Customer Reviews

Teach Me Japanese (Paperback and Audio Cassette): A Musical Journey Through the Day

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

 

 

I would recommend this set only because good Japanese learning tools for young children are so hard to find. The adult singers are not native speakers; if you buy this, tell your little listeners to concentrate on the way the native children singers pronounce words. The English 'translations' are merely the usual English lyrics; many words have been altered in the Japanese to fit the rhyme and rhythm. For example, the last line of 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' should be translated as "isn't it cute?" not "the lamb was sure to go."

They say it is best to teach children second languages as young as possible, and the best way to do that isn't necessarily to stumble through a foreign language ourselves. This is a fun, exciting way to get aquainted with Japanese, to open a new door in the young mind for the language. My children, ages 6 and 3, love this tape, and are wearing it out. Within a few minutes they were picking up the lyrics in Japanese and relating them to English words too. Its fun for parents too.

The songs are for preschool age children which my 5 year old daughter enjoyed, but the songbook does not have the English translation on the same page which makes it difficult to follow. My older children were not interested in this tape at all.

Familiar tunes and lovely singing (both in Japanese and English.) After we played this CD twice, my 2-year-old son has started to sing along and in Japanse.

His eyes lighted up when he first heard his favorite songs in a "new" language (Japanese is the 3rd languages my son is learning. We now have songs in all three languages!)

Music is a good way to get to know/learn a new language. It sort of take the fear away and get your all comfortable about learning new language. My family highly recommand "Teach Me Japanese (Paperback and Audio CD): A Musical Journey Through the Day" by Judy Mahoney.

The tape has been enjoyed by both my infant and my second grader. The repition in English and Japanese help older childern recognize and learn the translations of familiar songs. The whole family enjoys it.

I played this for my daughter a month before she turned 2. She picked up some vocabulary right away. It's been 3 months now (with 2 weeks of not listening to this at all) and she can sing along with the CD. For the past week, this is all she wants to listen to. Prefers this over her Wiggles songs. I definitely recommend this CD for initial exposure to Japanese for children.

The only thing I do not like is the female singing voice. It's a bit too high and gave me goosebumps the first time I heard it. Took some time to get use to it.

I bought this title for my small daughter who was at one time fascinated with all things Japanese. Most of the music are familiar English children's songs with Japanese lyrics. The accompanying booklet provides the Japanese lyrics and the English translation. My daughter enjoyed it greatly, although I had hoped for more traditional Japanese children's songs (and, hence, a more cultural experience). Nevertheless, it does somewhat live up to the title of "Teach Me Japanese" because my daughter did pick up some Japanese words from the lyrics; and she did learn to read and write a few Japanese characters from one catchy tune.

My 1.5 y.o. daughter - half American and half Japanese - currently speaks only English, but she loves this CD because she knows many songs in it both English and Japanese songs. One of the reviewers said adult singers are not native speakers but it doesn't matter. The male singers who are Americans don't speak in Japanese in this CD. Only one female adult singer speaks in Japanese and she is a native speaker. Conversations and vocabularies are natural and are of daily usage. I plan to keep playing this CD so that my daughter will at least be familiar with simple Japanese.