Little Pim Language Learning

Travel is one of our hobbies that has been hit hard by COVID. Hahaha. I have to laugh or I'll cry. To make the situation more bearable, we've started planning to go to Japan post-COVID. Sounds crazy, right? We've watched the first few episodes of Japan Prime on Amazon, checked out a million library books about kanji and Japanese inns and hot springs (Ryokan, onsen respectively), and I'm reading a book about the history of Japan and cherry blossoms called The Sakura Obsession by Naoko Abe. 

I've been thinking about colonization and the fact that Japan was never colonized. Its history is fascinating. I'm no expert, but for about two hundred years, Japan was completely isolated. Only a few Westerners were allowed in a tiny port city for trading purposes. Japan's story contrasts so strongly with the story of the United States. Before reading The Sakura Obsession, I read Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick, which chronicles the beginnings of the United States with Plymouth Colony. The contrast is so striking. 

Anyway, the point of today's post is to tell you about some really fun language-learning DVDs for children called Little Pim. We've been watching them little-by-little in Japanese. They are about 35 minutes long, divided into 5 minute episodes. A silly panda named "Little Pim" is the host, and he only speaks the target language, in this case, Japanese, although they do have videos in MANY other languages. 

The videos show kids doing all of the tasks that are being narrated in the target language. My favorite scene from Disc One, "Eating and Drinking," is when the kids bake a cake : ) CG likes all of the scenes with dogs. Through these videos, CG has learned the words gohan (rice), miruku (milk), mizu (water), inu (dog), neko (cat), and others that she knows but I don't know. She uses these words with my mom who has no idea of what she's talking about!

If you're looking for a fun and educational show that your child can watch for a few minutes, these are great. Sayonara, matane! (Bye, see you later!)