Studies have shown that children lose their ability to become fully fluent in a second language - grammatically, conversationally correct with little accent - by age 10. And any adult who's tried to learn another language can tell you that doing so gets tougher as the years go on. So the earlier you can start to learn, the better!

 

The benefits of bilingualism (or multilingualism!) are well-known by this point: more empathy, increased learning ability, better job prospects. Every day at CareFinder we see firsthand the value of exposing young children to new languages and cultures and want to share with you our insights into learning languages while living abroad.

 

We've rounded some of them up and will continue to share information to help you raise bilingual children in Japan!

 

New to Japan with no language skills of your own? We have tips for helping your child as they learn Japanese here, even if your skills are limited.

 

From apps to board games to bilingual babysitters, there are tons of options for helping your children learn another language (or two) outside of a classroom.

 

Hear from two parents, Mark and Yuriko, who took unique approaches to raising their own kids to be bilingual in Japan.

 

Read this breakdown of the differences between learning a second language from a native versus a non-native speaker. There are surprising pros and cons to each!