Category: Lives

Acquiring a new language is no small feat. It is so challenging, in fact, that it is easy to get discouraged and give up. So what pushes us forward to learn a language, especially one as challenging as Japanese? Although it may seem obvious that it’s useful for us since we live in Japan, you can get by without knowing Japanese here (and a number of foreigners do just that). So why be motivated to learn it really well instead of just enough to get by? That’s what our new video is all about.

There is a huge advantage to being raised speaking a certain language, because that language will be as natural as a native language. But that also underscores the lengths one has to go for really good language acquisition. Children pick up whatever language they are immersed in. It doesn’t matter if that language is “hard” or “easy” to learn — they learn the language all the same. Nothing really substitutes for immersion in a language, especially at a young age.

I’m glad my children can grow up in an environment where they are schooled in one language (in our case Japanese) and at home learn another language (English). Both of these languages will act as springboards to great opportunities in the future, whether it means learning another language or simply by bridging the fluency gap.

While it takes work and focus, nothing can substitute for the extraordinary opportunities that come from learning another language. And I’ve often said that the broadening of one’s own perspective is one of the greatest benefits of learning another language.

If you’re interested in acquiring a language, I suggest you take a look at Rosetta Stone software which offers robust language learning programs in many different language (including Japanese, English and Portuguese to name a few). They are offering a special deal for Life in Japan viewers and they offer reasonable monthly plans or a lifetime access for $199. That’s a great deal for learning languages — we pay nearly $600 a month for Ruth to do full-time language school, and that’s only for one month (not lifetime)! While they sponsored us to share about it on our YouTube and Instagram, we are not sponsored to share it here (nor do we receive a commission if you decide to go with them for language learning). Their software really is a great option to help you learn a language and get even more immersed in it!

So if you’re learning a language or interested in doing so, please check out the special deals with Rosetta Stone here: https://rosettastone.com/lifeinjapanyt. They have great plans that will get you going, whether you’re just beginning, you want to learn more or you want to become fluent.

We are so thankful for all the wonderful friends we’ve made through Life in Japan, and one of our biggest requests was for a video of our family speaking in only Japanese for a day. Could we do it or not?!

Well, we decided to give it a try, and what a day it was! There was more than one instance when I was wishing I knew how to express myself properly in Japanese. It was funny speaking and seeing the kids look expressionlessly back at me, obviously not understanding. Either I

1. Spoke it wrong, or
2. I spoke it right and they didn’t understand it, or
3. They’re pretending not to understand

It was an excellent test of our ability in Japanese. Some things came easily. Other situations, like communicating with the kids, were a big stretch. Becca and Anna’s Japanese was great though, and I love hearing them speak in Japanese. Even Sarah’s understanding of Japanese is quite impressive. Joshua, on the other hand, is only beginning to understand Japanese, and often we had to talk to him in Japanese and quickly follow it with English.

The experiment was certainly worthwhile, and it’s something we want to do more times. It forces us outside of our comfortable “English” box to try to bridge the gap into Japanese. While Japanese is a complicated language to learn, the feeling of making strides in it and being able to express oneself in it is very rewarding. Here’s to more Japanese videos!!

When we first moved to Japan in 2014, everything was new and we had no idea what we were doing, especially when it came to the festivals!  Our twins Becca and Anna went into Japanese kindergarten and soon after came our first experience with Tanabata. Thankfully the other Japanese parents were extremely helpful in getting us oriented and we were soon pros at the whole thing.

Fast forward to 2020 and all three girls have danced in a number of Tanabata Festivals — but this year was a first for us as Joshua took his turn. Normally this festival is held in July, but due to Corona, they postponed it until September. We are very thankful that the school found a way to make it work — dividing the whole school into three different groups to limit the amount of people together at the same time.

Even though the festival felt very different, it was still great to see Joshua and his friends all dressed up in their yukatas, dancing together and having a great time.

Blending Cultures

When you move to a new country, cultures are going to blend. The extent to which that happens depends on you and what you want for your family and children. For us, we are embracing as much of Japanese culture as we can. There are so many wonderful parts and we don’t want to miss out. What we won’t do is compromise our beliefs — we won’t worship other gods or idols, but we certainly respect everyone else’s choice to do so. Our Heavenly Father gives us such a rich and rewarding life that we need not seek out some other source of blessing — He is more than enough! And we are super blessed to live and work in such a beautiful country with its amazing people.