[Tsuwabuki]

I have a Fillipino student in one my classes. He's an English speaker, as well as speaking at least one of the languages used in the Philippines. I'm not sure what his parents do, but he's not half. Japanese public schools are open to the children of legal residents, but I think this is pretty rare. His Japanese is very bad, and he studies most subjects with the special needs students, even though there is nothing wrong developmentally with him. My classes are ones where he gets to be the center of attention because he speaks English, but it must be terribly boring for him. Alternately, he must find most of the other classes to be difficult. I know I would have a hard time following math, science, or social studies in Japanese!

Do I agree with his parents decision to put him in a Japanese school? I don't know, depends on what he is learning at home, outside of school. Given that he's only 12, I suspect even by high school, he ought to be to a point of being close to trilingual, with experience being a real part of Japanese culture, and probably on track for permanent residency or citizenship. In that sense, if he is getting education at home or elsewhere in English or his other language, then this was a good choice by his parents.