Sing 'n Learn Japanese 1 : 3 of 5

When my pals Matt & Kumiko visited Austin this year, I asked Kumiko about a million Japanese questions. She was nice enough to be a great teacher, and one of the things she taught me was a children's song about an elephant's nose, called Zoo-san. I did some searching on the web, because I didn't want to forget the song, and I found this interesting book and CD set on Amazon. This is a very simply-made book with lyrics (in both Romaji and kana, thankfully) to popular children's songs, along with a few illustrations, notes, and a small glossary. The CD contains each of the songs with and without vocals, and since these are really short songs, there are 23 songs to learn! These are definitely kiddie songs, such as translations of things I knew like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but mostly traditional Japanese children's songs like Zoo-san (which has a second verse I didn't know about!). I've had so much fun singing along with the CD, and I've definitely learned some new language stuff by taking apart the lyrics to discover the grammar and vocabulary. Even though this isn't a high-quality production, I think it's a perfect way to learn through music. By the way, my favorite song is Umi (ocean), which has such beautiful lyrics that I can't believe it's a kid's song!