Please read it in a normal speed, like you speak.
Thank you, in advance!
Today, I was thinking about whether it is possible to really become bilingual in Japan.
I have met and talked with some native English speakers who are married to Japanese people.
They live in Japan, and have children, and I have noticed that one thing that they are trying to do is to raise their children to be bilingual.
While their children are infants and staying at home with their parents, they seem to have promise as bilingual children. However, once they start to go to a kindergarten and have lots of opportunities to play with other children, things do not go their parents' way.
No matter how hard their parents try to talk to them in English, they prefer to speak Japanese. Those children understand the English their parents use, but they tend to respond to their parents in Japanese. Obvisouly, it is much easier for them to speak Japanese because they are with Japanese people in Japan most of the time!
They also don't like to be different from their friends, and don't like to use a different language.
I wonder if there are bilingual children who are raised in Japan with parents from different countries here?
ummm...
Ringo, Bilingualism is a great thing, but only when there's a real need for it. For example if the half of Japan population would speak English as everyday language, then there'd be a need. If not. Things aren't used everyday (because of a real necessity) will fade away from memory, and child definitely won't be happy to answer in some useless (from his/her point of view) language. Sad but true. Most of the people in the country I live in are bilingual,Ukrainian/Russian. Because there's a real need for these languages in everyday life. But those parents that want to rise trilingual children often don't get the desired results, because there's no real need for English in everyday life. There aren't any TV shows or programmes in English on the Ukrainian channels. Yes, the English language is very important in business, but I have never heard someone (native Ukrainian) at the bus stop (for example) speaking English on a daily basis conversation. They would use either Ukrainian or Russian.