Moving from Japan, kids speak minimal English. How will they cope?

[WillardD]

Anonymous wrote:Will you be able to send your children to international school upon your return to Japan? I couldn’t quite tell from your post whether you already live abroad, just not in an English-speaking country, but if you are not already abroad, please consider the effect that coming back to local Japanese middle and high school may have on your children. I ended up staying in the US, but I grew up around a lot of chu-zai families, not in a Japanese immersion school (not in the DC area). Even if they were only away for a few years, most of the kids were bullied, some quite badly, after they got back to Japan. The exception seems to be the ones who went to international school.

Subject-readiness at their grade level may also present a problem once they’re back in Japan. If you do not do Japanese school, may I suggest looking into mail-order courses such as Benesse? They are designed to keep kids living abroad on pace with the curriculum back home.

Regarding the DC area specifically, the Japanese language immersion programs at Great Falls and Fox Mill are part of the Fairfax County Public School system, and therefore free and accessible if you live in Fairfax County. Elementary in Fairfax County is K-6, which I know was one of your concerns upthread. But in terms of an actual Japanese community, there seems to be more of that in Bethesda and Rockville in Maryland. I don’t see too many Japanese in McLean or Great Falls, even though they’re frequently mentioned on message boards like KaigaiLink. In Northern Virginia I have seen some moms of younger babies out at playgrounds and cafes during the day in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington. Clarendon is walkable and very accessible to DC by Metro. However, it is in Arlington County, not Fairfax County, and does not have a Japanese language program in its public school system.

I hope this is even a little bit helpful. I will say that this area is fairly polite, and has a fairly large population of East Asian people, so yes there will be culture shock, but it won’t be nearly as bad as other parts of the US. Good luck with your decision!

Thank you so much for this. We currently live in Japan and kids go to public school. Yes, planning for a return to Japan is indeed another concern for us. It's crazy that we have to plan ahead for something that far but our current choices will indeed affect that. If they were away for just a few years (say 3-4) wouldn't they still retain their old ways and blend right in when they get back in a regular Japanese school? I'd prefer that they have the option to pick, and not be forced into international school, but being away also deprives them of the competitiveness to pass the local HS exams for the good schools. I heard the weekend Japanese schools (or perhaps Bennese) only prepares them for the curriculum when they return, but not the juku kind for the entrance exams.

I am assuming you are Japanese that moved to the US when you were young? Would you mind sharing your experience and how you felt just so I can know what to expect and what to prepare my kids for?

[WillardD]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you live near Fox Mill and are commuting into DC, the commute is going to be an unpleasant one. This is somewhat mediated by there being Silver Line train stations pretty close to FMES, ~15 minutes away during rush hour, I believe.

The Herndon station is 5 minutes from the school, maybe 10 if you hit every light wrong. There is a lot of parking at the Metro stop as well. The Wiehle station is about 15 minutes away but there are now two stops between Fox Mill and Wiehle. If your job is near one of the Orange line stations it is a pretty easy trip in because Silver shares the line with Orange.

There are a large number of child care options that pick up at Fox Mill ES so finding child care is not a problem.

Thank you. I see a lot of posts online about the long commute, but most were before the station got constructed. Can't really find info now, or if google estimates are accurate. Thank you for the info about child care. I was almost ready to give up on the area because a friend told me that that there are times where school is dismissed early, or there may be other reasons where you have to come get them before work ends, so working an hour away may not be a good idea. My work is indeed near the Orange (and Red) line.

[Anonymous]

WillardD wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you live near Fox Mill and are commuting into DC, the commute is going to be an unpleasant one. This is somewhat mediated by there being Silver Line train stations pretty close to FMES, ~15 minutes away during rush hour, I believe.

The Herndon station is 5 minutes from the school, maybe 10 if you hit every light wrong. There is a lot of parking at the Metro stop as well. The Wiehle station is about 15 minutes away but there are now two stops between Fox Mill and Wiehle. If your job is near one of the Orange line stations it is a pretty easy trip in because Silver shares the line with Orange.

There are a large number of child care options that pick up at Fox Mill ES so finding child care is not a problem.

Thank you. I see a lot of posts online about the long commute, but most were before the station got constructed. Can't really find info now, or if google estimates are accurate. Thank you for the info about child care. I was almost ready to give up on the area because a friend told me that that there are times where school is dismissed early, or there may be other reasons where you have to come get them before work ends, so working an hour away may not be a good idea. My work is indeed near the Orange (and Red) line.

https://www.wmata.com/

The link would take you to the WMATA page. You can use the trip planner to see what a trip might look like from any Metro station. I ran a route from Herndon Metro to Foggy Bottom at 7 AM and it projects 41 minutes on the Metro. Toss in time driving to the station and the commute to your building and call it an hour. That doesn’t strike me as awful, especially since you can read or relax on the train. You should be able to get a seat on the way to work because you will be closer to the start of the line.

There are also busses that you can take non-stop from the Pentagon to Herndon or the 5A which runs from Rosslyn Metro to Dulles with a stop at one of the Metro stops, it used to be Herndon but I am not sure if it moved to Weihle. I say this because there are back ups in case of Metro weirdness.

