Programming The Child

I desperately want my child to be bilingual. Before young SoulBaby ever grew in my womb, I had grandiose ideas of how I would train my future baby to speak Japanese. Having spent one year of university studying abroad and several additional years of training in the language, I always thought I would pass this knowledge on to any offspring.

Now it has been nearly 10 years since I have lived in Japan and nearly 4 now since my last visit. However, I still have the very basic conversational stylings of the Japanese I once knew - I can discuss the finer points of various electronics in Akihabara with the overenthusiastic sales clerks, order delicious food with ease, and ask directions, as well as understand the answers.

Now that my son has passed five months old, he is recognizing some small nuances of speech like the inflection of a question and the certainty of an answer. I, however, am finding that as his interest in language grows, my vocabulary lacks. It has been so long since I have stretched my mind to Japanese mode where I can output words with ease and state my thoughts succinctly. I confuse simple tenses, forget basic vocabulary, and have incoherent words fall right out of my mouth as simple as the babble and drool falls from SoulBaby's.

My current strategy has me continuously writing down the missing words from my vocabulary to look up later in the day when I have a few extra minutes. Hopefully by the time that he is ready to start talking back I will have regained some of my past linguistic glory.

I am also thinking that as he gets older I should supplement his learning with some Japanese Language videos, flashcards and other learning tools. I have read a lot of mixed reviews about these products. Most state that a lot of the products are next to worthless as they only teach vocabulary and not the actual communication of a foreign language.

I figure that with one semi-competent Japanese speaker in the house, these supplemental tools are just what I need to help my son learn. Where the videos leaves off with vocabulary and word use, I can pick up with reaffirmation and familiarity.

For now I am learning Japanese nursery rhymes and they have been received with much glee by a constantly smiling face. If anyone is interesting in teaching some different songs to their children check out Mama Lisa’s Blog filled with lyrics and MP3s of great songs for children from around the globe.