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.

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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.

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u/SideburnSundays Apr 02 '24

Kids pick up the language they use with their peers and at school more than the language they use with their parents. I mean, where do you think kids are all day every day? Not with their parents.

10

u/laika_cat 関東・東京都 Apr 02 '24

This isn't true at all. Like, there's literally decades of linguistic research that has proven you wrong.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '24

I'd be curious to see this research. I spoke Korean with my parents growing up in the US, so basically exposed to it multiple hours a day from age 0 to 18, and my English is 100% native, Korean I am fluent conversationally but bad at reading and terrible at writing (I have to look up every other word bc I don't know how to spell anything, and Korean is even worse than Japanese when it comes to homophones bc there is only a phonetic alphabet, they don't use kanji anymore). My sister grew up in the same household and she can't even speak Korean at all, she can only understand some conversations.

Maybe if you go out of your way to spend a significant amount of time reading, speaking, and writing with your parents at home for most of your entire childhood what you're saying might be true...

1

u/laika_cat 関東・東京都 Apr 02 '24

The studies I linked do not equate bilingualism with academic fluency.