Learn Japanese: Fun Japanese Alphabet Song for Hiragana & Katakana

My son is 19 months and starting to speak English, he even knows a few letters of the English alphabet (O, P, B, C). It's all very exciting but at the same time a little sad that he's not doing any of these things in Japanese yet. It's no surprise as my workaholic husband does not even have a fraction of the amount of time with Kenzo as I do, as a work at home mom. So, I've been trying to find ways to supplement his Japanese exposure with none other than... YouTube! Ha!

So, this post will start my "Learn Japanese" series in which I'll recommend a video, book, or product that I love that helps kids and/or adults to learn Japanese in an easy and fun way.

Japanese does not have an official alphabet song, as we do in English. They have do have a specific order for their 46 phonetic sounds (visually you have to learn two sets: one set in Hiragana and one set in Katakana, which makes 92 characters to memorize, not to mention the Kanji characters, of which you need to know at least 1,000 before you can read a newspaper, sheeeesh!). 

We recently came across a really adorable YouTube video that showcases a fun song for the Japanese alphabet. We LOVE LOVE LOVE it, and so does our son. He already tries to sing along. He always howls along with the dog at the end "Wa-O-N" part! So cute!!! Here's the video, with the Hiragana/Katakana chart below if you are interested!

Photo Credit: Japanese Lesson A Day - click on photo to go to their page.