[mesmark]

Quote Whistleblower

Anyhow, my son, who is both Korean and English, has had no trouble being excepted in society. He has started Kindgarten and is the most popular kid in school. Any strangers that see my son are naturally curious as well.

I live out further into the 'country' where foreigners are present but Japanese-America kids are still few in number. My children are all pretty popular and I'm sure they face racism troubles but it's how they deal with it that counts. I think it's more in their favor that they are unique.

I worry that my kids won't speak English enough (to the point that I might be an English Nazi) but they'll be fine. They speak English, just fine for now. If nec. I'll send them to America for a few months in summer or something and let them spend time with their family there. - - It will all work out in the end.

There are a lot of cultural difficulties to face and a foreign school system is hard to understand. I struggle with my kids starting in ti all the time. However, if you look at Korean adults or Japanese adults they are wonderful people. The schools system for all it's perceived flaws isn't doing that bad of a job

[susan53]

I'm in Italy and have a 13 year old son, and when he was small I shared your worries about his English. I've always spoken English to him when we're alone, but the family language is Italian and he went to Italian nursery school. He was a late talker anyway (didn't really start till he was 3) and at 5 was speaking only Italian, though he understood me with no problems. So we did decide to send him to an International School. You're right, they're hideously expensive, and it's meant sacrificing other things (and there's no way we could have done it with more than one child) but from the language point of view it's worked and he's now bilingual. He moves to High School this year, and has decided he wants to move into the Italian system, but has agreed to do a bit of home-schooling with me in addition, just to keep his academic English up to the level where he'll have the choice between Italy and Britain (or wherever) for University. It's worked out well.

Quote mesmark

I live out further into the 'country' where foreigners are present

An aside - I once spent some time in a very small Japanese village in the country where not only was I the only foreigner, but I was also the first "live" foreigner the kids had ever come across. Every time I went for a walk they'd follow me - at a slight distance - and after ten minutes I'd have this line of Japanese kids trailing behind me. I felt like the Pied Piper ...