Japanese with anime voice: episode22
Hello, I’m Sachi.
It seems that today, April 2, is Children’s Book Day. It is internationally known as International Children’s Book Day, and was established in honor of the birthday of Hans Christian Andersen, a Danish author of children’s stories. Hans Christian Andersen is well known in Japan for his fairy tales such as “マッチ売りの少女 (Macchi uri no shoujo) (original title: Den lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne)” and “みにくいアヒルの子 (Minikui ahiru no ko) (original title: Den grimme Ælling)”. In Japan, the two weeks before and after April 2 are known as Children’s Book Week, and events are held in various places to encourage children to read more books.
In honor of Children’s Book Week, I would like to introduce two picture books recommended for learners of Japanese.
The first one is “ぐりとぐらGuri to Gura.
This is one of the most popular children’s books in Japan, and is known by almost everyone who is in their fourth or fifties. The main character is Guri and Gura, a pair of close rat brothers who one day make a big sponge cake from a big egg they found and share it with their many other animal friends. I recommend this book because the story is easy to understand and it will make you feel warm and fuzzy after reading it.
The second is a series, “日本昔話 (Nihon mukashi banashi.)”
As the name suggests, these are books of old Japanese stories. All the stories are simplified in content and easy to read, but they often make me think about human nature. I think it’s a good way to learn not only Japanese language but also reading comprehension. Rather than studying for the exam questions out of the blue, you could use children’s books to practice your reading comprehension skills. I think that would be a good first step in studying for the exam.
Parents usually read children’s books to their children, but I, on the contrary, explained the contents of the books I read to my parents. Sometimes you want to tell someone about something you learned for the first time, don’t you? It was something like that. I would explain the contents of children’s books to my dad. My memories of that are so strong that I hardly remember my parents reading books to me. Did they read to me? I wonder.
I thought of this from my own actions, but it might be effective for language learning if you practice explaining the contents of a book after you read it. You don’t even need a partner to explain the contents of the book. By quoting and using the words and sentences you have learned in the book, you can increase your vocabulary. For example, the first time you explain the whole story, the next day you explain it from the main character’s point of view, and the next day you explain it from another character’s point of view. That way, you don’t have to use the same phrases all the time, and I think you can use a variety of words. It would also avoid boredom. Or, you could consider the feelings of each character. I think you can learn a lot of things just by digging deeper into a story.
I don’t know if I’m saying it myself, but I think this is a pretty good idea. I’ll incorporate it into my own language.
Japanese is not that difficult to pronounce, so it is relatively easy to hear and speak. However, reading is the most difficult part. My overseas friends and online students say the same thing. Sometimes I am asked for book recommendations. But when it comes to books for adults, most of the kanji learned in elementary and junior high school do not have ふりがな (furigana). ふりがな (Furigana) are small hiragana characters that indicate the reading of the kanji. Therefore, even for Japanese language learners who can communicate in conversation to some extent, it depends on how much kanji they know, and I cannot easily recommend books for adults to read.
Children’s books are certainly suitable for children, but as I mentioned earlier, many of them are thought-provoking even if read by adults. On the other hand, books for adults have expressions that even Japanese people don’t know or have trouble understanding, or kanji that are difficult to read, so I think the level of reading is very high. So, for beginners who want to improve their vocabulary and conversation skills, or for those who want to take the JLPT, I recommend children’s books. If you read the same book over and over again, and of course read it out loud when you read it too, practice so that you can easily explain the contents, and dig deeper into the meaning behind the words, I think you will be able to understand Japanese better and acquire reading comprehension skills.
