Three scripts, one sentence
Hiragana writes the grammar and native words. Katakana writes borrowed words, names from other languages and some sound effects. Kanji, the characters borrowed from Chinese, carry the meaning of most nouns and verb stems.
An ordinary Japanese sentence mixes all three. That is not complexity for its own sake; each script signals what kind of word you are looking at.
- If a word looks angular, it is probably katakana and probably borrowed.
- Do not try to teach the three scripts at two. Just let them be seen.
What a children's book looks like
Books for the youngest children are written mostly or entirely in hiragana, because that is what a Japanese child learns first, usually before school.
When kanji appear in books for children, they usually carry furigana, small kana printed above or beside them showing how to read them. A learning parent can read a furigana page aloud without knowing the character.
- Check a sample page for those small kana before buying if your Japanese is partial.
- Hiragana is a realistic weekend project for an adult. Kanji is not, and does not need to be.
Sound: pitch, not stress
English marks a word by hitting one syllable harder. Japanese distinguishes words by pitch pattern instead, and syllables are more evenly timed.
Applying English stress to a Japanese word is the most common way a well-meaning parent makes it hard to recognise. Even and level is closer than emphatic.
- Say it flatter and more evenly than feels natural.
- Copy a recording of a relative rather than a spelling.
Politeness and place
Japanese changes form depending on who is being addressed. Books for young children use gentle, ordinary forms, which is what you want a child to absorb first.
The written standard is based on Tokyo speech, while Kansai and other regions sound distinctly different. If your family speaks a regional Japanese, that is heritage, not error.
- Let a grandparent read one spread aloud, in their own accent.
- Use the family words for relatives; a book cannot supply those.
