From Japan to Squamish, family gets English help
Raise-a-Reader program aims to give immigrants’ children a literacy boost
When Naoko Ohshiro immigrated to Canada from Japan with her husband, Masakazu, they moved from Yokohama, with almost the population of all of B.C. and second in size only to Tokyo, to a small city that couldn’t be more different.
The couple arrived six years ago in Squamish to start a new life, free they say from the radiation pollution from Japan’s 2011 earthquake, and now are raising Jin, who’s almost two, surrounded by rugged mountains for climbing, hiking and mountain biking.
“Compared to Japan, here it is very small and comfortable,” said Ohshiro. “It has fresh air and very nice people and very nice nature. My husband really loves it here.”
She has worked in a Japanese restaurant and he was freelancing as a game developer and now they both work for their own translation company. However, the couple has turned to an Immigrant Parents as Literacy Supporters program at the “Hot Spot” at the downtown Squamish Welcome Centre to help teach Jin English skills to help prepare for kindergarten.
“Otherwise my son can’t get literacy and he will have problems,” said Naoko. “We usually don’t speak English at home.”
The Immigrant Parents as Literacy Supporters program is partly funded by The Vancouver Sun’s Raise-a-Reader campaign to support immigrant families and their young children, with a focus on preschoolers.
The 10-week program gives caregivers new strategies to support their children in literacy development.
Activities include pre-reading and pre-writing, early math skills, arts and crafts, learning about streets and traffic signs, rhymes and songs, technology, field trips, and simple ABCs. Parents also learn about early childhood development.
Naoko said they bring home a different book every month and Jin joins in at the play group and storytime, and sometimes there are activities at the elementary school or library.
“My son really loves it here,” she said, adding that bringing Jin to the literacy activities gives her a chance to improve her English, too.
“My English is weak, so I need help,” she said. “Children’s books are very useful for me to learn English. I believe it’s not so good for my son if he hears English the wrong way.”
She said meeting other mothers at the centre gives her a chance to practise speaking English.
“When mothers speak in their own communities, they speak in their native language, but when they ’re in the (Squamish) community, they have to speak English,” she said.
Marisa Navarro, herself an immigrant from Spain, helps facilitate the program.
“We help kids before starting kindergarten,” she said. “We support them with the English language and we teach them English through games, books, songs and different activities.
“We give parents the resources to continue the activities at home with different materials they can use.”
They also take parents around town to help them to learn about traffic signs and how to navigate the city.