LIVING IN JAPAN
American Kids Deal With Japan’s Rigid English Education
From assisting English teachers to enduring discrimination, the range of treatment was wide
Five of my children attended Japanese public schools. Naturally, each child was different and therefore experienced school in different ways, yet they were all faced with the same challenge of dealing with Japanese English classes.
English Education at Home
I knew that once my children started school, the Japanese language would overwhelm their minds. Wanting to give them a strong foundation in English before they entered that all-Japanese environment, I taught them reading, writing, science, and basic math at home. Although a few of my children hardly spoke any Japanese before entering first grade, within a year they were on par with their peers.
I knew that the struggle for me, as a mother, would be to keep their English level on the same level as their counterparts in the US. So throughout their school years, I continued their English schooling at home, with a focus on language arts, spelling, and reading comprehension.
This plan worked, but it was not without its challenges.
