舌切りすずめ Shita-kiri Suzume

Chapters

1. 0:00 Title
2. 0:03 Before you listen
3. 0:50 The old couple and their sparrow
4. 1:12 Washing day
5. 1:49 The angry old woman
6. 2:43 The old man comes home
7. 3:49 Looking for the sparrow
8. 4:15 Questions

About this video

舌切りすずめ Shita-kiri Suzume, The Tongue-Cut Sparrow, read slowly with furigana, rōmaji and English. About 5 minutes.

About this story Shita-kiri Suzume is one of Japan's best-known folk tales, told to children for centuries as a story about kindness and greed. This telling is Kusuyama Masao's, published in 1921 in plain modern Japanese and kept by Aozora Bunko. The old man's call, 舌切りすずめ、お宿はどこだ (Tongue-cut sparrow, where is your lodging?), is a line Japanese children know by heart.

Grammar in this story: ～と言って (quoting: someone's words, then と言って, "saying…", before what they did next) 9. と言って、はさみで舌をちょん切ってしまいました。 (So saying, she snipped off its tongue with a pair of scissors.) 12. と言って放しました。 (So saying, she let it go.)

Words to know すずめ · suzume · sparrow おじいさん · ojiisan · old man おばあさん · obāsan · old woman のり · nori · starch (for laundry) 舌 · した · shita · tongue かご · kago · cage, basket 洗濯 · せんたく · sentaku · laundry, washing なめて · namete · licking (なめる, to lick) 山 · やま · yama · mountain かわいそう · kawaisō · poor thing, pitiful

Chapters

Questions (the answers are in the pinned comment) 1. すずめは何をなめましたか。 (What did the sparrow lick up?) 2. おばあさんはすずめに何をしましたか。 (What did the old woman do to the sparrow?) 3. あくる日、おじいさんは何をしましたか。 (What did the old man do the next day?)

Level: Beginner, 1 of 5 in this playlist. 27 lines, 27 characters a line, 11% kanji. Next: ピーターラビット Pītā Rabitto (Peter Rabbit). All beginner Japanese stories: the playlist "Easy Japanese Stories for Beginners | Furigana, Rōmaji & English".