Your question can probably be answered in the “about”section of the sub or the wiki attached
oh this probably isnt the best place to ask. these guys are legit gonna recommend a college level textbook for your ten year old. its probably better to find some classes in your area since they will know how to keep kids engaged.
for a 10 year old I’d say duolingo is a decent enough place to start :)…
of course, wouldnt recommend it for a grown up…but I think duo is good enough for a 10 yr old to start looking at Japanese casually…there is a bit of an interactive way to learn it as some of the new vocab you learn with images and of course the gamification aspect of the service might work to keep engagement…
​
From there, it is honestly still up to the person (adult or not)’s dedication to start reading content (maybe a few months into the language)…for example if the kid’s into video games, he can play games in 100% Japanese…it’s all about the exposure they are getting with the language…
I remember this post from a while ago, which had a few recommendations for resources that might be useful for you:
In all honesty: Nothing will beat a good private teacher that assembles the materials themselves and maybe even checks out what kind of accompanying software / apps your 10 year old might enjoy alongside the journey and motivate him/her likely way more then any app alone would be able to.
If it is about “all around” materials however, yea, Duolingo might do the job for a less serious approach.
Duolingo
Definitely buy flash cards and a sheet that displays them on the wall. We have one that’s about 2’x4′ from Amazon and it fits the large vocab flash cards for kids.
We also have a hiragana chart on the wall and a whiteboard where we write a “word of the day”.
Dollar stores also sell lap whiteboards for practicing and cheap dry erase.
Disney + has japanese for most of the classic movies and popular shows. Bluey is awesome in Japanese.
Duolingo is good for a 10 year old as well.
Make a YouTube Playlist and add Japanese TV shows from there.
Anpanman and doraemon have tons of episodes. There’s a lot of hour long kids songs too.
you could get a tutor on italki
I’ve taught kids that age Japanese and English, and I’d say that you either need a tutor or to learn alongside your kid/make it something you do together. It also helps to build it around their interests. Can you share a little more about what your kid is currently into/what got them interested in starting to learn Japanese?
Japanese from Zero is rather affordable and has lots of pictures and is slow paced. I highly recommend it for a kid. It’s like a textbook and workbook all wrapped into one so it’s user friendly. You can get them from Amazon or most online major book retailers like B&N.
Apps: I like Drops way more than duo. It’s vocab, kana, and kanji. You can do 5 minutes a day for free. It says the word/sound and you match to pictures or you practice writing kana and kanji. Duo has bad grammar and pronounces things wrong more often than I care for.
After going these if your kid likes video game you can change their switch to Japanese and try to tackle simple games. Start small with familiar low text games like Mario, Kirby, etc.
There’s also some great free YouTube channels for simple Japanese consumption. I like Pokémon Kids JP a lot. There’s even a Pokémon katakana song.
Start listening to Japanese music! It’s great listening practice and when you do hear a word you learned it helps reinforce the memory. If you want to stick to kid friendly pop music I like Sakura Gakuin personally.
https://www.erin.jpf.go.jp/en/ Erin’s challenge is more aimed at high schoolers but might be suited for a motivated 10 year old.
There’s a tv series (Japanese only, viewable online) and a set of lessons (available in various languages). It has videos, manga, and some cultural side notes.
There are water calligraphy sets if he was interested in that. It’s basically a brush and a special paper or fabric that you can draw on, and the paper turns black like ink when it’s wet, so you can emulate writing with ink without the mess. Once the water evaporates the paper is reusable.
Japanese Ammo with Misa is a good grammar channel with detailed videos, but they tend to be long. If he’s motivated to watch them on his own then that’s great, but I don’t think a lot of kids would have the attention for it, and you shouldn’t force it.
You might be better off having him watch Japanese anime or live action shows aimed at kids in his age range.
12 comments
Your question can probably be answered in the “about”section of the sub or the wiki attached
oh this probably isnt the best place to ask. these guys are legit gonna recommend a college level textbook for your ten year old. its probably better to find some classes in your area since they will know how to keep kids engaged.
for a 10 year old I’d say duolingo is a decent enough place to start :)…
of course, wouldnt recommend it for a grown up…but I think duo is good enough for a 10 yr old to start looking at Japanese casually…there is a bit of an interactive way to learn it as some of the new vocab you learn with images and of course the gamification aspect of the service might work to keep engagement…
​
From there, it is honestly still up to the person (adult or not)’s dedication to start reading content (maybe a few months into the language)…for example if the kid’s into video games, he can play games in 100% Japanese…it’s all about the exposure they are getting with the language…
I remember this post from a while ago, which had a few recommendations for resources that might be useful for you:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/zp7jan/textbook_for_children/](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/zp7jan/textbook_for_children/)
Especially [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/zp7jan/comment/j0rze2k/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
In all honesty: Nothing will beat a good private teacher that assembles the materials themselves and maybe even checks out what kind of accompanying software / apps your 10 year old might enjoy alongside the journey and motivate him/her likely way more then any app alone would be able to.
If it is about “all around” materials however, yea, Duolingo might do the job for a less serious approach.
Duolingo
Definitely buy flash cards and a sheet that displays them on the wall. We have one that’s about 2’x4′ from Amazon and it fits the large vocab flash cards for kids.
We also have a hiragana chart on the wall and a whiteboard where we write a “word of the day”.
Dollar stores also sell lap whiteboards for practicing and cheap dry erase.
Disney + has japanese for most of the classic movies and popular shows. Bluey is awesome in Japanese.
Duolingo is good for a 10 year old as well.
Make a YouTube Playlist and add Japanese TV shows from there.
Anpanman and doraemon have tons of episodes. There’s a lot of hour long kids songs too.
you could get a tutor on italki
I’ve taught kids that age Japanese and English, and I’d say that you either need a tutor or to learn alongside your kid/make it something you do together. It also helps to build it around their interests. Can you share a little more about what your kid is currently into/what got them interested in starting to learn Japanese?
Japanese from Zero is rather affordable and has lots of pictures and is slow paced. I highly recommend it for a kid. It’s like a textbook and workbook all wrapped into one so it’s user friendly. You can get them from Amazon or most online major book retailers like B&N.
Apps: I like Drops way more than duo. It’s vocab, kana, and kanji. You can do 5 minutes a day for free. It says the word/sound and you match to pictures or you practice writing kana and kanji. Duo has bad grammar and pronounces things wrong more often than I care for.
After going these if your kid likes video game you can change their switch to Japanese and try to tackle simple games. Start small with familiar low text games like Mario, Kirby, etc.
There’s also some great free YouTube channels for simple Japanese consumption. I like Pokémon Kids JP a lot. There’s even a Pokémon katakana song.
Start listening to Japanese music! It’s great listening practice and when you do hear a word you learned it helps reinforce the memory. If you want to stick to kid friendly pop music I like Sakura Gakuin personally.
https://www.erin.jpf.go.jp/en/
Erin’s challenge is more aimed at high schoolers but might be suited for a motivated 10 year old.
There’s a tv series (Japanese only, viewable online) and a set of lessons (available in various languages). It has videos, manga, and some cultural side notes.
There are water calligraphy sets if he was interested in that. It’s basically a brush and a special paper or fabric that you can draw on, and the paper turns black like ink when it’s wet, so you can emulate writing with ink without the mess. Once the water evaporates the paper is reusable.
Japanese Ammo with Misa is a good grammar channel with detailed videos, but they tend to be long. If he’s motivated to watch them on his own then that’s great, but I don’t think a lot of kids would have the attention for it, and you shouldn’t force it.
You might be better off having him watch Japanese anime or live action shows aimed at kids in his age range.