Raising a bilingual child part II

A couple of things to add to the earlier post. When Ebi-kun was a baby I bought the book Raising A Child To Be Bilingual by Steven Verrier, unlike many of the books on the subject this is Stevens account of his family and the decisions and choices they made to raise their children. I agree with much that he has to say on the matter, although we don't have the same opportunities as his family we are headed down a similar path. The book ends when their eldest son is about seven or eight, I would like to read a follow up to see if all the hard work paid off. The other good thing about this book is that it is bilingual English/Japanese so it is great for those who have Japanese partners whose English isn't so good or that need persuading that it is an important step for our children.

I also forgot to mention that I wrote a rather candid piece about raising a bilingual child on Glottogon's blog, you can have a read over here.

And finally, this video has been doing the rounds in the 'wives married to Japanese men' circles, it is really funny and really sad at the same time, we have yet to encounter problems at school, I am bracing myself having taught JH and HS teachers here. I should explain that the Japanese school system for teaching English is all inside out and back to front, there is a big emphasis on teaching writing, reading and grammar and little emphasis on speaking and listening - communicating in fact!

This is a daft comedy show and looks pretty old but hits home all the same.