It’s a joy to 
see a baby grow up learning how to communicate, picking up new languages and understanding communication. Many people often ask me whether my baby would grow up as a bilingual baby since Tomomi, my wife speaks to Haruka in Japanese and I would speak to her in English. Actually, such communication patterns aren’t so different from many other families where they have a maid or baby sitter who speaks in a different language from the language spoken by the parents. If an Indonesian maid speaks in Bahasa, the baby knows how to communicate in Bahasa with the maid, while communicating in the mother tongue with the parents. I reflect on my own language learning experience in learning Japanese and questions what is key in mastering languages. Just last week, I smiled when I was watching a Japanese movie that I could understand some of the Japanese conversations even without looking at the English subtitles half of the time. The key is to satisfy our human need to understand and not feel overwhelmed with a new language. There is certainly a need to memorize vocabulary and grammar patterns. Though, successful learning always means we do not 
overwhelm ourselves and get discouraged, but we progressively understand step by step so that we are interested to learn more. Same goes with communicating with your baby. Do not attempt to use difficult vocabulary unless the baby can understand half of it. Most of the time, you need to accompany communication with lots of body language, sound effects, smiles, enthusiasm and speaking slowly. Then, communication and learning the language becomes fun when the baby plays a part in the communication and understands as well as is understood, at least half of the time.
see a baby grow up learning how to communicate, picking up new languages and understanding communication. Many people often ask me whether my baby would grow up as a bilingual baby since Tomomi, my wife speaks to Haruka in Japanese and I would speak to her in English. Actually, such communication patterns aren’t so different from many other families where they have a maid or baby sitter who speaks in a different language from the language spoken by the parents. If an Indonesian maid speaks in Bahasa, the baby knows how to communicate in Bahasa with the maid, while communicating in the mother tongue with the parents. I reflect on my own language learning experience in learning Japanese and questions what is key in mastering languages. Just last week, I smiled when I was watching a Japanese movie that I could understand some of the Japanese conversations even without looking at the English subtitles half of the time. The key is to satisfy our human need to understand and not feel overwhelmed with a new language. There is certainly a need to memorize vocabulary and grammar patterns. Though, successful learning always means we do not 
overwhelm ourselves and get discouraged, but we progressively understand step by step so that we are interested to learn more. Same goes with communicating with your baby. Do not attempt to use difficult vocabulary unless the baby can understand half of it. Most of the time, you need to accompany communication with lots of body language, sound effects, smiles, enthusiasm and speaking slowly. Then, communication and learning the language becomes fun when the baby plays a part in the communication and understands as well as is understood, at least half of the time.
Th
e first stage of communication is to use natural sounds that the baby can remember distinctly. Before 1 year old, when the baby is not moving about, the baby has always been observing the environment, the noises, sounds, tones and even common words. So, when a distinct sound is heard such as the sound of a dog barking, a cat purring or a bird chipping, it amuses the baby. To teach language, to the baby, we can of course overwhelm the baby with a sentence like “Oh Haruka, can you hear the dog barking?”. The baby has no clue what any of those words mean and thus is frustrated at how to learn the alien language that adults speak. Instead, we can say “bow wow dog” imitating the sound of the dog. After 1 year old, the baby can even repeat after you and say “Dog” whenever she sees a dog. Now, if mummy says “bow wow inu-san” (Japanese for dog), Haruka would try to make associations such that she knows dog is inu-san. It helps when daddy and mummy sometimes say “dog inu-san” at the same time. For instance, Haruka is excited everytime she sees flowers and say hana (Japanese for flower), probably because mummy likes flowers and mentions that to 
Haruka frequently. I would then nod and say Hana flower when she says hana. After a while, Haruka understands the association and wants to impress me by saying hana flower or even just flower whenever she sees a flower because she knows flower is the word I prefer using. When that happens, it is time for Haruka to learn more vocabulary. So I would say, wow so many flowers by counting the flowers or by sweeping my hands across the large area of flowers. Sometimes, I would also speak in Japanese after speaking in English, in case Haruka remembers any phrases in Japanese that her mother spoke to her before so that she would understand what I am trying to communicate to her. Interestingly, Haruka is always listening closely to conversations between me and Tomomi. Her attention would be drawn to words they have heard before such as their own names and other words they hear always. All babies do, so be careful when you are raising your voice to someone else, or swearing when you are watching television. Speaking 2 languages do not necessarily confuse the baby. In fact, it could possibly reinforce memory to allow associations. If the child would need to learn a whole new language later through a teacher and not through a parent/maid/friend, it would take extra efforts. What is important is not to overwhelm the baby with words and sentences that he/she cannot understand. Like all communication, listening and observations are key. Communicate and do not talk down to a baby by seeking to understand if you are understood. I am looking forward to Haruka learning some Cantonese as we move to Hong Kong soon. Can she learn to be a tr
ilingual?
