All About Learning Japanese

[winth]

Actually learning jap will improve chinese. So that might be a good approach to your girl’s ang moh style chinese.


Think she prefers cursive type writing like hiragana and english alphabets as compared to block-like characters in chinese.

[schellen]

Actually, she is keen to learn Jap but not Chinese so I told her that she has to put effort into Chinese so that learning Jap kanji will be a breeze. I even used sashimi and me as examples due to our differing levels of Chinese (me better) and our Jap learning speed (me also better).


As for Chinese writing, she has no problems with it cos she had Chinese tingxie regularly in K2 with actual Chinese words. When she stopped being lazy and started paying attention to the strokes (bi hua), she actually can pick up fast.

I think it’s partly becos we hardly speak Chinese to her (which we are changing now) but we started using Jap at home only recently. Maybe the trips to Japan sparked her interest. (No, I am not contemplating bringing her to China just becos of this.)

JHJC, thanks! But my DD is already 7. Little Neuro Tree only accepts up to 5.

[JHJC]

:oops:

ya they take up to five.

[pinky]

Please advise me why are parents sending their pre-school kids to learn Japanese/French or other foreign language? To have a headstart? Because

the kids pick up faster when they are young ? :?

[buds]

pinky:

Please advise me why are parents sending their pre-school kids to learn Japanese/French or other foreign language? To have a headstart? Because the kids pick up faster when they are young ? :?

Ya, their sponge-brains are softer when younger.
Heheheheh..

Learning a 3rd language is a matter of preference.
Especially so when the children come from mixed
marriage families with elders coming from diverse
cultures. Some others mebbe for kicks or for the
advance advantage of preparation for JC Jap. :shock:

So.. its very subjective...
For a very linguistic child learning other languages can
be so much fun! But for the opposite it may be challenging
to master, more so if there isn't anyone to practise it with.

Are you thinking of sending yours?

[schellen]

pinky, I think in our case it’s more like since we can speak Jap, and DD is receptive to learning it, why not? Also, I think she feels a bit left out occasionally when DH and I speak in Jap and she doesn’t understand. (She’ll go, "What? What did you just say?")

[sashimi]

pinky:

Please advise me why are parents sending their pre-school kids to learn Japanese/French or other foreign language? To have a headstart? Because

the kids pick up faster when they are young ? :?

Children are the most receptive to learning new languages, even if they may not master it at their age. One reason is that they have not yet solidified their sense of phonetics/sounds. So they are able to learn new sounds which may not be used in their primary language when they grow up.

Eg. many adults who are well-versed in English simply can't get:

- Japanese \"R\" which is not a true \"R\" sound but somewhere between \"L\" (which doesn't exist in Japanese) and the latin \"R\", or
- the \"tsu\" which is not pronounced \"su\" or \"tze\" but somwhere in between or
- the \"su\" which is not pronounced \"soo\"; nor
- the \"hu\" which is not pronounced \"hoo\" but is somewhere between \"hoo\" and \"foo\".

Other examples are the French \"r\", not to mention Chinese/Mandarin sounds.

Thus, early exposure to \"foreign\" language sounds gives children an advantage in learning the language later.

I have classmates in my Jap class, who, after 3 years, still can't pronounce the Japanese \"r\"....

[schellen]

If your kid hears foreign sounds (i.e., sounds which they will never/rarely hear in their mother tongue and English) at infancy, their brains will "register" these sounds and "make space" for them. If they eventually take up foreign languages later in life, the brain does not have to "make adjustments" to "accept" the new sounds. And so they pick up the language faster and easier. This is cos babies’ brains are "wired" to accept a lot of info from birth. If the brain does not receive "info" to "trigger" the info collection, e.g., hearing foreign sounds, it will "delete" the unused parts to make space for those parts that are used more often. Once deleted, it is gone forever so if the kid picks up a foreign language later without getting exposed to it earlier in life, he/she may find it more difficult.


I hope you get it cos the actual description I read was more technical with lots of scientific terms. I found the explanation in a childcare text.

[pinky]

Hi buds,

afraid not, my son is in sec 1 so not much excess time available for him.
I was reading some of the messages mummies wrote in about their 4-5 yr old kids taking Japanese lessons so I wondered is this a new trend or
are they making other parents more paranoid over this?

[schellen]

pinky, for sashimi and me, we are definitely not going towards the paranoid end. In fact, our "lessons" with our DD (7 yo) are so relaxed and ad hoc that I wonder when she would finish learning the alphabets. Basically, she is motivated to learn since both her parents use it almost daily (well, for me it is daily), and if she chooses to specialise in it when she’s older, she’ll have a headstart.