How parents can help their child study Japanese

As teachers we are often asked by parents how they can help their child study Japanese when they themselves have no knowledge of the language. This page is designed to give parents some hints and advice on how they can support and enhance their child's learning.

Take an interest

• First and foremost the more interest you take in their learning, the more interested they will be. Japanese is often the first time your child will know more than you!!! Take advantage of this and have your child teach you, whether it is the hiragana characters or vocabulary words.

Around the home

• Go through the hiragana characters with your child, see if you can beat them in a game of who can say it correctly first. Write the vocabulary words on cards and put them on the objects around the house and then try to use the Japanese word in the sentence rather than the English word.

Using time effectively

• Time poor parents may not have time to sit with their child so use the time on the drive to and from school or after school activities to ask about what they are learning. 

• Learning any language requires repetition so a little bit every night is much more productive than sitting for an hour doing Japanese once a week. Every morning at breakfast or during the ad breaks while watching TV is a great time to quickly cover the hiragana characters or the week's vocabulary words.

Not just the language

• The Japanese language has a lot of culture attached so you don't just need to concentrate on the language but also talk about how a Japanese class is conducted, the type of customs introduced and the other cultural aspects that the teachers expose the students to.

Different learning methods

• Japanese teachers at Beaconhills employ a variety of ways to help students learn the language in a fun way. While obviously the different alphabet is a challenge to learn and needs to be written out in order to learn how to write it correctly, there are many hiragana/katakana apps, flashcard apps, Zondle, gestures and other electronic ways to practice Japanese. Many of these can be done outside the classroom without the need of a teacher's guidance.

Tutorials

• Japanese tutorials are also offered after school if students feel that they need more help. These tutorials can be attended on an ad hoc basis as the needs of the child changes. A child may feel that they require more guidance when learning the hiragana and katakana scripts or would like their work checked immediately when completely an assignment or practicing an oral. Please contact your child's Japanese teacher for times and rooms for Japanese tutorials.

Learning a language is not only a rich and rewarding experience, in these global focussed times it is an advantage for so many occupations. The Japanese teachers at Beaconhills College are dedicated to the learning of Japanese and work hard to ensure every student is able to achieve their best. Please feel free to contact us should you have any questions, comments or concerns.

We love feedback as we consider it a great way for us to improve and enhance the program we deliver to our students so please feel free to leave some on our blog.

にほんご　は　たのしい　ですよ。