This certainly won’t apply to all, and I know that all kids are different, but those that made the move with children around school age, how long untill your children were comfortable at school?
As in fitting in, making friends, speaking the language.
We have recently moved to Japan and our child has started primary school, First year.
She can understand Japanese to some extent, we have always spoke it at home. But since we were in Australia, our child mostly spoke english, especially once at school.
Since being here we have made life rather fun for her and the transition has been great, we are very proud of her for how well she has taken it all.
After a week or so at school, she says she wants to go back to her old school in Australia, mainly because of english and not having friends here at school, so she has understandably been a bit upset over this.
We know that everything will be fine in time, but hoping to hear others experiences with this and how they may have helped their children make this transition.
3 comments
Our situation was a little different but with some Japanese knowledge she should get used to Japanese at school after half a year/a year. You can help her with making friends – approach the parent and arrange after school dates. At first year it is still common (acceptable 😉 to meet together with the parents at a park.. after that school children would go on their own (if they have no younger siblings I guess).
What I have noticed, outside of making friends, is that the kids from abroad feel overwhelmed by the rules. If it’s public school? Kids feel as if they can’t do anything right, and it makes them feel ostracized. This is only multiplied if the teacher has never been abroad and only understands one set of rules for doing something. A well rounded teacher would find a student from abroad as a learning opportunity for the other students and build up your child’s confidence by letting them shine in front of others. Unfortunately, these homeroom teachers are hard to find. I think the biggest thing is to constantly praise your child and listen to them when they need to talk. It’s stressful for an adult to move and find their footing in a new place, just imagine what it’s like for a child.
We moved to Japan in 2020 with a 4 year old and it was rough for the first 6 months or so. Now almost 3 years later, it’s much better. Definitely give it time.
Some of the difficulty may be starting mid-year. In April, all the kids were new, had all the introductory stuff, all the parents went to school a few times, etc… so there was a lot of activities so kids meet and parents meet.
See if your neighborhood group has an elementary school kids group. Not all do, but we joined ours and out of 15 kids in our sub section of our neighborhood, 8 of them are part of it so my son already knew some kids since they do monthly events together.
Can you or your spouse walk with your child to school? Guarantee there are other parents walking with some kids, especially first graders. I see the same 5 or 6 parents every day on our walk to school.
Go to the park on the weekends and afternoons, kids will be there and you’ll start to make connections. Go to the local mall. We are always seeing classmates there.
Get your child doing after school activities. My son does soccer and swimming and is getting to know kids through that as well.
Talk to your neighbors. Be friendly. Even obachan may have grandkids who go to the same school.
Even as it is, my son who is at grade level for Japanese language only has 5 or 6 kids he is friends with and several of them were with him for 2 years at kinder. Two of his best friends don’t even go to his school but we make an effort to get together so they can play.