[Anonymous]

WillardD wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you live near Fox Mill and are commuting into DC, the commute is going to be an unpleasant one. This is somewhat mediated by there being Silver Line train stations pretty close to FMES, ~15 minutes away during rush hour, I believe.

The Herndon station is 5 minutes from the school, maybe 10 if you hit every light wrong. There is a lot of parking at the Metro stop as well. The Wiehle station is about 15 minutes away but there are now two stops between Fox Mill and Wiehle. If your job is near one of the Orange line stations it is a pretty easy trip in because Silver shares the line with Orange.

There are a large number of child care options that pick up at Fox Mill ES so finding child care is not a problem.

Thank you. I see a lot of posts online about the long commute, but most were before the station got constructed. Can't really find info now, or if google estimates are accurate. Thank you for the info about child care. I was almost ready to give up on the area because a friend told me that that there are times where school is dismissed early, or there may be other reasons where you have to come get them before work ends, so working an hour away may not be a good idea. My work is indeed near the Orange (and Red) line.

On child care, there is child care on site but it is hard to get into, there is a long wait list. But there are options with transportation, like the Y, several Tae Kwan Do (sp) schools, Kinder Care, and other options. The school has a list that they give to parents. There is a Facebook page for parents living in the area where people can help if you need ideas for camps and other issues associated with early release and school activities.

The Fox Mill community is small. We have a lot of walkers. It is a great little community. Kids who are on grade level or advanced tend to do well at the school. I know that there are some parents of kids with SPED needs, like dyslexia, who have not had much good to say about the SPED services at the school. It sounds like the same types of issues that kids with dyslexia and other LDs and ADHD have had across the County, lack of SPED teachers and the like. It sucks but it is a reality many people are dealing with.

We are in JI at Fox Mill and love it. The Teachers have been great and the program offers a different type of challenge for our kid. DC is a normal kid, no SPED needs, and no real struggles with learning, it has been a great fit for us. I am not going to pretend that DC is fluent in Japanese or is going to be fluent in Japanese but they have learned the alphabets and some grasping of Japanese. We are hopeful that it is a good head start on learning Japanese in MS and into HS. I know that there are kids from Fox Mill that have used the language in College and as a part of a job. There are parents who went through the program are sending their kids through the program. The Japanese Teachers are all fluent and there is an Aide who moves among the different grade levels. I know that they all support kids who are fluent in Japanese but not English. We don’t know those kids so I can’t talk to their experiences.

[WillardD]

Anonymous wrote:

WillardD wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you live near Fox Mill and are commuting into DC, the commute is going to be an unpleasant one. This is somewhat mediated by there being Silver Line train stations pretty close to FMES, ~15 minutes away during rush hour, I believe.

The Herndon station is 5 minutes from the school, maybe 10 if you hit every light wrong. There is a lot of parking at the Metro stop as well. The Wiehle station is about 15 minutes away but there are now two stops between Fox Mill and Wiehle. If your job is near one of the Orange line stations it is a pretty easy trip in because Silver shares the line with Orange.

There are a large number of child care options that pick up at Fox Mill ES so finding child care is not a problem.

Thank you. I see a lot of posts online about the long commute, but most were before the station got constructed. Can't really find info now, or if google estimates are accurate. Thank you for the info about child care. I was almost ready to give up on the area because a friend told me that that there are times where school is dismissed early, or there may be other reasons where you have to come get them before work ends, so working an hour away may not be a good idea. My work is indeed near the Orange (and Red) line.

https://www.wmata.com/

The link would take you to the WMATA page. You can use the trip planner to see what a trip might look like from any Metro station. I ran a route from Herndon Metro to Foggy Bottom at 7 AM and it projects 41 minutes on the Metro. Toss in time driving to the station and the commute to your building and call it an hour. That doesn’t strike me as awful, especially since you can read or relax on the train. You should be able to get a seat on the way to work because you will be closer to the start of the line.

There are also busses that you can take non-stop from the Pentagon to Herndon or the 5A which runs from Rosslyn Metro to Dulles with a stop at one of the Metro stops, it used to be Herndon but I am not sure if it moved to Weihle. I say this because there are back ups in case of Metro weirdness.

Thank you so much. Would you say an hour commute is an outlier or par for the course in the region and are the trains comfortable or crowded during rush hour?

[Anonymous]

One suggestion, if you decide to make the move. You can now buy handheld translation devices that can operate on-line or off-line. The translation capabilities are better when on-line (because of a larger dictionary available). You might want to get each of your children one. While they will learn English relatively quickly, it will make the transition easier for them if they have a way to communicate and help ease the transition to learning a second language. Plus, it will help in emergencies or when communicating in a timely fashion is important. Sometimes foreign language students can get into trouble when their language skills are not up to the situations that they find themselves in.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

WillardD wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move to downtown Bethesda. Plenty of apartment buildings there and coming from Japan, that will be familiar to you as will the ability to get around without owning a car or having to learn how to drive (on the other side of the road too!). Make sure the apartment is zoned for Bethesda elementary. Lots and and lots of Japanese expats live in that area so their kids go to Bethesda ES. It will help both them and you with assimilation. It's a public school so it's free, and the school is very well equipped to handle such students.

https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/bethesdaes/

This is wonderful information. I will certainly check these out. Although I must admit that Bethesda (based on my early research) seems to be a very expensive place to live in. But not having to own a car is certainly one big plus factor for Japanese residents indeed!

