etc. do; add to that the 
very regular visits and devoted attention of my parents, something her 
parents in Japan cannot hope to do. My wife has friends that are 
Japanese, but most don't have children. There's a Japanese saturday 
school but it's about 45 minutes away and is only that one day a week; 
if we send him to that school we'll have to forgo many other activities, 
such as spontaneous weekend trips (very important, I believe, in healthy 
relationships), trips to my family (a 3-hour drive), sports, etc. There 
is no Japanese television around here, at least none that we can afford 
(which is another issue we have with the Saturday school). So my son is 
in a world where at best he would have four or five hours of structured 
Japanese input one day a week, plus whatever he picks up from our 
conversation, though as most children do, he's learned he doesn't have 
to speak Japanese to us, and unless you're a parent you probably won't 
understand how difficult it is to force him to converse to us in only 
that language.

I would say Michael has more or less the same problem, only in reverse.

Rarely are things as easy in reality as the appear on paper.

John W.