Customer Reviews

Language Littles Yumi Japanese

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yumi is a happy and soft little friend for my 3.5 and 4.5 yr. old children. She speaks clear English and Japanese to my children who repeat the 7 phrases and 13 words back to her. Yumi has 3 fun places to press for speaking. The wiring from her 3 speaking locations means she is not submersible. She can't be given a bath or thrown into the washer for easy cleaning. I hope Language Littles makes removable speaking units that can be purchased to match my children's increasing vocabulary. --A worthwhile purchase--

The Language Little dolls are a wonderful way to learn some beginning phrases of a new language! I laugh every time they speak, these dolls are so cute!

I have 5 of these dolls - Japanese, Russian, German, Chinese, and Spanish. All of them say over 20 phrases, and each one says "I love you" when you press the knee.

The dolls also come with a booklet that shows the pronounciation of the words they are saying, which is very helpful!

My only "complaint" is that I wish the booklets also had the phrases written out in the non-English language as well. For instance, it would be neat to see the hirigana/katakana for the phrases that Yumi speaks.

Also included with the booklet is a passcode to the Language Little website, where you can learn even more. Very cool.

My favorite doll is Yumi, the Japanese-English speaking doll. This is in part because Japanese is a language I would really like to learn, and in part because she says things like "I like to play musical instruments" (I also like playing musical instruments ;)).

It is neat how the dolls all seem to have a particular theme, like music, or ballet, or soccer.

As for durability, I have had Yumi (the first doll I bought) for almost 3 years now - she still works and looks as good as when I first got her! (Keep in mind that I am over 20 years old, so I am probably treating my dolls with a bit more care than children might).

I hope you will decide to get one of these dolls, for your children, or for yourself! They are great!

I got mine for Hanukkah, I LOVE it. I've been taking japanese in school and my friend saw the doll. Yes I'm a guy, and yes I'm 21, but its awesome!!! and for any young kid learning japanese its a great doll. I think its great!

This is a cute well designed product. Unfortunately, it doesn't count. Which I mistakenly thought it did, and which would make it more useful as an educational toy. Yumi's words focus on school subjects and musical instruments. Also, violin in Japanese is "violin". This happens a few times, i.e. guitar, piano, flute.

My wife, who is Japanese, says the accent is American, but I can't tell.

All that said--my child (about 9 months)likes the toy and is happy and interested when the toy is around and "speaking". I just wish they would have included counting from one through ten. The other language dolls (Chinese, I think) may count.

I believe that the Language Littles dolls are a great idea because they help kids get excited about various languages and cultures early in life. They are also very cute, show a variety of interests, and do not portray cultures stereotypically.

However, I feel like the choice of "musical instruments" for Yumi was a bad one. All of the instruments that she translates into Japanese are loan-words from English, except for "drum," and while this may help a child's pronunciation, they would still essentially only be speaking English with a Japanese accent! I wish that Yumi could have had a different topic, or at least a more diverse set of instruments.

I bought this for my 4 yr. old daughter the year we moved to Japan. My thought was to just peak her interest in learning a few words. She loved the doll. Yes, a couple words are a little unclear, but overall just fine. We looked in the book anyways to make sure. Aside from that, she really liked the little book that came with it. She picked up a couple words and phrases in just a few days. Not much for teaching, but great for enthusiasm.

I recently purchased Yumi along with Lizzy. I love Lizzy she is clear and speaks loudly but Yummi is unclear and hard to understand even in english. She has a softer voice and muffled. I was disappointed. I have 2 girls and wanted this to be a great Christmas present for both.

I purchased the Yumi doll as a gift for my almost 3 year old niece. She loves it and is packing it around everywhere. The booklet that comes with the doll has the phrases listed out, so it can help you learn the pronunciations, since it's a bit hard to pick it up from just listening if you're new to the language. Overall, it was a huge hit, and her Japanese Grandmother will be quite surprised to know that everyone has learned some new phrases.