The Prosser Family We are a family of four. Our oldest son, Kenny, was born January of 1993 and our second son, Andy, was born August of 1994. Our household languages are Japanese and English. We have a rather unique situation in that I am teaching my non-native language to the children (Japanese) and my husband is speaking only the majority language. We live in California, USA. I am of mixed racial background (Japanese and English), born in the United States. I grew up hearing both languages and had some receptive bilingual ability, but was monolingual in American English as far as speaking. I began studying the Japanese language in college and received a minor in Japanese. I then spent some time traveling and visiting relatives in Japan. I stopped studying and speaking the Japanese language for nearly six years except for some correspondence and another trip to Japan. When I became pregnant with my first son, I began to think about teaching him Japanese. I thought it would be a wonderful gift to my child for him to be able to just speak without having to worry about verb tenses, or searching for the correct word like I often do. I didn't have much confidence though and so I asked several of my friends whom are school teachers what would happen if I spoke to my child in Japanese and they said that since I am a non-native speaker and my husband is monolingual in the majority language, he would probably just learn some numbers, colors and names of animals. That came as a big disappointment for me but still, from a cultural standpoint it was still a benefit so I decided to go ahead and try. Another benefit would be that I could learn new words as well and learn to express myself in new ways that I hadn't previously explored. When Kenny was born I wasn't accustomed to speaking Japanese at all. It felt strange to speak to my newborn baby in Japanese but everything was new and strange (and wonderful) anyway so I just kept it up. I began to realize at that point what tremendous gaps I had in my Japanese speaking ability. I didn't even know how to say "baby bottle" or "diaper"! I began leaving pieces of scratch paper and pencils all over the house to jot down words I needed to look up later in the dictionary, or to ask my mother over the telephone. Over the next few months, my Japanese vocabulary grew and my ability to speak improved greatly. Now, four years later, it feels strange to speak English to him. When my son turned four months old, I returned to work full time. He was in the care of an English speaking only nanny. I quit my job and stayed home with my children after the birth of my second son, Andy. Kenny was then only 18 months old. Between 18 months and two years is when Kenny's speaking ability really exploded. I am so thankful that I was home then to be his major language influence. I don't really know what would've happened if I had continued working but I can say that I probably wouldn't nearly have the success that I do now. Between one year and 18 months, Kenny only had a handful of words, most of which were English. At age two, he was speaking in sentences in Japanese. What an incredible difference! My recommendation to others is to try to get a babysitter or childcare provider who speaks the minority language if possible if you cannot stay at home yourself. We adhere to the One-Parent-One-Language (OPOL) rule. I speak only in Japanese to the kids and my husband speaks only in English. The most difficult thing for me to overcome is the problem of speaking a minority language in public. I realize that it can seem exclusive and rude to others and I am sensitive to that. However, I have been very consistent and usually explain to friends and relatives ( or passers by) that I am speaking another language to the kids and excuse ourselves. Generally, people are supportive. So far, the kids have not objected either but they are still young (ages 4 ¸ and almost 3). The other difficulty is having to explain and translate to my spouse. He is wonderfully understanding and supportive but he stills misunderstands what we (the kids and I) are discussing sometimes, or gets frustrated if he has to wait to find out what I am telling them. It is tiring at best. I have been very committed to my decision to raise my children in a bilingual environment. It has not come easily. I have provided them with a rich linguistic environment. They have Japanese language books, videos, games, music tapes, and Japanese babysitters when available. I also keep up my own studies in Japanese, constantly looking up new words, memorizing kanji (the Chinese characters that the Japanese written language uses), and even taking private lessons occasionally. I have found that the amount of time I spend talking and playing with my children is directly proportional to the amount of Japanese they speak. I cannot imagine what will happen once they are school age. I am sure it will be a terrific challenge. Besides providing a variety of Japanese language media items and babysitters, I have actively searched for Japanese speaking friends for myself and playmates for the kids. This was difficult at first, I attended various multi-ethnic events in the community, museums or art exhibits, anything to expose the children to their cultural heritage. After meeting a few friends, we formed a weekly playgroup that meets at a park. Also, I try to be as consistent as possible with sticking to the OPOL method. Often, when tired or angry, I find it easy to just yell out "stop it!", or something like that, but I always stop myself and say it in Japanese. Consistency is not always necessary I hear, many families switch back and forth, but I find it necessary for our family. I feel that this is especially true since there is only one bilingual parent. One problem that I encounter often is the children talking to me or answering me in English. I used to do what they ask but reply in Japanese. This made it easy for them to be lazy and just speak English. After all, they were getting what they wanted, so why work for it? I quickly realized the danger in this and began to insist on the correct language. If they ask me for juice, I just pretend that I cannot hear. Or, I may ask them to repeat themselves until they get tired and ask properly in Japanese. One of my friends thought I was being mean to the children when I told her this. However, I find it no different than insisting on politeness. I won't get them juice if they yell at me, "JUICE!!". I ask them to say "juice please" before I comply. Forcing children to speak a language by begging, pleading, or insisting nearly never works. However, setting ground rules and sticking to them does. I hope that by writing this I have been a source of encouragement to someone considering or in the process of raising children to become bilingual or multilingual. The bilingual-family mailing list has certainly done that for me. I cannot imagine ever regretting the effort put into raising the kids with two languages. Currently, they are both bilingual and I consider this to be a terrific asset. I highly recommend the book by George Saunders, "Bilingual Children:from birth to teens" (IBSN 1 85358 009 6) . Also, "A Parent's and Teacher's Guide to Bilingualism" by Colin Baker was a good source of information. Both of these books helped me gain confidence that I could do it, especially Saunders' book since he is a non-native speaker teaching his children a minority language as well.