We built the Japanese library we wanted in the ancient city of Delft in the Netherlands.
Our children started living abroad when their eldest daughter was 10 years old, their second daughter was 8 years old, and their eldest son was 5 years old. Over the past five years, I have lived in three countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. My husband and I both love books, and have been reading to them almost every day since our first daughter was born. These are children who have lived surrounded by books. If you get a Japanese book overseas, it will arrive from Amazon Japan in about a week, but it still costs money. Even so, I can't give them books like I used to borrow about 20 books from the library or go to the bookstore on my days off to buy them.
Children living abroad use local languages such as Dutch and English every day. Many families speak Japanese when they get home. But spoken words and read words used in books are different. In learning Japanese, the speed and level of acquisition will vary considerably by taking these four showers of listening, reading, writing, and speaking. I just can't cover the words I need.
When I lived in New Jersey, USA, the local library in the area called Paramus surprisingly had Japanese books, and I was able to use them quite a bit. In England, I used to borrow books at a supplementary school, but I couldn't use them because of the coronavirus, so I often bought them from Amazon in Japan. In that way, I managed to continue to be bombarded with Japanese books overseas, but even if I could get a Japanese book at a cost, I would read it once and be done with it. When I was young, I read the same books over and over again, but as I got older, my interests broadened, and it was time to absorb new words. It's a sensitive time, and as a parent, I want my child to read a lot of books during that time, and I have a strong desire to give him lots of books. In that case, we longed for the existence of a library where we could borrow books as many times as we wanted and touch the books we were interested in at that time.
Using the Kotch Library is very simple. After registering as a member , simply select a book from the online bookshelf and pick it up at Delft. (6 minutes from tram station, 13 minutes from train station) We also offer a free delivery and collection service to Rotterdam, Den Haag and Delft.
