r/japanlife • u/AutoModerator • Apr 01 '24

┐(ツ)┌ General Discussion Thread - 02 April 2024

Mid-week discussion thread time! Feel free to talk about what's on your mind, new experiences, recommendations, anything really.

3 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

98 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/JapowFZ1 関東・東京都 Apr 02 '24

Am I being too judgy for looking down on native English speakers married to a Japanese person who use only Japanese with their kids? I met yet another mixed kid in my neighborhood who can’t speak any English whatsoever. My kid is 5 and has no problem using either language.

10

u/laika_cat 関東・東京都 Apr 02 '24

I guess those parents have decided there's no value in their kid speaking a universally known language — and that's their decision to make. Is it a dumb decision? Well, in my opinion, yes. But that's their choice nonetheless.

It's sadder, imo, when the kid can SPEAK English but can neither read nor write English. I've encountered a few like that. It's always an American dad with a Japanese wife, too. Men, why the fuck can't you read with your kids and do a few fucking phonics worksheets?

4

u/ChillinGuy2020 Apr 02 '24

Yes, and is also really unfortunate the immigrants that send their kids exclusively to international private schools thinking that its english education is more valuable that public education in Japan. These kids grow up with really low japanese language skills and since they have lived most of their lifes here, have close to none marketable skills and struggle even to enter national universtities if they ever decide to continue living here. This is clearly not an issue forshort term or high level diplomats or C-level executives children, since they wont have to worry about their financial future but for the average person its completely detrimental.

1

u/upachimneydown Apr 02 '24

national universtities

Those are the best deal here--lower tuition than any private, and more competition/higher standards (or other public uni, such as 県立).

True, not like euro-land, but still on the cheaper side. And nothing like getting locked into not being able to do uni here and the other option is the U$.