Hey guys. I teach my nephew Japanese every Saturday, and I’m going to teach numbers tomorrow. I made these drawings to help him remember and I thought I’d share with you guys in case you have a beginner you wanna teach too.
They’re only scribbles, though, so you might wanna make them much nicer-looking.
いち - itchy
に - knee
さん - sun
し - shhh
ご - go
ろく - lock
なな - banana
はち - hatch
きゅう - cute
じゅう - jiujitsu
Sorry, I’m not quite sure if I understood you correctly.
You’re saying young people say 1, 2, 3, よん, 5… counting up, but 5, し, 3, 2, 1 counting down? I’ve always done it the other way and never considered age (tbf, I am a geezer) might make a difference. I just tested on my kids and they do it the same as me, 1, 2, 3, し, 5… and 5, よん, 3, 2, 1. But I don’t think there’s a hard rule about which to use.
I guess that would make sense. Not just よん and し though, also for なな and しち. While young(er) people count with よん and なな, old people go with し and しち instead. Interesting part is, young(er) people also use し and しち while counting backwards. It’s mostly anecdotal of course but my kanji teacher made me realize this and I found it quite interesting. However, indeed there is no rule for which one to use.