Can you imagine what it is like to live in a flowerpot and confuse one animal with another? Our chatty little plants Basil, Rosemary and the sisters know all too well the problems and fun it causes. This is for bilingual children and others wanting to read a dual language text in English and Japanese with illustrations.
The bilingual story is presented twice. In the first part, the parallel Japanese text contains just hiragana and katakana characters. In the second part, simple Kanji characters are included that would typically be recognized by Japanese children in their third and fourth year of full time education. For ease of understanding, the languages are displayed together mostly one or two sentences at a time. The aim was to make the translation as direct as possible but always using everyday language of native speakers. Reading this fun bilingual story will help you learn Japanese.
Excerpt from the story:
The Pansy sisters lived in a green flowerpot below an old oak tree. They shared the pot with Basil, Rosemary and Monkey.
パンジーしまいはふるいナラのきのしたの、みどりいろのうえきばちにすんでいました。おなじうえきばちにはバジル、ローズマリー、そしてサルがいっしょにすんでいました。
Rosemary and the Pansy sisters liked picking on Basil. The sisters’ bright colours scared him and he wanted them to be quiet.
ローズマリーとパンジーしまいはバジルをからかうのがすきでした。バジルは、しまいのあかるいいろがこわく、しずかにしていてほしいとおもっていました。
"Basil, you’re so daft!" said the sisters, "monkeys climb trees!".
Monkey ignored them but he was different. Monkey was an animal.
「バジル、きみってまぬけだね!」しまいはいいました、「さるはきをのぼるんだよ!」
サルはしょくぶつたちをむししていましたし、みんなとはちがっていました。サルはどうぶつだったのです。
