My daughter wants to learn Japanese because she knows I’m studying it, we have Japanese friends we see 2-3x/year and because she really likes Japan.
The “problem” is, she will only turn 5 y/o next month, can’t read in her own language yet and doesn’t know English either (she’s German native).
Sooo…any clues on how and where to start? Really playfully? Definitely focus on speaking/listening as she doesn’t need to be able to read Japanese before she can read German .
Are there any resources for that? Like videos or something? As I said, she doesn’t know any English which makes it harder.
Also, we are currently traveling in Japan, so if it’s physical study material, now is a good time to buy it.
Nothing super expensive because who knows how long this interest will last.
Just watching Japanese movies/shows doesn’t work since she always complains that she doesn’t understand it and rather wants to watch it in German. So maybe teaching videos aimed at children or something? That are not in English?
Sounds to me like you could give her material intended for five-year-old Japanese kids, especially considering knowledge of neither German nor English is required. The catch is that they do rely on the fact that the kids have been learning to speak Japanese since birth, so some assistance from you with regards to vocabulary and grammar may be necessary. I couldn’t really say for sure.
I don’t think that should be a factor at all. At her age I think she can probably engage with Japanese in a similar way natives do: watching Japanese programs aimed at small Japanese children, repeating the same phrases over and over again etc…
English (or German) need not be involved at all. Translation is a crutch we use because we are grown ups with advanced knowledge of our mother tongue and all sorts of fancy concepts like compound interest and nuclear fission and tree grafting so we don’t want to relearn everything from scratch like a child would, but at five year old you’re in a very different position.
Children at that age are also absolute sponges for language, so you may be impressed by how quickly she may pick up the language if she keeps at it. I think the difficulty in the long run will be finding outlets for her to keep using the language if she doesn’t grow up in a Japanese environment.
That’s why for instance it’s not uncommon for children of immigrants to end up not knowing how to speak their parent’s language well (or at all) because they have no impetus to learn it and maybe even an impetus to avoid speaking it because children don’t like to stand out and feel different from their peers.
I agree, even if maybe she’d rather watch kids movies in German I think she could probably get a great start by watching kids movies and shows in Japanese. Find something similar to the content she already likes! If I had a specific recommendation, maybe a Ghibli movie?
You could even do German subtitles- I bet at 5 years old reading subtitles in German is too tiring to do the whole movie, but it would add a little extra help for the meaning when she needs it. The school librarian at the elementary school I teach at here in Japan was telling me about how the littler kids would watch Alice in Wonderland in English with Japanese subtitles- because reading Japanese subtitles was too difficult, they’d listen to the English, and actually pick up quite a few words. Kids movies also tend to be mostly told through visuals rather than dialogue, so it’s okay if she doesn’t get everything, or even most of it. Just encourage her to try, and you can try together with her
It seems like your daughter wants to have something in common with you by learning Japanese. So even though she might not want to watch Japanese movies or shows on her own, perhaps if you phrased it more as “I’m going to watch this show or movie in Japanese to study. Would you like to watch with me?”, she might be more willing. Just pick something kid friendly that you think she might enjoy and do it together. I think language learning at that age (when it’s a choice and not required by school/ where you live) needs to be based on enjoyment and personal inward motivation to promote longer-term learning or studying.
I was more or less in you situation and watching shows did absolutely nothing. We paid for a tutor online and it did not do much. Very simple songs like the one further below somehow worked but there aren’t that many that are as simple as these.
The only thing that really worked was being involved (I know…). Whatever you do with them will be 100x more efficient than anything else. We ended up picking emojis together, choosing a background colour and make simple HTML pages like this one.
We also bought physical flashcard and did them together.
We managed to learn a few hundred words of vocab but I’ve never been able to really teach any grammar. I reckon I did not try very hard though.
Thank you so much! Will listen to these songs with her, they seem perfect!
And I do fear it will end up being similar to your experience, with the difference that she rather learns from other people, especially in a group setting with other kids than from me. Unfortunately we don’t have any classes for that age where we live. But maybe I can somehow keep her motivated.
I always thought it’s like that, but she herself always asks for translations and doesn’t seem to pick up things naturally through immersion all that easily. Otherwise things like ありがとう or 可愛い should stick after hearing it multiple times each day for 3 weeks .
ahh~ wish I had learned nihongo as a kid, no way would’ve I have like 0% japanese in my blood, probably..
im seventeen and hispanic, therefore spanish is my first language
(lost it as a kid, speaking only english at home, and in school. Now, it’s a weird relationship that I have with spanish, on losing your mother tongue and being able to understand and read, but can’t communicate as articulately as i would hope, or having to use roundabout way to explain concepts if I don’t know a word.
my grandparents only speak spanish, and lets of my extended family only speaks spanish and my biggest regret is not prioritizing spanish as a kid when it was easier to learn, yet I took spanish all the way up to spanish 4.
next was AP Spanish, but why would I take an AP Spanish test when I can call my grandparents???)
