New Challenge of My Eldest Daughter
I wrote about my children who were learning English with texts before.
However, it wasn’t easy to learn texts by themselves and I don’t have enough time to teach them
and my pronunciation isn’t native.
Since I’m taking online lessons, my eldest daughter, who is eight years old, is trying to take an online English lesson specialized for kids for the first time. She is learning alphabets and English songs. I hope that she’ll like English.
English teacher who are all Filipinos are very friendly and have been trained how to teach and treat children. It’s a good system.
If she will be able to speak English well (next year?), could you introduce your children to her as her friends?
PS: Most children in Japan start to learn English around 10 years old in an elementary school.This article describes public school English in Japan very well.The private Enlgish lessons in Japan are expensive and you usually take them at once per week.
my boys don’t talk much, but they would be delighted to be friends with your daughter!
Thank you so much. Please wait till she can speak English. Maybe less than a year.
Good luck to your daughter! I know a couple of Filipino teachers, actually. One is a friend of mine who was a coworker. Good people and good teachers.
My daughter is too young to speak yet, unfortunately.
Thanks. I see. I think that Filipino is friendly and kind.
Kids can take this lesson from three years old. It’s interesting.
3 years old? Wow! I guess kids may be interested because they’re using a computer to do it. I find 3 year old kids some of the more difficult to teach
Yes, I can’t believe that my youngest daughter, who is four years old, takes some lessons.
Here is a link of the English lesson.
http://www.hatchlinkjr.com/
I think it’s great that they’re learning this young. Children do pick up languages easily. My daughter is only 2 1/2 so she’s probably not a good fit for now… she’s still learning and while she can say some things very clearly, she has trouble with some words and longer sentences. Maybe when her speech gets a little better she can talk to your younger daughter?
Thank you so much. That’s a great idea. My eldest daughter is 8. So she doesn’t feel scary to your daughter.
I hope she has fun with her lessons
I hope so. Thank you so much.
What fun! May I suggest finding her a penfriend and they can write to each other in English?
That’s also great idea. My daughter already has one penfriend thanks to this blog.
However, she writes a letter in Japanese and I translate it. She’ll write a letter in English in the future.
Sorry, no young children in our family. I loved traditional nursery rhymes when I was growing up and they could help. I found this, which I like if you look at the top there is a button you can click to get to 34 other rhymes I hope she likes and learns from them
Oh, that’s an interesting rhymes and cute animes. I’ll let my children watch them.
They’ll enjoy them a lot. Thanks much.
What a wonderful setup you have provided your eldest with here to learn English! Great head start she is getting! I know my about-to-be five-year-old granddaughter would LOVE to talk with her! As I think I have stated before here, my granddaughter was born in Seoul and lived there the first two years of her life. She also has her first storybook colleciton in Korean!
Thank you so much. 5 year old is good for my children. (My eldest daughter is 8 and youngest is 4.) It’s a great experience that children talk with various children, I think.
It’s good to start learning a new language at a young age. Wonderful that you have encouraged this with your children. I admire people who are fluent in multiple languages.
I also admire the people. Children can learn a lot while adults learn slowly.
It’s great that your daughter started to learn English, good luck to her! Please encourage her to speak as much as possible, even if she makes mistakes at the beginning, she should learn the courage to talk and will be able to communicate later! *^o^*
Thank you. I think so. The courage is more important than knowledge. So enjoying to learn English is important.
What a great idea! Sorry my children have all grown up.
Thanks a lot. It’s okay if your grandchildren will grow.
Children learn very quickly at that age. You are a great parent to take responsibility in teaching your children early about many things.
Thank you so much. I also enjoy how my children will grow and know various things.
日本だとなかなか英語を話す機会がないよね。新しい言語を勉強する時は、たくさん聞いて、たくさん話すと上達が早いから！私も日本語を勉強した時は間違ってもとにかくいっぱい話したよ。後、人の話しを聞いて、言葉の使い方を真似するとか。娘に、頑張ってと言ってね！
ありがとうございます。確かに、そうですね。とにかく、話す経験を積むことが近道ですね。子どもにもよく言っておきます。
I see this every day at the university where I teach: the students passed the English component of an exceptionally difficult entrance exam, but very few of them can actually speak it. Those who can all did LOTS of extra study, took extra conversation classes or, alternatively, lived overseas for a few years.
