I'm 外人. Tips for teaching 日本語 to soon-to-be-born nephew?
 

Dear Japan Forum:

My brother's son is due any day now and I have permission to teach him Japanese. Neither my brother nor his wife speak Japanese (my brother loves anime, though;)), so I will be his only relative speaking to him in a language other than English.

Can you offer any tips or, possibly, advice from past experiences with similar situations?

Thanks,

Steven

p.s., greeting my nephew after delivery, should I go with はじめまして！ or is there a more appropriate greeting for a newborn?

I think I've heard people say はじめまして to new-borns. Bit confused by the plan though; are you going to be living with him/seeing him daily because if neither of his parents speak Japanese, well, you can see what I'm thinking.

Basically just talk in Japanese how you'd talk to an infant in English. Slightly exaggerate the syntax. Until he actually starts talking, exposure to the sound is probably the most key thing.

You might say はじめまして as sort of a joke, like "It's a pleasure meeting you," to a newborn.

I am curious, what your goals are in speaking Japanese to a baby, and how many years do you plan on keeping it up?

As to the plan, I expect to see him most days and I'm hoping speaking Japanese to him will help confer some of the advantages of being raised bilingually. (A sub-plan is that my brother has wanted to learn Japanese for several years but has dragged his feet, so hearing his son respond to or speak it may finally encourage him to learn it.)

I plan on sticking with it for at least the first few years.

Do either of you know if, say, NHK or the Japanese Department of Education offer courses or videos? Or maybe of a Dora the Explorer-like program that incorporates English and Japanese?

Thanks for confirming はじめまして for me. :)

Best,

Steven

It`s not a joke, and is a pretty common thing for new parents and family to say to babies. Along with よろしく and the like.

As for teaching them Japanese... Well, do you speak it fluently? Are you going to speak ONLY Japanese to them? It`s not as simple as just randomly teaching some words.

Thank you.

I took it for two years in college and still speak it pretty well, but I'm not fluent. I haven't ever really had any ongoing interactions with babies, but have been told that a lot of the time I'll just be doing "kore/sore/are wa [noun] desu/desu ka"-type identifying activities with the baby.

I plan to speak very little, if any, English around the baby. I will speak English to my family, of course, which will hopefully be all the English he hears me speak. I plan on putting in the extra time needed to improve both my reading and verbal fluency so he doesn't learn a hackneyed version of the language.

Apologies for the romaji. I haven't installed Anthy on this computer yet. :)

Steven

Hurrhurrhurr, just thought about some of my 2nd Year Japanese classmates and how their language skills are. Wouldn't want them teaching me Japanese!

"Hageemaymashyte aka-san"

*shudder*

Haha! Well, I can't write due to a spinal cord injury, so my verbal score was weighted heavier than others and I still maintained a 4.0. :)

This bit makes me sort of raise my eyebrows. Formal speech to a baby...?
While "baby talk" may not be necessary, simplification is. That kind of grammar doesn`t come into play for quite a while. You want to communicate with the least number of words. (～なーに？　～だね！ etc )　and an emphasis on the important part you want to teach. (おおきな～だね！　ながーい～だよ！ etc)

I won`t say that you should give up, but I think it would be a good idea to look into actual material for children. Watch some shows aimed at babies. Just as you wouldn`t start out speaking to a baby with stiff and formal English, you don`t in Japanese.

Thanks! This is why I came here for information. :)

Do you know of any that would be good? I asked in post #4 but got no response.