Amazing Tips to Learn to Speak Japanese for Kids

Japanese is becoming more and more popular nowadays, and there is no wonder why so many people want to learn Japanese, even kids. But learn to speak Japanese for kids is not an easy thing to do. Therefore, we would like to share some tips to help kids learn to speak Japanese better.

Read more: How to say i love you in Japanese                                                                                        How to say good morning in Japanese                                                                                     Japanese Kanji

1 - Have a Japanese speaker at home

Kids learn new language by hearing and speaking

For most of the time, kids learn new language not just by learning the knowledge, but also by hearing, or to be more precisely, copying what people tell them. So in this case, it is always a good idea to have a Japanese speaker at home so that kids can talk and learn to speak Japanese at the same time with them. You will be surprised of its effect. Yes, it is also not a easy thing to have a Japanese speaker at home, however, if you are parents or brother or sister, you should try to learn Japanese alongside with the kids. Isn't it more interesting to learn new language with someone at home?

2 - Create a Japanese speaking environment

In order to learn to speak Japanese for kids, having an Japanese speaking environment is extremely important. As we mentioned above, kids does not only learn a new language through getting knowledge but also copying from other people. So if kids can learn to speak Japanese in a Japanese speaking environment, kids can absolutely learn to speak Japanese faster. This does not mean that all family members have to be able to speak Japanese or have to learn Japanese alongside with kids. The simpliest way is sending kids to Japanese learning center or class, Japanese learning center can provides 2 things: Japanese speaking environment, and teachers who can correct the kids everytime they make mistake. Overall it is a good way to learn to speak Japanese for kids.

3 - Visit Japan at least once

Fuji moutain is one of the most beautiful place in japan.

Visiting Japan is always a good idea since it is a wonderful country with fascinating culture, technologies, and cuisine. When kids come to Japan, they are not only get used to the real-life Japanese conversations but they also get to see Japanese's usage in reality.  What can be more exciting to learn to speak Japanese by living in the Japanese speaking society itself?

So those are some tips to learn to speak Japanese for kids! Stay tune, good luck and have fun in your Japanese learning journey!

Source: Blog Akirademy

50 most commonly used kanji in Japan

Are you learning Japanese ? Are you little overwhelmed about kanji as there are more than a thousand of them? Do not worry, here is a list of 50 most commonly used kanji in Japanese you should make reference. Wish you like it !

Read more: How to say i love you in Japanese                                                                                        How to say good morning in Japanese                                                                                     Japanese Kanji

1. Commonly used kanji about Number

one	一
two	二
three	三
four	四
five	五
six	六
seven	七
eight	八
nine	九
ten	十
hundred	百
thousand	千
ten thousand	万

Number in japanese kanji is very interesting !

2. Commonly used kanji about Position and Comparison

top	上
below	下
left	左
right	右
inside	中
large	大
small	小
previous	先
next	次
before	前
after	後

3. Commonly used kanji about Time

time	時間
month	月
hour	時
minute	分
day	日
week	週
year	年
late	遅い
early	早い
morning	朝
evening	夕
afternoon	午後
night	夜
second	秒

Fuji moutain is ふじ山 in japanese

4, Commonly used kanji about Natural world

mountain	山
river	川
soil	土
sky	空
heaven	天
stone	石
gold	金
water	水
fire	火
rain	雨
rice field	田
tree	木
woods	林
forest	森
flower	花
grass	草
bamboo	竹

5, Commonly used kanji about People and easy animal

man	男
woman	女
person	人
child	子
boy	男の子
girl	女の子
king	王
insect	虫
dog	犬
shellfish	貝
rice field	田
tree	木
woods	林
forest	森
flower	花
grass	草
bamboo	竹

As you can see, this 50 commonly used kanji are very simple and some of them are kanji radical. Just know about 214 traditional kanji radical, you can learn a lot of commonly used kanji. So easy, right ?

Source: blog.akirademy.com

What do you know about japanese numbers?

Japanese numbers are difficult enough to require its own section. I recommend you digest only a little bit of this section at a time because it's an awful lot of things to memorize.

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Number 1 to 99

First of all, the number system is in units of four instead of three, which can make converting into English quite difficult. So a number such as 10,000,000 is actually split up as 1000,0000. However, thanks to the strong influence of the Western world and the standardization of numbers, when numbers are actually written, the split-off is three digits. Here are the first ten numbers.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
一	二	三	四	五	六	七	八	九	十
いち	に	さん	し／よん	ご	ろく	しち／なな	はち	きゅう	じゅう
Japanese numbers 1 to 10

Japanese numbers have be displayed in two way : kanji and hiragana. Normally, kanji is used when we are writing, in communication

As the chart indicates, 4 can either be 「し」 or 「よん」 and 7 can either be 「しち」 or 「なな」. Basically, both are acceptable up to 10. However, past ten, the reading is almost always 4(よん) and 7 (なな). In general, 「よん」 and 「なな」 are preferred over 「し」 and 「しち」 in most circumstances.

You can simply count from 1 to 99 with just these ten numbers. Japanese is easier than English in this respect because you do not have to memorize separate words such as "twenty" or "fifty". In Japanese, it's simply just "two ten" and "five ten".

• 三十一 （さんじゅういち） = 31
• 五十四 （ごじゅうよん）= 54
• 七十七 （ななじゅうなな）= 77
• 二十 （にじゅう） = 20

Notice that numbers are either always written in kanji or numerals because hiragana can get rather long and hard to decipher.

Number in japanese kanji is very exciting.

Numbers past 99

Here are the higher numbers:

Numerals	100	1,000	10,000	10^8	10^12
漢字(kanji)	百	千	万	億	兆
ひらがな(hiragana)	ひゃく	せん	まん	おく	ちょう

Notice how the numbers jumped four digits from 10^4 to 10^8 between 万(man)  and 億 ( oku) ? That's because Japanese is divided into units of four. Once you get past 1万 (10,000), you start all over until you reach 9,999万, then it rotates to 1億 (100,000,000). By the way, 百(hecku) is 100 and 千(sen) is 1,000, but anything past that, and you need to attach a 1 so the rest of the units become 一万 (10^4)、一億 (10^8)、一兆 (10^12). You sometimes hear万( man) in price, when you buy something, 1万 ~ 94,33 USD. So knowledge of japanese numbers will help you profusely in daily life in Japan.

Now you can count up to 9,999,999,999,999,999 just by chaining the numbers same as before. This is where the problems start, however. Try saying 「いちちょう」 、「ろくひゃく」、or 「さんせん」 really quickly, you'll notice it's difficult because of the repetition of similar consonant sounds. Therefore, Japanese people have decided to make it easier on themselves by pronouncing them as 「いっちょう」、 「ろっぴゃく」、and 「さんぜん」. Unfortunately, it makes it all the harder for you to remember how to pronounce everything. Here are all the slight sound changes.

Numerals	漢字	ひらがな
300	三百	さんびゃく
600	六百	ろっぴゃく
800	八百	はっぴゃく
3000	三千	さんぜん
8000	八千	はっせん
10^12	一兆	いっちょう

• 四万三千七十六 （よんまんさんぜんななじゅうろく）
  43,076
• 七億六百二十四万九千二百二十二 （ななおくろっぴゃくにじゅうよんまんきゅうせんにひゃくにじゅうに）
  706,249,222

Not easy, right? But unfortunately, counter in Japanese is more and more difficult, counting way depends on length, thinkness,.. of objects.Day, time, animal,..... have the particular way to couting. To be honest, counters might be the most thing that'll make you want to quit learning Japanese. But do not worry, we will have the post about japanese counting to let you know.

Source: blog.akirademy.com