By the way it seems the elementary school only goes until Grade 5? So that means my kids might have to go to Middle School already. Would what you said still hold true for the middle schools in the area? I checked them out and surprised how large the boundaries are for middle school. I'm used to the walkable distances in Japan.

In Montgomery County, I think all elementary schools stop at 5th grade. Then middle school is 6-8, and high school is 9-12. I don't remember which middle school you end up with for Bethesda ES. It used to be a split between BCC and Pyle, but this may have changed with the addition of North Bethesda. Bus service will be provided for your children for free.

Elementary stats at kindergarten, which means the child is 5 by September 1, so 1st grade would be kids who have turned 6 by September 1, and so on.

Bethesda is a nice part of the area, so it's not going to be cheap, but there are some lower-priced apartments near Battery Lane. You can live there without a car. I'd strongly suggest this option -- it's a school with many Japanese expats as part of the community, and it's one of the few places that is sort of walkable.

[Anonymous]

WillardD wrote:
Thank you so much. Would you say an hour commute is an outlier or par for the course in the region and are the trains comfortable or crowded during rush hour?

An hour commute is a bit long, but many people do it. I used to do an hour door-to-door, including catching a bus to the metro, taking the metro, then walking a few blocks to my office. The trains are generally comfortable and not too crowded. Lots of people work from home now so ridership is down quite a bit, and there is talk of maknig trains run less often to save money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

WillardD wrote:
Thank you so much. Would you say an hour commute is an outlier or par for the course in the region and are the trains comfortable or crowded during rush hour?

An hour commute is a bit long, but many people do it. I used to do an hour door-to-door, including catching a bus to the metro, taking the metro, then walking a few blocks to my office. The trains are generally comfortable and not too crowded. Lots of people work from home now so ridership is down quite a bit, and there is talk of maknig trains run less often to save money.

I have co-workers who live in Front Royal and West Virginia that commute to the NoVA region for work. 90 minute to 2 hour commutes are not unusual in this area. I would not want an hour commute to my job but if it meant sending my kids to schools that have language supports and a community that can actively engage my child, I would do it. Japanese is not as common a language in the area and settling my kids into a community where there are others who speak that language and are from Japan would be important to me.

I don’t know Bethesda or the Great Falls Japanese community, I am white and can only report on what I see at Fox Mill. There is a Japanese Cultural Committee at the school that runs events for all the kids at Fox Mill and meets pretty regularly. I know that there and Japanese playdates set up by the JCC, especially when new kids from Japan join the community. I would bet that the families there know more about preparing for the tests in Japanese schools when you return. Maybe contact the school and ask for the contact information for the JCC and see if you can speak to someone directly? They might be able to provide more information than I can.

https://www.foxmillpta.com/fox-prints-blog/category/JCC

The link above takes you to the JCC meeting list in Fox Mill PTAs newsletter. If you open it you will find an email that you can try.

I only lived abroad for 6 months in college and that was intimidating. I hope you are able to get the info you need to make the move more confidently and have a great experience in the US.

[Anonymous]

A bit late but why are you, a multilingual world traveler, raising foreign children in Japan and not teaching them English. Did you not think about your children’s future at all?

[Anonymous]

Are they ethnically Japanese, white, black, etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A bit late but why are you, a multilingual world traveler, raising foreign children in Japan and not teaching them English. Did you not think about your children’s future at all?

+1

As an American who has lived in Japan, this is crazy to me. It's OP's own fault if their kids have any difficulty fitting in

[Anonymous]

WillardD wrote:Hi, new here and this forum is very helpful.

I am based in Japan, just got a job offer in DC (Foggy Bottom). I've never lived in the US. My kids (elementary and middle school) speak minimal English, worried if I move them to an area school.

They are hardly the star pupils learning in their home tongue, so I am worried what kind of hardship they will encounter when I move them. It seems public schools have more support for non-English learners so at least there is that , but quite anxious. I also found out about elementary and middle schools with Japanese immersion programs where maths and science are taught in Japanese (Great Falls and Herndon area) so that seems to be a very good option, however these seem to be fairly outside of a reasonable work commuting distance to DC.

Anyone here with the same experience or know kids in similar situations? Is the distance to the Japanese immersion schools worth it?

Go to Great Falls, no doubt about it. It's not just the language problem, but the crime and the general "culture" in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A bit late but why are you, a multilingual world traveler, raising foreign children in Japan and not teaching them English. Did you not think about your children’s future at all?

What an arrogant comment.

[Anonymous]

The crime and violence among the American your has some if the highest incidence rates in the world. In the beltway area it is among the highest in America. You are in a crazy area. Hope your kids know martial arts bc there are alit of gangster bullies.