e first stage of communication is to use natural sounds that the baby can remember distinctly. Before 1 year old, when the baby is not moving about, the baby has always been observing the environment, the noises, sounds, tones and even common words. So, when a distinct sound is heard such as the sound of a dog barking, a cat purring or a bird chipping, it amuses the baby. To teach language, to the baby, we can of course overwhelm the baby with a sentence like “Oh Haruka, can you hear the dog barking?”. The baby has no clue what any of those words mean and thus is frustrated at how to learn the alien language that adults speak. Instead, we can say “bow wow dog” imitating the sound of the dog. After 1 year old, the baby can even repeat after you and say “Dog” whenever she sees a dog. Now, if mummy says “bow wow inu-san” (Japanese for dog), Haruka would try to make associations such that she knows dog is inu-san. It helps when daddy and mummy sometimes say “dog inu-san” at the same time. For instance, Haruka is excited everytime she sees flowers and say hana (Japanese for flower), probably because mummy likes flowers and mentions that to 
Haruka frequently. I would then nod and say Hana flower when she says hana. After a while, Haruka understands the association and wants to impress me by saying hana flower or even just flower whenever she sees a flower because she knows flower is the word I prefer using. When that happens, it is time for Haruka to learn more vocabulary. So I would say, wow so many flowers by counting the flowers or by sweeping my hands across the large area of flowers. Sometimes, I would also speak in Japanese after speaking in English, in case Haruka remembers any phrases in Japanese that her mother spoke to her before so that she would understand what I am trying to communicate to her. Interestingly, Haruka is always listening closely to conversations between me and Tomomi. Her attention would be drawn to words they have heard before such as their own names and other words they hear always. All babies do, so be careful when you are raising your voice to someone else, or swearing when you are watching television. Speaking 2 languages do not necessarily confuse the baby. In fact, it could possibly reinforce memory to allow associations. If the child would need to learn a whole new language later through a teacher and not through a parent/maid/friend, it would take extra efforts. What is important is not to overwhelm the baby with words and sentences that he/she cannot understand. Like all communication, listening and observations are key. Communicate and do not talk down to a baby by seeking to understand if you are understood. I am looking forward to Haruka learning some Cantonese as we move to Hong Kong soon. Can she learn to be a tr
ilingual?Most of the readers of my blog are at least bilinguals, even if you do not profess to speak a second language well. So have you taught your baby the second or third language? It does take some extra efforts to be a teacher, but encouraging learning at a young age yields Do share.
(Photos show Haruka's first snowman making experience and snow at Canary Wharf and Regent Park. It was the worst snowstorm in London since the past 18 years. It usually does not snow in London. Took daddy 2 hours to complete the large snowman alone, despite nags by mummy for not having dinner sooner, but it was also a first snowman making experience for daddy. There was not enough of snow in Tokyo to make such a tall snowman. Haruka recognizes yuki (Japanese) and snow and would shout with enthusiasm when she sees them.)
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