Bilingual Opportunities and Generational Ties
November 28, 2025
Episode Notes
Morning, sir.
Good morning.
How are you doing? I just got a cup of coffee.
I'm as good as can be.
What about you? Excellent, but no cup of coffee, because I don't drink coffee, but no cup of tea today.
Just uh it's not.
Just a bottle of water.
You're a plain simple guy, I envy you.
Trying to be healthy.
What's going on? Well, I was just thinking, um, a couple days ago I talked with my son in Britain.
He's studying in Britain, but he'll be back in March, and it made me think of you.
Why me? Yeah.
Well, I, I remember talking to you and you said that your son decided he wanted to go to high school in Canada.
Yeah, that's right.
What's up with that? Um, so he's in junior high school now.
He'll be graduating in the spring, and then from next September, he'll start high school in Canada.
Um, Yeah, he's, he's going to my high school, which is nice, and he's gonna be living at my parents' house, his grandparents' house.
Um, that's, that's what's up with.
Is he kind of revisiting his roots? Uh, yeah, so, you know, in Japan, we live in, in my, my wife's family home.
We live in her hometown, and our kids went to her elementary school, her junior high school.
Um, so they've lived, they've lived her, her, her life.
Um, so yeah, I think it, it's nice for him to be able to go to my hometown and experience what I experienced as a as a youth.
Um, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm often sad that I live so far from home, and, uh, I love it here, and this is our home now, but it's nice for them to experience.
My hometown.
I think that you have a wonderful opportunity.
I'm a little jealous that you can do that.
Yeah, yeah, well, you sent your son to England, you could have sent him to Canada, but you chose England, or he chose England, I guess, but.
Yeah, he did, and I know, um, my, my parents have passed away, so there's no real functional way to study in Canada.
We couldn't afford it.
Yeah, yeah, different situation.
Yeah, yeah.
Why do you ask? Well, I was just thinking about the, you know, young people today and the needs that they're gonna be facing, and I thought, if you're bilingual, What a tremendous opportunity.
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
That's true.
I mean, we have, we, we're very lucky.
We always consider ourselves very lucky being half Canadian, half Japanese, because both countries are wonderful.
We have two incredible options for everything in life, um, whether it's school or career or just living, retiring, we have incredibly lucky to have two such good options.
In the case of my son, um, you know, he's, he, he enjoys school here, and I think personally we think elementary school in Japan is incredible, and that's one of the reasons, not the only reason, but one of the reasons we decided to have our kids here.
Right.
Uh, we did discuss it.
We did discuss it before getting married, after getting married before having kids, but um Yeah.
There are a lot of, a lot of really good points to the Japanese education system that we like.
So, again, not the only reason, one of many, but Um, my son, we, we told him that it was an option.
Uh, going to school in Canada that is, whether it be high school or university, um, I told him that.
A few years ago, And then we sort of let, we let it sit there.
The idea sort of floated around.
And then maybe a year ago or a year and a half ago, he said, you know, is that, is that option still open to me? Can I go to high school in Canada? And he, he tentatively asked us.
And we said, yeah, yeah, it's it's an option if you want.
And so he decided he wanted to do that.
Um, right.
And he has his own reasons, um, which, which I can't.
I can't answer why he's chosen that.
That's his own reasons, but for me personally, I'm happy because Both my sister and I live kind of far from my hometown.
OK, and so I'm quite happy, uh, a bonus bonus side of this is that he'll be there sort of watching over my parents as they get older.
And right, and they're not that old and they're pretty healthy, but they will get older and older.
If he stays there for 3 years of high school, and if you were to stay for university.
He would be there until my parents were in their 80s.
Uh, and that's really, yeah, to have a, a, a strong young back.
Um, around.
Yes.
So, that's to me that's one of the benefits.
The slightly, it's a related but a little bit different question.
Now he's been there September, October, most of November.
How is he finding the studies that change going into a uh completely English environment and study environment? Oh well, first off, that's a whole other conversation for another day, but secondly, he's not there now.
Next year, from next year.
Yeah, he's still here, he's 3rd year junior high school, but he's still studying here in junior high school.
Oh, I misunderstood.
I thought he started, OK, I thought he was over there transitioning through junior high to get ready for high school.
OK.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's, that's your son who's abroad right now.
OK, gotcha.
OK, I better get going then, thanks for that wrap up.
Excellent, sir.
See you later.
We'll talk about uh his transition.
Next year.
