Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
The case of the child ending up monolingual Japanese is a very very easy one to explain - most time spent with Japanese speaking mother from birth. Limited exposure to English, with the more proficient language still being usable during the encounters with English. Language limited to Japanese outside the home... That puts maybe 5% of language exposure in English.
Not a whole lot to work with and not a whole lot of incentive to learn it.
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In my case, I would say my son has spent more time with me, and I am a thorough communicator and love to talk.
English definitely came first for our son, although possibly that also had something to do with being smothered by English communication, with very limited Japanese, except from his Mother during the earlier stages.
As far as percentage goes, or even thinking about it, we have not, and it certainly is working naturally, at least for our son.
Infact, his talking now is unstoppable and he is loving it.
Like I said, he is distinguishing between the two languages between his Mum and I, and doing a mighty fine job of it.
I also know plenty of mixed Japanese kids in my location, and outside is English, that is the majority of the time, and no doubt home with Mum is some Japanese, although English still comes into the communication.
I think where you live could have a bearing on what language is mainly used.
I think the best part our of all this, is having children that are able to speak two languages
