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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My sister is an expat in Japan (teacher and mother) and of the kids she knows with a Japanese mother and a foreign father, NONE speak any English. If the mother is the English speaker the kids are fluent with no accent. This is extremely common.

[Anonymous]

Your kids will adapt. Bethesda or Rockville is best while being reasonably close to the Saturday Japanese school program where they will easily make lots of friends. Easy access to metro stations. If cost is an issue check out Rockville town center. Be prepared that America is quite a bit more expensive than Japan. (I lived in Japan for 3 years and recently went back this summer to visit in-laws.)

[Anonymous]

OP- not sure if you are still on here but a few things…

1) full trains will never be as full as Japanese trains where they pack you in. During super busy times, you’ll have to stand and people will be close to you, but not pressed up against you.

2) the people on DCUM are mostly middle to upper middle to rich people. So they are able to live closer to where they work. But most people would say anything less than 1 hour is a good commute around here. Most people want it to be 30-45 mins (door to door) but only a very lucky few have less than 30 mins. And there are plenty of people who have 90-120 min commutes. But they usually are taking a commuter van/bus.

3) don’t worry too much about crime. Yes, there is more crime here than Japan. But in the suburbs, most crime is property crime like breaking into cars. If you see violence on the news, it’s either between people who know each other or in known bad neighborhoods.

4) You might be able to get better first hand information from Japanese people who have lived here awhile. Maybe call Blue Ocean in Fairfax (most authentic Japanese restaurant in northern Virginia) or Hana Market and see if anyone would be willing to talk to you. (Ikyuo Tanabe from Hana lives in Northern Virginia and has had grandkids in the Fairfax County schools.

https://www.blueoceanizakaya.com/

https://jaswdc.org/hana-market/

[Anonymous]

OP the answer is they’ll do just fine. Do you realize how many immigrant kids come to the US without knowing English? And they learn. I know this because my mom is an ESL teacher at a school. And within one year or two they are totally fluent. Many of her students have graduated and gone off to top colleges.

So relax. Kids are sponges and they will be fine.

[WillardD]

Anonymous wrote:Your kids will adapt. Bethesda or Rockville is best while being reasonably close to the Saturday Japanese school program where they will easily make lots of friends. Easy access to metro stations. If cost is an issue check out Rockville town center. Be prepared that America is quite a bit more expensive than Japan. (I lived in Japan for 3 years and recently went back this summer to visit in-laws.)

Thank you for the advice. I will checkout the areas you suggested. Yes I am surprised how expensive it is, even compared to Japan!

[WillardD]

Anonymous wrote:OP- not sure if you are still on here but a few things…

1) full trains will never be as full as Japanese trains where they pack you in. During super busy times, you’ll have to stand and people will be close to you, but not pressed up against you.

2) the people on DCUM are mostly middle to upper middle to rich people. So they are able to live closer to where they work. But most people would say anything less than 1 hour is a good commute around here. Most people want it to be 30-45 mins (door to door) but only a very lucky few have less than 30 mins. And there are plenty of people who have 90-120 min commutes. But they usually are taking a commuter van/bus.

3) don’t worry too much about crime. Yes, there is more crime here than Japan. But in the suburbs, most crime is property crime like breaking into cars. If you see violence on the news, it’s either between people who know each other or in known bad neighborhoods.

4) You might be able to get better first hand information from Japanese people who have lived here awhile. Maybe call Blue Ocean in Fairfax (most authentic Japanese restaurant in northern Virginia) or Hana Market and see if anyone would be willing to talk to you. (Ikyuo Tanabe from Hana lives in Northern Virginia and has had grandkids in the Fairfax County schools.

https://www.blueoceanizakaya.com/

https://jaswdc.org/hana-market/

Thank you for your answers that are direct to the point and very helpful. Thank you also for the info on Japanese groceries and resto info. These look great. I keep hearing about the "sizable" Japanese community in Bethesda but would there be similar areas in NOVA? Being near some groceries like Hana Market would be very very helpful.

[WillardD]

Anonymous wrote:OP the answer is they’ll do just fine. Do you realize how many immigrant kids come to the US without knowing English? And they learn. I know this because my mom is an ESL teacher at a school. And within one year or two they are totally fluent. Many of her students have graduated and gone off to top colleges.

So relax. Kids are sponges and they will be fine.

Thank you for the reassurance. That is good to know. I have middle schoolers so I am more worried for them than my elementary school kid.

[Anonymous]

Hi!

I know this thread is a little old but wanted to share.

I moved from Japan when I was 8, not speaking any English, not knowing ANY ‘American’ culture, to full blown English speaking school. My parents spoke zero English, and my dad was an expat. My older brothers were in middle school. And let me assure you, kids adapt incredibly fast and your kids will be just fine.

[Anonymous]

I would say dont worry about the minimal English because most American students don't speak any second language at all and their first language is so full of errors and illiteracy that it is difficult to understand in many schools. The big crime that I feel is most important that you hear on the news is the violence. It would be hard to adjust to the degraded American system. It might be shocking at first to see students verbally and physically assault teachers-im not sure if anyone ever gets past the chaos of it, just accustomed to the regularity of it.

[WillardD]

Anonymous wrote:Hi!

I know this thread is a little old but wanted to share.

I moved from Japan when I was 8, not speaking any English, not knowing ANY ‘American’ culture, to full blown English speaking school. My parents spoke zero English, and my dad was an expat. My older brothers were in middle school. And let me assure you, kids adapt incredibly fast and your kids will be just fine.

Hi! Thanks for your encouraging post. Do you think I can pm you? I'd like to ask some questions.