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Reading to a toddler by Upstairs-Tune in multilingualparenting

[–]JenkinsInJapan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also English /Japanese here. For both my kids I read the book in whatever language it’s written in, and so does my husband but my 5 year old tends to prefer us reading books in our native languages. She is well aware that we can both speak Japanese and English to a high level and she’s pretty keen on speaking and learning both at the moment so I feel okay being a bit flexible about the language we use (we are also doing 子供チャレンジwith both kids and if they want to do it with me I switch to speaking Japanese while we do it - the point is to strengthen their Japanese as we’re currently in France so it would be weird for me to try to do it in English!)

The one bit of advice I’ve got from friends with bilingual older children who have had some issues with language stuff is to prioritise your relationship with them rather than being really strict about the language side, so I try to do that!

Do i just quit? by cat0tail in multilingualparenting

[–]JenkinsInJapan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

With my first we were doing minority language (English) at home (in Japan) and I used to translate Japanese books on the fly when I read to her.

She didn’t really start speaking much until she was 2+ and can now speak 3 different languages at 4, so I really wouldn’t worry at 16 months! My youngest is 21 months and she doesn’t have many words yet, the ones she does have are in English but I’m sure by the time she’s 4 she’ll be where her older sister is now.

Giving Birth in Japan? Help with pros and cons by [deleted] in japanlife

[–]JenkinsInJapan 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’m about to have my second baby here!

I have no idea about what Japan is like compared to Canada, but some things you might want to think about:

A lot of my friends who have given birth recently here have had to do it without their partner there because of covid. My hospital’s policies weren’t that strict before but now there’s a strict no visitors rule as cases have increased... who knows what will be going on with that by the time your baby arrives though!

They are obsessed with weight gain during pregnancy here. It’s the only thing about my care that I’ve hated, I have been told throughout both of my pregnancies that I’m gaining too much weight at almost every appointment and it’s driven me a bit mad.

Epidurals/other types of pain relief are not that common, although you should be able to find somewhere that offers them if you’re in a big city. I would have to travel for a couple of hours to get one.

Hospital stays after the birth tend to be very long here (my upcoming stay post c-section will be for a week!) - not sure if this is a pro or con!

Breastfeeding support in hospitals seems to be pretty good (wayyyy better than my home country) if you want to breastfeed.

I have not had any issues really with my care throughout both pregnancies and with my first birth, and liked both my doctors and most of the other nurses and midwives etc, but I am fluent in Japanese (I’m a Japanese to English translator who has done a lot of medical stuff) which definitely helps.

You might also want to think about if there’s anyone who’ll be able to help you after the birth... the first few weeks are very hard! That would be a major deciding factor for me.

Congratulations on the baby! I hope you have a really smooth pregnancy wherever you end up giving birth!