Japanese with a 6 year old??

8 comments

1. My daughter is that age, and her male classmates from japanese school all love Ultraman, so maybe try introducing him to that?

   Or maybe try to get your hands on the kokugo kyoukasho for first graders https://review.rakuten.co.jp/item/1/314417_10001435/1.1/

2. How about making a game of sorting kana into the correct あかさたな column or あいうえお row?

3. アンパンマン？

   ドラえもん？

4. Pokemon. Pokemon cards, zukan, shows. Kids love pokemon.

5. I’d try /u/Chezni19 suggestion of Japanese cartoons.

   While I did like the Japanese folkore stories my mother and grandmother told me via picture books and cartoons as a child, like Momotoro, I was way more into things like ドラえもん.

   I was starting to speak more English than Japanese (I was around 4 or 5 I think) so my Japanese was starting to falter (my parents are from Japan; I was born in the US).

   I didn’t understand everything in ドラえもん but it was still enjoyable to watch because of the robot cat and seeing what kind of gadget he’d use for the episode. I think your 6-year-old would be able to enjoy to, even if he doesn’t understand much.

   It also made me want to read the ドラえもん manga, which I couldn’t really do at that age, but I didn’t care. I just loved flipping through the manga looking at the pictures and reading some of the hiragana (I had already learned kana). It also encouraged me to learn some basic kanji, like 日 and 山. (I had those kanji workbooks for kids where you could draw in them, and they taught kanji via visual mnemonics.)

   It also made me want to draw the ドラえもん cat. I’d also draw title over him in hiragana, as ドラえもん uses a very cute font which I tried to mimic.

   I did the same with other Japanese cartoon characters too. I’d draw them and write their name in Japanese, so you could try a similar thing.

   Also try playing Japanese games with your 6 year old.

   [黒ひげ危機一発](https://www.takaratomy.co.jp/products/kurohige/) — A classic Japanese toy game. A pirate is in a barrel and you take turn sticking knives in the barrel, not trying to make him pop out of the barrel. You can explain how to say “pirate” in Japanese, and “knife”. Also while you play, you can say things in Japanese like “it’s your turn”,”stab”, “You won!”, “oh no I lost again” and hopefully your 6-year-old boy will start mimicking you.

   If you can rope in other people, [Hanafuda 花札](https://tekipaki.wordpress.com/2019/02/25/how-to-play-the-japanese-card-game-hanafuda-%E8%8A%B1%E6%9C%AD/) is a fun card game. It’s easy to play and the cards are colorful. You can use the pictures on the card to teach vocab like cherry blossom, crane, etc.

   Whenever I’d visit my grandparents house (where some of my aunts and uncles also lived), we’d play these kind of Japanese games together. Because my grandparents didn’t understand English, we’d have to use more Japanese when playing, so this helped to teach me a lot of words.

   Also Japanese festival like Children Day and other events taught me a lot of Japanese. We’d have to dress up in kimonos, and also do actives like 餅つき mochi-pounding. Maybe you have him dress up in traditional Japanese outfits, or take him to some Japanese-related events.

   Lastly, the biggest source of vocab at that age for me were food-related words.

   Kids are always hungry. Even when my Japanese started to deteriorate at that age, I never forgot how to say in Japanese things like “I’m hungry”, “Can I eat this?”, “karaage”, “kaki-goori”, etc.

   I’d also have to help make food, like make gyoza (wrap each dumpling with the filling my grandmother made), wash rice, chop up naga-negi (green onion), etc, so I knew all those words in Japanese.

   Maybe you can bring in various Japanese food, snacks, and treats and teach him food-related vocab too. Connect his stomach and taste buds with the Japanese words.

6. I teach English to 6 year olds! Games are the key. Kids this age learn best through play. The basic format I follow with my 6 year old class (3 students, 40min) is:

   – greeting: How are you? How’s the weather? I have picture cards to go along with this. “How are you?” Isn’t a common question in Japan, but you can sub out for another simple question. It’s a good way to ease them into the lesson

   – song: we sing a simple kids song from YouTube together. I try to choose something where the lyrics are short and repetitive so they can sing along more easily, like baby shark

   – writing: we go over how to write two letters of the alphabet and practice writing it a couple of times. I keep this to under 10 min. You want to keep writing fun and exciting rather than a bore. They’ll get bored if you do too much in one sitting. Teach hiragana gradually over time. Don’t insist they learn their letters before moving into content like you would for an adult

   – Review: I don’t do much review since my classes are once in month enrichment classes and I don’t expect much retention. It would be good to insert a review activity here though

   – Vocab intro: I’ll teach them the days vocab using picture cards. We’ll practice repeating them a few times (don’t overdo it!) And clarify meaning if need be

   – Vocab game: This is a simple vocab game to help them get familiar with the vocab. Two I like are the Missing Game and Mistake Game.

   – Application based game or culturally based arts and crafts: these games aren’t flashcard based and require the kids to use the target words more actively. For example, with colors I may tell them to touch something in the room that’s the color I say. Or for directions I might give them a stuffed animal to hide and then they have to direct me to it’s location. If there’s a holiday near by, an art project can also be a good idea

   Missing game: put the picture cards on the blackboard. Tell the child “goodnight!” And have them put their head down and close their eyes. Choose one card off the board at random and put it behind your back. Say “good morning!” And the child raises their head. They then have to figure out which card has disappeared (and say the word in the target language)

   Mistake Game: tell the child that even teachers make mistakes sometimes. Put all the flashcards on the board. Have the child stand up. Point to random cards, say the word, and have the child repeat after you. At some point, you make a mistake. For example, maybe you point to a banana and say “apple.” When that happens the child shouldn’t repeat, but should silently sit down.

   My classes tend to mostly focus on vocab, but you could easily use the same format to teach grammar/sentence structures. Remember, kids don’t know grammar rules or grammar terms in their native language yet, so you shouldn’t be explicitly teaching them grammar rules. Instead you should be focusing on meaning oriented communication. Use classroom Japanese to get them used to hearing the language. Slowly introduce phrases you want them to learn and actively practice using those phrases via games.

   I recommend using a technique I call “double talk” when giving instruction. First say the instruction (short, like a word or a sentence) in the target language. Then repeat in the native language. As time goes on, increase the length of the pause between the target language instruction and the native language instruction. Eventually, stop giving the native language instruction

7. Wow, at that age if you can eventually get him to an age to start watching kid’s TV shows he will straight up become totally fluent no?

   Someone said Ultraman, maybe watch an episode with him then go over the parts he didn’t understand? Eventually should reach a point where they can just watch on their own. And with kiddy brain and enough time, boom success

   That’s what happened with me in English, almost exact same age time frame too

8. For learning kana, my kid’s favorite thing is playing karuta. They make great kid’s sets for all different ages— from Anpanman to countries of the world. It’s quite fun to play together!