OK, thanks.
Take care.
Bye bye.
Good morning.
How are you doing? I just got a cup of coffee.
I'm as good as can be.
What about you? Excellent, but no cup of coffee, because I don't drink coffee, but no cup of tea today.
Just uh it's not.
Just a bottle of water.
You're a plain simple guy, I envy you.
Trying to be healthy.
What's going on? Well, I was just thinking, um, a couple days ago I talked with my son in Britain.
He's studying in Britain, but he'll be back in March, and it made me think of you.
Why me? Yeah.
Well, I, I remember talking to you and you said that your son decided he wanted to go to high school in Canada.
Yeah, that's right.
What's up with that? Um, so he's in junior high school now.
He'll be graduating in the spring, and then from next September, he'll start high school in Canada.
Um, Yeah, he's, he's going to my high school, which is nice, and he's gonna be living at my parents' house, his grandparents' house.
Um, that's, that's what's up with.
Is he kind of revisiting his roots? Uh, yeah, so, you know, in Japan, we live in, in my, my wife's family home.
We live in her hometown, and our kids went to her elementary school, her junior high school.
Um, so they've lived, they've lived her, her, her life.
Um, so yeah, I think it, it's nice for him to be able to go to my hometown and experience what I experienced as a as a youth.
Um, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm often sad that I live so far from home, and, uh, I love it here, and this is our home now, but it's nice for them to experience.
My hometown.
I think that you have a wonderful opportunity.
I'm a little jealous that you can do that.
Yeah, yeah, well, you sent your son to England, you could have sent him to Canada, but you chose England, or he chose England, I guess, but.
Yeah, he did, and I know, um, my, my parents have passed away, so there's no real functional way to study in Canada.
We couldn't afford it.
Yeah, yeah, different situation.
Yeah, yeah.
Why do you ask? Well, I was just thinking about the, you know, young people today and the needs that they're gonna be facing, and I thought, if you're bilingual, What a tremendous opportunity.
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
That's true.
I mean, we have, we, we're very lucky.
We always consider ourselves very lucky being half Canadian, half Japanese, because both countries are wonderful.
We have two incredible options for everything in life, um, whether it's school or career or just living, retiring, we have incredibly lucky to have two such good options.
In the case of my son, um, you know, he's, he, he enjoys school here, and I think personally we think elementary school in Japan is incredible, and that's one of the reasons, not the only reason, but one of the reasons we decided to have our kids here.
Right.
Uh, we did discuss it.
We did discuss it before getting married, after getting married before having kids, but um Yeah.
There are a lot of, a lot of really good points to the Japanese education system that we like.
So, again, not the only reason, one of many, but Um, my son, we, we told him that it was an option.
Uh, going to school in Canada that is, whether it be high school or university, um, I told him that.
A few years ago, And then we sort of let, we let it sit there.
The idea sort of floated around.
And then maybe a year ago or a year and a half ago, he said, you know, is that, is that option still open to me? Can I go to high school in Canada? And he, he tentatively asked us.
And we said, yeah, yeah, it's it's an option if you want.
And so he decided he wanted to do that.
Um, right.
And he has his own reasons, um, which, which I can't.
I can't answer why he's chosen that.
That's his own reasons, but for me personally, I'm happy because Both my sister and I live kind of far from my hometown.
OK, and so I'm quite happy, uh, a bonus bonus side of this is that he'll be there sort of watching over my parents as they get older.
And right, and they're not that old and they're pretty healthy, but they will get older and older.
If he stays there for 3 years of high school, and if you were to stay for university.
He would be there until my parents were in their 80s.
Uh, and that's really, yeah, to have a, a, a strong young back.
Um, around.
Yes.
So, that's to me that's one of the benefits.
The slightly, it's a related but a little bit different question.
Now he's been there September, October, most of November.
How is he finding the studies that change going into a uh completely English environment and study environment? Oh well, first off, that's a whole other conversation for another day, but secondly, he's not there now.
Next year, from next year.
Yeah, he's still here, he's 3rd year junior high school, but he's still studying here in junior high school.
Oh, I misunderstood.
I thought he started, OK, I thought he was over there transitioning through junior high to get ready for high school.
OK.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's, that's your son who's abroad right now.
OK, gotcha.
OK, I better get going then, thanks for that wrap up.
Excellent, sir.
See you later.
We'll talk about uh his transition.
Next year.
OK, thanks.
Take care.
Bye bye.