The younger a child, the less concerned she is about making mistakes while speaking. That’s why it’s better to start as soon as possible. The biggest challenge for any English learner in Japan is that speaking opportunities remain limited. It requires real effort, so hats off to you and your daughters!
Thank you so much. I understood what you mean well because I was one of the students. So I have been learning English again from last year.
There are many chances to learn English thanks to blog, SNS, online lessons and others.
I didn’t know what “hats off to” means. There is similar words in Japanese. 「あなたには脱帽です。」
Wow! I’m sure she’s having fun. English has always been my favorite subject. I mostly teach adults but I also teach kids once in a while. I’ve been out of work for a while to focus on our business but it makes me miss teaching! In fact, I’m going to my previous work on Monday to see if I could teach part time!
Thanks a lot. You must be a great teacher. I hope that you’ll have a job related to an English teacher.
you are a good teacher for sure!
P.S.:
I like the sepia version of this shot!
Thanks! and your guitar is always great.
My granddaughter Anna is 8, going into 3rd grade. She turns 9 in October.
Sounds like interesting lessons.
Oh, my eldest daughter is also 8 and 3rd grade. My daughter need to learn English mush more for talking with your granddaughter.
Learning a language can be a lot of fun and it is best to start as young as possible. Online lessons look like a fun modern way to learn a language. Good luck to your daughter and yourself as well.
Thank you. I think so. I wish that I was able to take the lesson when I was a child.
I would say, before next year your daughter will speak well English! Young children learn thing so fast! ;D
Thanks. I hope so. It’s my pleasure if my daughter and I talk in English.
To speak a language well, I believe that practise works best. Hope your daughter gets to practise. Don’t worry about making mistakes. It’s part of learning process.
I agree with you. It’s important to speak and mistake a lot.
I am sure by next year your daughter is going to learn English. Good Luck to her.
Thanks much. I hope so. It’s important to keep it up, I think.
It’s never too early to learn a second language! i wish your daughter much success.
I think so. Thanks! I’ll help my daughter as much as possible.
Nice sharing…
I believe.. your daughter will be able to speak English well next year.
Many thanks! Glad to hear that. It’s a nice start.
I don’t have children, but if I did, I would be happy to introduce them to your daughter – I have no doubt she will be speaking English by then! I have to say, for languages that seem so different I have always been so terribly impressed by how well you speak English – SO impressive! Unfortunately I don’t speak Japanese (I would love to learn but I think it would be incredibly difficult for me – I can be a slow learner at times). If I could speak Japanese only a fraction as well as you speak English I would be absolutely thrilled!
Thank you! Language is a great tool to communicate with other people. So I would like to improve our language skill as much as possible. I hope that you’ll learn Japanese.
You already know the secret, courage is more important than knowledge — so you can encourage your daughter, and she will learn!
I agree with you completely. If she speaks a lot, she’ll not fail to learn language.
I am sure she will do fine! May i also suggest english music. If she likes listening to music, songs in english will help her get used to the language!
Thanks. Yes, my daughter likes music and practices to play a piano. She’ll like English songs.
Maybe one day your daughter will be a tour guide for many foreign visitors to Kawagoe.
Thanks much. I hope so. It’s very interesting if they will grow tour guide.
My nephew is in China, teaching conversational English to 3 and 4 years old. They don’t learn to read or write it, just listen and talk to him. My husband and I were both high school English teachers, and our grandchildren are 7 and 9; we’d all be glad to communicate with your daughter.
That’s really nice and we’re lucky to know you. If we have questions about learning English, we may ask you. Looking forward to communicating with you.
English is an amazing language that is far more complicated that it seems to those of us who speak it without thinking about it.
Just consider the complexities that go into it. Many thousands of words derived from ony 26 letters and approximately only 40 different sounds when you account for dual vowel sounds and consonant blends. Add words from other languages from all around the world, especially Latin, French, German and Hebrew and there you have English. It should come as no suprise why mastering it is trickier that it seems.
I see. Thanks for sharing. Firstly, we need to learn about basic words such as I, He, banana, apple and others.
So far, she’s enjoying to learn English.