Daikoku and Ebisu, Father and Son

I’m an American teaching English full-time in the heartland of Japan. Next year I have applied for paternity leave, making me the first male teacher at my school to do so.  This blog will document my experiences raising a bilingual daughter in a monolingual culture (or is it truly monolingual? guess again…)

I’ve been in Japan for ten years now, but I certainly do not claim to be an expert on Japan. As a new dad, I’m also not a child-rearing authority, either. I’m simply writing about my personal experiences as an English-speaking foreigner in a well-discussed but little-understood East Asian country that is having to do a great deal of soul-searching about the roles of family members in the 21st century. No doubt I will make many mistakes during my year of paternity leave. However, I hope that I will be able to learn more about what it means to raise a child, and that my experiences will make me not only a better father, but a better person (and also maybe even a better teacher).

If you have any comments or would like to share your own experiences, please feel free to do so! You can leave comments on any blog posting, or you can also Twitter me @manzano0627.