If your kids are growing up in Japan, Japanese school does a lot of the heavy lifting for their Japanese — but it does nothing for whatever language you speak at home, or for English if that's not your first language either. A lot of foreign families in Japan end up watching their kids' Japanese race ahead while their home language or English quietly falls behind. Here's a general look at why that happens and what options exist.
Why This Is a Real Issue for Foreign Families Specifically
Japanese public schools are, understandably, built around Japanese-language instruction. For a foreign family, that usually means:
- Your child's Japanese improves fast — often faster than yours — simply from immersion at school
- Whatever language you speak at home gets less daily reinforcement than Japanese does, and can start slipping, especially once your child starts responding to you in Japanese by default
- If you're planning a possible return to your home country, or just want your child to have real options later (studying abroad, an international career, extended family conversations), that home-language or English foundation matters — and it doesn't maintain itself passively
This isn't unique to any one nationality — it's just what happens when a child's main environment (school, friends, TV) runs almost entirely in one language.
What Families Usually Try
A few common approaches families in Japan use to keep a second (or third) language active:
- Home language rules — some households set "only [home language] at home" rules, though this gets harder to enforce as kids get older and more fluent in Japanese
- International schools or weekend schools — effective, but expensive and often limited to major cities
- Community language classes — some cities and community groups offer weekend classes, worth checking with your municipal international association if one exists in your area
- Online lessons — a lower-commitment way to get regular, structured practice in a second language without needing an international school nearby
Where Online English Lessons Fit In
For families where English (rather than, or in addition to, your home language) is the priority — either because it's genuinely your family's shared language, or because you want your child to have a strong English foundation regardless of where they end up — regular online lessons with native or fluent speakers are one practical option, since they don't depend on what's available near you.
One option in this space is Novakid, a US-based online English school for kids roughly ages 4–12, with one-on-one lessons taught by native or fluent English-speaking teachers over video call, plus interactive homework and progress tracking parents can check between lessons. Like any language program, actual progress depends a lot on consistency and your child's engagement — it's a tool for regular practice, not a substitute for daily language use at home.
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A Few Practical Notes Before You Commit to Anything
- Most online lesson platforms (Novakid included) offer a trial lesson before you commit to a paid plan — worth doing before judging whether the format suits your child, since some kids do great with screen-based lessons and others don't
- Consistency matters more than intensity — a short weekly lesson kept up for a year tends to do more than a burst of daily lessons that fizzles out after a month
- If your child is already juggling Japanese school, home language, and English, don't feel like you need to maximize all three at once — even maintaining one non-Japanese language well is a real achievement most kids in this situation don't manage effortlessly
Bottom Line
Raising a bilingual (or trilingual) kid in Japan takes active effort specifically because Japanese school won't do it for you — whatever isn't reinforced tends to fade. Whether that's your home language, English, or both, the options above (home rules, community classes, or structured online lessons) are all reasonable ways to keep it alive alongside your child's Japanese, and none of them require doing everything perfectly to be worth trying.
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