My wife and I are moving to Japan hopefully next August, and currently have a 3 month old. Are there any kid shows that speak in Japanese for him to start learning the language? Similar to Bluey or Mrs. Rachel or Blipi, but for Japanese?
Edit: I want to add that I understand it is too early. This is a post to prepare for the future and get some options I can check out. Not to teach my son Japanese tomorrow..
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This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Teaching my newborn Japanese**
My wife and I are moving to Japan hopefully next August, and currently have a 3 month old. Are their any kid shows that speak in Japanese for him to start learning the language? Similar to Bluey or Mrs. Rachel or Blipi, but for Japanese?
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Nothing that is age appropriate. From the language acquisition standpoint you’re too early and it’s not the right format, and from the child developmental standpoint it’s not good for an infants brain to be exposed to digital media at lengths of time like this, nor will your child’s eyes be able to see it at this point or their brain comprehend it as spoken language.
Maybe too early, but Synapusyu is a program developed by with help from the University of Tokyo’s “Baby Lab” and publishes an episode to YouTube daily (not Sundays). It’s mostly songs.
Is there any chance there is a Japanese playgroup or similar where you are? I would advise against screen time for a kid this small (even next August), and in any case at this point it’d mostly be for him to learn to distinguish the sounds (or for his brain to not forget how to distinguish them). I’m not sure if that even works through video.
If you are concerned that he’s going to be behind or that there will be something lost: Pretty unlikely. I’ve met kids who didn’t speak Japanese until age 4 and were fine, there are foreign tarento who came to Japan at a later point and are doing well, coming before most kids start talking will not be too late.
NHK morning slot has tons of kids shows.
Super Simply Nihongo on YouTube isn’t bad idea, since they use a lot of Japanese songs and melody.
Do you speak Japanese? Even at some level? Talk to your baby in Japanese sometimes. Language acquisition research shows that babies don’t learn that much language from TV programs. As a baby, it is more about exposing your son to the sounds of Japanese as a parent so his brain recognizing them as valid/important language sounds.
We didn’t do much aside from talk to store and restaurant staff, but my daughter is responding (can’t speak with intent yet at 15 months) well to commands and such in both English and Japanese. She started at hoikuen at 9 months.
Babies are sponges, you don’t need to focus on anything right now. I’d rather have direct interaction and books over any screen time tbh