How our son has grown during our time in Sweden, and not just in size – I think we all felt it, his parents as well as his grandparents. He has become even more independent and also fully embraced a life where the spoken language is Swedish. Thinking about the years my son and I have persisted speaking Swedish to each other, I was so grateful to experience how our work actually has made him able to communicate his heart and wishes to my parents. Of course our son’s overall loveliness is much more important than any language skills but still, it made me so happy to hear him interact with his grandparents.
Growing up with two languages is both a gift and challenge and I believe. Although our son almost never mixes Swedish and Japanese, there are other ways that the languages interact and it is sometimes quite fun to observe. If I did not know Japanese I would think that the way my son sometimes constructs sentences in Swedish is both a bit odd and charming. Knowing some Japanese though, I see that he sometimes is using a Japanese way of expression although with Swedish words, and sometimes is speaking with a Japanese word order. But even more endearing was when after two weeks in Sweden, our son turned to his mother and said (in Swedish) mom, you should speak Japanese and Swedish.
My wife went back to Japan for work a few weeks earlier than my son and I, and after she left not once did he speak Japanese except for when on video call with his mom. At home in Japan he would have used Japanese with me sometimes when tired or frustrated, but it seems like our time in Sweden has given him a lot of confidence speaking Swedish. And for this I am so grateful and filled with new energy and determination to keep Swedish a living language here in our lite corner of Fukuoka, Japan.
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