Penny's Japanese

Penny read me a Japanese book today in her version of Japanese, gibberish. It was amusing and reminded me of the Penny language issue. Minkz and I often discuss how much she is absorbing at this age and how it would be great if she could speak a second language. A lot of people are surprised that we are not teaching Penny a second language, even though both of us speak a second language. There are many reasons that we have ended up not teaching her Japanese.

-Learning Japanese and going to Japanese school was an extremely difficult and, at times, a traumatic experience for me. I can't say that I am not grateful for knowing Japanese now, but I also think that it came at a cost. In order to learn the language fluently, a level of discipline is involved that I am not prepared to enforce with Penny.

-An essential part in the process of learning Japanese in the U.S. was that I spoke only Japanese with my mom. Minkz and I speak English with each other and Penny and I speak English with each other, which is most natural. If I were to try to speak Japanese with Penny, it would be very forced and unnatural for me. My vocabulary is more limited in Japanese, so I wouldn't speak as much and I wouldn't explain everything to her, like I do now. This would limit her understanding of the world, and she would sense the tension/discomfort and associate it with the language.

-We have taught her numbers in other languages, we have Japanese books that I read to her in Japanese, and she is exposed to Japanese TV, games, and culture in other ways. She is aware of other languages; that is good enough for me. Although it may be hard for others to understand (including my husband), I am satisfied with my decision and I'm prepared to defend it when anyone (including Penny later) accuses me of not doing enough.

As for teaching her Vietnamese (or why he is not even though she is half Vietnamese), her dad will have to write a separate explanation about that.