In a comment on my last blog post, Heather Broster suggested that I interview my kids about their experience growing up. I thought this was a great idea—I’ll make it a written interview—and so I’m now putting together a list of questions.
Would you like to ask them something about their bilingual upbringing?
My kids are now 21 and 18, and they’re both in college. They’re bilingual in Japanese (our majority language) and English (our minority language). They only attended Japanese schools, from preschool to high school, but they’re now studying in English programs at their universities here in Japan.
They’ve agreed to respond in writing to my questions during their summer vacation, which runs from late July to late September. I plan to give them this “homework” later this month, so if you’d like me to include a question in this list, please ask away! (I may not be able to include every question, though, and for that I apologize in advance.)
Feel free to ask questions about such things as…
*Their experience as younger kids
*Their experience as older kids
*Their positive, and less positive, memories
*Their father (!)
*Anything else you might be curious about
Please email your questions to me by July 20.
Thank you!
P.S. If you haven’t already seen it, I highly recommend the wonderful guest post that Heather wrote last year…
The Power of Plush: How Stuffed Toys Boost a Child’s Bilingual Ability
2 Responses
As a reading tutor, I’d love to hear anything they’d like to share about the differences between reading in Japanese and English. What do they think someone from Japan would have the most trouble with learning English, and vice versus (what would an English speaker have the most trouble with learning Japanese.)
Another question is what is their favorite idiom in either language.
Or, what’s the funniest false cognate they’ve heard between English and Japanese?
Gale, many thanks for these interesting questions! I can tell you, personally, that reading in English (with just 26 letters) is vastly more simple than reading in Japanese (with thousands of intricate characters). It’s been a long-running nightmare for me!