Job Discussion Forums

[Kowloon]

Sorry to read about your situation. Remember watching a doc in Korea about NETs who had children that couldn't speak English.

I think the 7 year old could still be helped. If you focused a lot of energy on their English now they might be able to get it up to a decent level by the time they hit high school. You'd be doing the kid a massive favour in later life also.

[MotherF]

I spent a short time in Japan, so I am aware that it is common for the mom to take control of child rearing and do it all--but it's taken you 'till your children are 7 and 10 to realize that they don't speak English?

I'm very optimistic about their ability to start speaking English, but you are going to have to take action. I'm 44 and have lived most of my adult life aboard so I've met quite a few multicultural families. There are a wide range of facebook groups, forums, blogs, and podcasts on the topic where you can find inspiration and things to do, so I'm just going to tell you about two young men I first met when they were 11 and 13. Like your children, their father was from a far off English speaking land and worked as an English teacher. Their mother was the local, a primary and a primary school teacher, but the difference was their father was also fluent in the local language. These boys understood English when spoken to them by native speakers, but preferred to respond in Spanish if possible. They had spent a few summers in their father's homeland, but not every year as teacher parents didn't make enough for the airfare half way around the world. This was pre-internet and pre-DVD, but they had cable and sometimes watched football in English with their dad. Their dad had a revolving door of Native Speaking Colleagues and they'd hear him speaking English to other native speakers. So like I said, at 11 and 13 I saw them understand English and respond appropriately in Spanish, but not speak English. Then a couple of years later their housing situation changed and a young Irish couple moved into the spare room of their house. This couple did not speak the boys native language and they boys and their father were forced to communicate in English. AND THEY DID. That couple lived with them for a year. By the end of the year the boys English was great but heavily accented. Then they had the opportunity to go to their dad's home country for 9 months. (I think they were now 14 and 16) They came back sounding like natives of that country. The younger returned to that country for uni and now you'd never know he hadn't spoken English at 11. The older stated in his birth country but worked as a hotel receptionist all through school and spoke English daily. His English is also excellent though his accent is neutral and sounds more like a highly fluent non-native than a native like his brother does.

it CAN be done--but it's not going to happen on it's own. My own Children ages 12, 12, and 6 are allowed to watch all the English TV they want, our home computers are formated in English, and we have tons of English children's books thanks to generous donations from relatives who retired from elementary school teaching when my oldest two were toddlers and gave me all their books.