I feel a little silly watching a music video/cartoon made for children, LMAO
its fun though! Sometimes, I do feel dumb cause they use the high-pitch voices to allure the children to stay focused,
I know that this wouldn’t work for your daughter’s age/it is too advanced for her, but I use
for myself, and maybe once she’s older, she can use it as well!
my biggest BIGGEST advice is, im not sure if you live in Japan, but,
in order to make a child bilingual, make the school language be (German)
but then ONLY allow them to respond (in home) in the target language (Japanese)
or vice versa
in public if lets say you ask them what ‘tomato’ is and they respond in German, just say good job and ask ‘and japanese?’ if they don’t know, tell them, overtime they will remember
of course, if the chid gets frustrated, help them out like dont give them the ‘silent treatment’
that in itself is harmful, but as a parent you are always trying to do your best.
Another thing is only to have books/watch shows in the target language at home and let them learn the other language in school, of course, teaching fundamental phrases like ‘good morning, good afternoon, where is the bathroom, colors, alphabet.’ let school do the rest.
of course, you’re the adult and youre the one with children, of course I don’t have children right now, that’d be INSANE
but when i have children and teaching them my trilingualism, i would do it like this!!
“Unfortunately” we live in Germany and our family is also 100% German. I’m N2 level in Japanese, my husband only knows a few phrases. So yeah, we can’t raise her completely bilingual at home, otherwise I would’ve done that from the beginning. I don’t think the way we live, it’s possible for her to reach full fluency, but just being able to speak and understand basic things would be the first goal.
It’s great you’re starting her off young. There’s so many fun native learning materials for kids. I almost picked up some picture books the last time I was in Japan because the illustrations were so cute. I would start her off with some hiragana/katakana picture books. Take her to the bookstore and let her pick out stuff that catchers her eye. I think on youtube there’s Japanese videos of common Western fairy tales like Cinderella, Little Mermaid, etc. that she could watch. If she’s already familiar with the story, she may be more willing to watching it all the way through in Japanese. I’m personally a big fan of the Sanrio series.
no of course! I didn’t realize you weren’t fully bilingual! then, why don’t you teach her all your know, and learn more yourself, when she gets old enough, you guys can learn together!
That’s great that you want to encourage your 5 year old to learn Japanese! Some context, I teach at a Japanese preschool (specifically 1 and 2 year old class), and the way our children learn Japanese and English is through play and immersion in daily tasks.
Of course at this age range, the kids are like sponges easy to absorb new material, but even at 5 year old, language acquisition is still very easy. My 4 year old and 2 year old ( have both been going to Japanese hoikuen since 0 year old and just recently transferred to the international school that uses both English and Japanese) have been watching Dora the Explorer for Spanish. Just yesterday my 4 year old started counting things in Spanish at school to everyone’s surprise haha. But they’re both bilingual in English and Japanese (the oldest showing English as her main currently).
As for materials for your 5 year old, the Japanese teachers sing a lot of songs. Some of it is actually very catchy and mostly slow paced, so if your child listens to it over and over, they will eventually be able to sing along. As for books, many of these songs have picture books so the teachers will sing along to the song parts and then read the continuing story parts. If they’re just singing the songs, they all have finger play 手遊び that comes with it to help the children with their motor skills and visualize the songs too.
Here are some of my favorite songs to help you get started!
Benesse Kodomo challenge is really popular. At 5 they start moving onto learning to read and write and I don’t think the materials are as fun then as they have a more study focus but if you go for a younger level, I think she’ll get a lot of mileage out of it. I used it with my kids (we live in Japan) and they really enjoyed the younger levels (0-4 after that we had a break then started Kumon). It’s just learning while playing. It’s a monthly subscription that comes with a book, toy and activity book, I believe they do ship internationally. It’s now app based but a couple of years ago it came with a bimonthly DVD. A much cheaper way to do it is buy the a full years set secondhand and just give her the appropriate bits each month. You can pick up older used complete sets on Mercari for pretty cheap compared to the subscription price. The only issue I can think of is that maybe the stickers are already used, the youngest levels (puchi =2 years old) do have reusable stickers.
Thank you so much!! These songs seem perfect for the start! It’s difficult to know where to start when I don’t know any Japanese songs for small children myself. And my child loves catchy children’s songs.
Thank you also for you professional input! It’s great to actually hear from a kindergarten teacher! So if you have any other tips/links for daycare materials, I’m all ears
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