Hi everyone! I’m having a baby soon and being my usual worrywart self, I thought it’d be good to tackle the language issue before she’s here. Here’s our situation:– we live in Japan;
– I’m native bilingual Portuguese/English, can speak some Japanese and a bit of Spanish;
– the husband is native monolingual Japanese, can speak English okay, some Spanish and a little bit of Portuguese;
– we communicate mostly in English, with some Japanese and Portuguese (the latter to a much lesser extent) thrown in.
Right now what we’re planning on doing is having me speak only Portuguese to her, the husband only English (even though mine is better), using only English to communicate between us and leave Japanese to the in-laws and the general community. Does this sound like a good plan?
What I’m worried about is that she’ll eventually refuse to speak Portuguese and use English with me instead, or that she’ll refuse to use Portuguese and English and only speak to us in Japanese. Maybe it’s still too early to be thinking about it, but I’d like to be prepared if/when the time comes. Any suggestions on dealing with this sort of situation?
Your thoughts and suggestions are very much appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Rita
