The Surprising Skill Kim And Kanye's Son Is Learning

It can't be easy to be a mega-celebrity who's also a parent. Not only do you have to be super-protective of their safety, you're also held to a higher standard when it comes to childrearing. Everything comes under scrutiny — your pregnancy diet, your family photos, your kids' clothing, your vacations. Kim Kardashian West knows this all too well; over the years, she's been slammed for everything from the way she dresses her four children to their hairstyles to her choice of car seat (per CafeMom). When she posts pictures of them, she gets accused of Photoshopping them to change their appearance (via CheatSheet). And heaven forfend she put a little lipstick on a 5-year-old, as she did once with daughter North (via USA Today).

But there are also times when Kardashian totally nails the parenting game, and she recently shared one of them. A video posted to her Instagram Stories page (seen here via Us Weekly) shows Saint — her older son with Kanye West —  watching a video with little sister Chicago while he counts to 10 in Japanese, with a little prompting from mom: "Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku..." Happily smeared in the remnants of an ice-cream sandwich, he repeats the count again, then says "Yes" when Kardashian asks, "Is that what you learned in your Japanese class?" In the background, you can hear big sister North brag, "I can go to 1,000!"

The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star may have been inspired to give her older children Japanese lessons following a trip to Japan they took two years ago (per Instagram). But it seems they're not the only ones getting a bilingual education. Kardashian's younger daughter, Chicago, has attended a toddler class with cousins True, Dream, and Stormi in which they learned songs in Spanish (via CheatSheet). 

Learning a second language is a brain-booster not only for the young Wests, but for any child. According to the University of Michigan, children under age eight are especially receptive to learning a second language because the ear and speech muscles are flexible enough to switch easily between languages. Studies show that bilingual children have increased focus and attention skills and do better on certain mental puzzles (such as sorting) than kids who speak only their home language. Adults have the same benefits when they study a second language; they may just take a little longer than their kids to become proficient in the new tongue. 

This new skill is certainly less potentially destructive than some of the other hobbies in the Kardashian-West household. For instance, take the art set the kids got last month for Christmas. As reported by Hello!, one budding Michelangelo used it to draw pictures on Kardashian's pricey stone bathtub. How do you say, "Clean up your mess" in Japanese?