Japanese books

[MummyRoo]

I am really struggling to find any kind of Japanese resources to work on with my son.

I have the Wink to Learn dvd set and a have decided against Pim (unless I get really desparate) because they don't use Japanese characters in the film. I would love more variety on the dvds, but am most in need of books. I have found nothing that is really suitable for young children (short, simple sentences) - there are either books for teaching single vocab words or textbooks for teens. Not much of anything in the middle!

Does anyone else have other Japanese resources they can share? Things that a beginner mummy can cover? I have found mountains of stuff for Chinese and European languages, but there seems to be nothing in Japanese!

Thanks

[DannyandAmy]

 How familiar are you with Japanese? There are many books good for young children here in Japan. Maybe you can look into amazon.co.jp?

There are even services where they deliver a few age-appropriate classic books to your child (in your child's name, makes it extra special) every month. (Domestic or international.)

Let me know more about you and I'd be able to help you out more.

Amy

[MummyRoo]

Unfortunately, I do not know Japanese. Ideally I would like some very slow progression readers, so we can learn together. I have found this idea in Chinese (My First Chinese Words/Reader series), but there is almost no textbook material for Japanese in the UK, let along child-friendly! I would rather not end up getting an adult textbook to study ahead and then make my own simple readers, but I might just have to!

I am also looking for immersion Japanese dvds/audio. I have the Wink to Learn flashcards, but haven't found anything else - I don't like the Little Pim Japanese for the transliteration of text.

If you have any ideas for non-Japanese speaking parent friendly kids textbooks or immersion dvds etc. then I would be grateful!

[DannyandAmy]

You'll want to know how to conjugate Japanese verbs, as they can be very confusing! Many of the great children's Japanese books I know have great literature but won't teach you the language. You may not want to, but I suggest that you teach yourself with a textbook first. There are waaaay too many verb conjugations (bet you didn't know there are three separate languages within Japanese.. separate from dialects!) And if you read the storybooks wrong, you'll change the meaning of the story.

(Just so you know, because it's important to remember when learning Japanese, it's specially so if you read with the wrong intonation. For example, 'ame' is written for both rain and candy, but are two different words. "A-me" is rain, "a-ME" is candy. Also, the Japanese language is pitch sensitive and melodious. Speaking or reading it with the wrong vocal patterns is, to a native, like running your fingernails on a chalkboard. Don't mean to scare you or anything.. just so you'll know the traits of the Japanese language so you'll know what to look out for.)

You can also look into bilingual books. The Japanese here are serious about learning English, so there are quite some books out there with both English and Japanese. Those can be helpful for both mommy and baby!

Maybe after you're a bit more familiar with the language, the classic Japanese literature for children will be more useful. That's when I'll suggest you get those books automatically delivered to you every month. Of course, you can have that started now (while you are learning) so you'll already have a collection of books by the time you're ready to properly read them to your baby. (Also while I'm here in Japan to help you through the registration process. We're planning to move to the US in the next few months.) It's generally about 2000 yen each month (for two books, each originally costing roughly 1000 yen) + international shipping. You'll end up getting about a 10 or 20% discount on the books.

As for DVDs, I made a long list of them in a different post, I think the title was something like Looking for French and Japanese DVDs. There are many posts about French, but maybe you'll be able to scroll down to the posts on Japanese.

Hope this helps.

[MummyRoo]

Thank you! 

I'll have a look for the dvd options

I always make a point of learning stresses for words, because there are similar same-sound words in Russian (like the verbs to write and to pee - you don't want to mix them up!) - but I didn't know about the tones! I think I will have to resort to audio books for starters!

I don't suppose you know of any picture-audio books?
 
Thanks again

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