それでも、当然それと反比例するように、日本語力はスローダウン。この前、みきちゃんが、彼女の長男が何を言いたいのかよくわからなくて、思い切って英語で質問したら、流暢な英語で返されたという話をしていた。「うちは、まだ大丈夫よ～」と、私は笑ったが、いやいや、アラタが意味不明なことが多いのもそれ？と、はっとした。英語の方が楽なのかもしれないが、日本人ママとしてそれはあまり知りたくない。恐る恐る一度だけ試してみた。私の英語の問いかけに、アラタはよくわからない説明を日本語で繰り返すだけだった。まだママに英語で話す気はないようだが、タカラが英語話し出したら終わりだな。
現在の、日本語の維持は補習校のおかげ。毎日国語の本を一ページでも読むとか、漢字の練習をするとか、どうにかやっている。ただ、日本人学校の体験入学にあまり行きたくなさそう。タイラが引っ越してしまい、親しい日本人の友達がいなくなったのも原因かもしれないが、まだまだ先は長いから、ここでドロップアウトされても困る。ストレスにならない程度で何か作戦を考えないと。
アラタの心の変化も感じられる。少し前までは、自分は日本人だと言い張っていて、髪の色が茶色だとか、ダディに似てると言われることすらいやがっていたが、最近は英国籍を持っていることや、ニュージーランド人でもあることもポジティブに捉えている。学校でのオリンピックイベントでは、ニュージーランド人として参加すると言っている。今までは何があっても日本だったのだが・・・。
Arata is going to finish his year 2 at primary school. He has already been at SCIPS for 1.5 years and he has recently started to read more English books. He seems to be able to write essays without any problem, although he still has lots of spelling errors - this is quite common among native speakers at this age anyway. His spoken English is still a bit broken.
On contrary, his Japanese hasn't improved much. Miki told me when she found her son struggling to explain what happened at school, she asked him to talk to her in English. He then started to speak flawlessly in English. When I heard about this, I said, "My boys are still ok." But this made me realise that the reason I often don't understand what Arata is saying is from the same reason.
As a Japanese mum, it's not a very happy discovery of my child, and I rather feel scared to find it out. But I tried once, I asked Arata to explain to me in English when I couldn't get what he was trying to say. He replied in Japanese, just repeated his explanation in Japanese. Well, I feel a bit relieved to be honest. But once Takara starts to speak English at home, that's it. Everybody believes this will come soon.
Japanese Saturday school really helps to keep Arata's Japanese at the moment. He reads a Japanese story even just a page per day, or he practises Kanji for mini-test at the school. Small efforts really help him to keep his Japanese. But Arata doesn't feel like going to the Japanese school during SCIPS's summer holiday this year. Probably because Taira has moved out of here and he has no more close friends. But my goal is sending boys to Hoshuko till year 3 level at Japanese secondary, so it's too early to drop out. I have to come up with some non-stressful strategies.
Arata has also changed how to view himself. He used to say he was Japanese and never felt happy if he was told he looked like Jason, or he had brown hair. SCIPS is having an Olympic event soon, and Arata proudly announced us that he would represent New Zealand.... not Japan... any more...?
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