Max is a little less enthused by this than I am, but I found the greatest song for learning counting (and introducing the concept of counters) in Japanese this week:
It’s just a great song, really. I hereby declare this a Cosmic Buddha reunion number.
There was apparently some fluff about this song being switched to the A-side when the album was repressed, so they repressed again as it originally was, on the B-side. The thing is, it seems this song was originally (released in 1975) not very popular and the A-side song that became a hit, when compared now, sounds really boring: ?????????.
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3 ?????? ???
4 ????? ????
5 ????? ????
6 ????? ???????
7 ?????? ??
8 ?????? ???
9 ??????? ????
10 ?????? ???
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1 ?????? ????
2 ????? ????
3 ?????? ???
4 ????? ????
5 ????? ????
6 ????? ???????
7 ?????? ??
8 ?????? ???
9 ??????? ????
10 ?????? ???
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Language notes:
Max will turn two on April 18, and right now the majority of what he speaks is Thai, followed by English, and then just a bit of Japanese. Some people worried about it being a problem for him, but I think they basically underestimate the learning capacity of children.
So far, there’s been no problems and his Thai pronunciation is already much better than mine. The nanny is careful to speak mostly standard Thai around the babies, so that’s covered as well (otherwise they’d basically be learning to speak Laotian – we are in an area (Issan or NE region) very close to Laos regarding language and culture as well as geography).
Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
Multi-language immersion for pre-schoolers is proven to be a good thing for later on. Your kids will have an ear for thai, engrish and nihongo. I know I did and it made learning nihongo much easier as an adult, although my engrish will always rule!
I love this song! I remember it from my days in high school and taking Japanese language class. I agree, I think people underestimate children when it comes to different languages, but they really are very adept at acquiring and using them. I can’t think of any positive outcomes of children being limited to one language, but for those who are exposed to and learn more than one early on, there are many advantages.