Japanese language exposure for 2-3 year old
I'm looking for Japanese language resources for my 2 year old daughter. I have decent college-level+ Japanese which has allowed me to share enough so that she maybe understands ~100 Japanese words. But, my comfort level is definitely not strong enough to parent day-to-day so it can be really difficult to keep it up consistently.
I'd really love to expand my daughter's exposure and learning. Since she's still pretty young, I haven't found any after school or weekend programs that make sense. She's currently enrolled in an English-language daycare and not looking to pull her from there any time soon. We are looking at AIM/BIM for next year, but also curious if there are other possible opportunities for having her meet and talk with others in Japanese on a regular basis. Super open to getting very creative if anyone else has managed to navigate this! We are in the Oakland / Berkeley area.
Parent Replies
The East Bay Free Methodist Church in El Cerrito runs a Japanese language program for young children. I believe they're on Facebook as East Bay Japanese School. My son did a session there until we had scheduling conflicts, and the people were very pleasant. There wasn't any proselytizing that I remember. It took place in part if a larger church building, and there was a Christmas program.
(BTW, I just posted this same answer to a similar question for a 4-year-old.) My 11-year-old daughter has been taking an online Japanese as a second language class from Kurumi Nihongo, which is located in Pleasant Hill. She LOVES it, her teachers have been excellent, and I (zero Japanese language facility) can tell she's improving. We started her there with the idea that eventually she would go in person (once the pandemic eases and as she improves), but the weekly Zoom sessions have been wonderful so far. I think their JSL classes are for 5-year-olds and up, but you should email them to check in: https://kurumi-japanese.com/.
But there's another, closer option. Our Japanese friend recommends this school: https://medakanogakkoo.wixsite.com/home/english. It's in Berkeley and appears to offer an after-school session on Mondays only, but it might be great for littler kids because of its focus on culture as well as language. Good luck!