Pros and cons of raising a family in Japan: Kids pick up languages easily…adults, not so much

Watching my kids learn Japanese over the years has been both amazing and slightly humbling. They absorb sounds, phrases, and social cues without overthinking it, and the language has become something they live in, not something they study. School, friends, and daily life do most of the heavy lifting.

For adults, or at least for me, it has been a different road to walk. You juggle work, parenting, and mental exhaustion, then try to squeeze language study into whatever energy you have left. My work environment is in English (even though we have Japanese staff), so it doesn't get much reinforcement there, and so progress feels slow at times. Even though my speaking, writing, and overall confidence with Japanese has come a huge way, there's often a gap between what I understand and what I can confidently say.

If you've ever watched the very popular U.S. sitcom Modern Family, you might remember a line from the character Gloria. She said something in an episode along the lines of "Do you know how frustrating it is to have to translate everything in my head before I say it? Do you even know how smart I am in Spanish?"

That sentiment always makes me laugh because it's how I feel when I speak Japanese. I just wish my mouth and my brain would work in unison more often ;)