Paku Midin: AFGHAN MOMS SMASHING JAPAN'S LANGUAGE BARRIER FOR SAKE OF KIDS

AFGHAN MOMS SMASHING JAPAN'S LANGUAGE BARRIER FOR SAKE OF KIDS - CHIBA JAPAN

@Jr_Paku Midin Channel

CHIBA

A long-term Afghan resident of Japan has set up a free language school to help her more newly arrived countrywomen stay connected with their children, who now prefer to converse in Japanese rather than their ancestral language.

With nearly four decades of experience as an interpreter in legal proceedings, Sedeka Eto has established the school to support Afghan mothers who fear their children, born or raised in Japan, are becoming increasingly distant.

"While children learn to speak Japanese at school, mothers remain unable to understand it. Children then forget the Afghan language," said Eto, 67, who heads the nonprofit association Eagle Afghan for the Reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Chiba, which borders Tokyo, is home to approximately 40 percent of some 6,000 Afghan residents in Japan, many of whom fled to the country as refugees after the Taliban regained control in 2021.

Eto's school was established in 2023 via the nonprofit and holds classes every Saturday. More than 120 Afghans are registered and learn Japanese there.

Eto came to Japan from Afghanistan in 1983 and married a Japanese man. Working as a legal interpreter, she witnessed interrogations and court proceedings and became aware of an increase in shoplifting and other crimes committed by foreign youth.

Communication between Afghan parents and their children can be limited to simple Japanese. A mother with five children of primary and middle school age reports that her children speak to each other in Japanese, making it impossible for her to understand them.

Children are unable to make themselves understood when they talk to their parents about problems at school and other complex issues, while many mothers say they are also unable to engage at parent-teacher conferences.

As a result, Eto believes parents and children can become estranged, and such alienation leads some juveniles to crime.

There are also cases in which children, when scolded by their fathers or older brothers in the Afghan language, do not understand and are beaten for not listening, Eto said.

"I thought it was imperative that they be able to communicate in the same language," said Eto of her decision to open the language school.

However, it is not easy for Afghan women to attend because they are customarily prohibited from going out alone -- an act seen as neglecting their responsibilities as mothers. Nonetheless, many find ways to do so.

Despite their husbands' opposition, the women earnestly study Japanese, stopping what they are doing to focus on their work, even while looking after their children. A childcare space with Japanese staff is also provided during class.

A 45-year-old woman who attends the class came to Japan in December 2022 due to deteriorating conditions in Afghanistan. "I felt like I was dead inside because I couldn't speak Japanese," she said.

"My husband tells me to just study with my smartphone. But studying while talking with a teacher is completely different. At home, I need to do the housework as well," she said.

In Afghanistan, the woman had to drop out of junior high school. She said that the experience of being taught in a classroom with a blackboard made her happy and improved her mental state.

Eto said that other students say they feel empowered because they can now talk to teachers from their children's schools or ride buses or trains by themselves. Instead of being financially dependent on their husbands, more and more women have expressed a desire to study further and work outside the home.

Many of the women spend the week counting down the days to the class. It is a day when they can learn Japanese, share their concerns with their peers and socialize.

"I can't wait for Saturdays to come," one woman said.

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