Japanese in Mangaland: Learning the Basics

Rating:
Summary: Making a difficult language easier...
Review: ...is the main goal of this book. To the Western ear, Japanese could be Martian, for all its complexity and strange rules about grammar and pronunciation (you might know that there is no L sound in Japanese, but did you know they don't have a V sound, either?).

Mark Bernabe does his best to help the "average", non-collegiate person understand this complicated-yet-simple language by incorporating black-and-white images from various Japanese comics (such as Phan and Lost Youth)into the lessons in a fun and engaging way. First comes the basic ideas, then the image examples (coupled with English pronunciation and Japanese writing), followed by the ways in which the expressions are used, and at the end of each lesson he concludes with one-page "self-tests", using word balloons as answer lines.

The most amusing section (to me, anyway) is the lesson regarding profanity, which is widely used in anime and manga but avoided in the rest of the ultra-polite Japanese society; while you could use "chikusho!" or "kuso!" in writing comics, it just might get you kicked out of the local restaurant.

A good book to start you on your linguistic journey.

Rating:
Summary: A must have for anyone interested in learning japanese
Review: I love manga, and I wanted to read manga in japanese, because there's far less manga in any other language than there is in japanese. So I started looking for good self-study books, because I didn't have not the time, nor the money to go to japanese classes (I'm a university student, not much free time). I decided to buy this one, Japanese in Mangaland, and I'm glad I did. This book is fun, easy to study with, and it works! I really have learned the basics: verbs, grammar, expressions, 160 basic kanji (with 5 kanji compounds for each kanji, that's really useful!), particles... There is no need to know any japanese before studying this book: it starts from the real basics, how to read and write hiragana and katakana.

The good thing about this book is that if you study it, you don't learn the standard japanese spoken and learned in class, not too useful when you read manga: you learn real japanese, just the way they really speak and write, with real japanese manga example sentences. So, after studying this book, and using a good dictionary, you can even read and understand easy manga such as Shinchan. I was so happy when I saw that I was able to understand what they were saying...

I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn japanese, or anyone looking for something new, amazingly interesting... I'm a japanophile now :)

Marc Bernabe, the author, lives and works both in Japan and in Spain, and he's well known and loved here because of his great job as a manga translator: thanks to him, we've read in spanish wonderful manga such as Karekano, Blame!, Saikano, Say hello to Black Jack, Crayon ShinChan and so on. He's translated and adapted "Remembering Kanji" (James W Heisig) to spanish, too.

I recommend this book for the basics (grammar, verbs, vocabulary and so on) along with "Remembering Kanji" (James W. Heisig) for learning the writing and meaning of the 2000 basic kanji (if you already understand and know how to write the 2000 basic kanji, it will be far more easy for you to understand any text, because everything written in japanese is filled with kanji!!!).

Japanese in Mangaland is the english version of a Spanish book, "Japones en Vinetas", (also by Marc Bernabe, of course) which has been such a success in Spain, that has just been released the 4th edition! And has just been released its second part too, "Japones en Vinetas 2", with lessons 31 to 60. Studying both books, you're ready for the Noken levels 4 and 3. I'm sure that you will soon have "Japanese in Mangaland 2" in english.

If you know spanish, it would be great to visit the author's website, www.nipoweb.com , it's very interesting. It speaks about japanese culture, books, movies... And sorry if there's any mistake, I'm just a student of english and japanese, my mother tongue are basque and spanish. But, after everything Marc Bernabe has done for all of us who love Japan in Spain, I had to review this book :) It has been so useful for me... You won't be dissapointed, I promise.

ganbatte, tomodachi!

Rating:
Summary: 4 and a half stars
Review: I thought this book was a great study aid when used with text books. The lessons are very specific to make studying cetain areas you may have trouble easily. The only thing that could have made this a better book is if it included some type of multi-media like a CD-ROM or a DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Refreshing alternative to standard texts
Review: Marc Bernabe's "Japanese in Mangaland: Learning the Basics" is a refreshing alternative to the standard texts for learning Japanese. Bernable using manga as the jumping off point for 30 lessons in basic Japanese. No prior knowledge of Japanese is required and this book can be used alone or in conjunction with other study methods and aids.

Like the defunct magazine "Mangajin" which has been collected in anotholgies and is offered for sale through Amazon as "Basic Japanese Through Comics", "Japanese in Mangaland" uses manga to aid language learning. However, there's an important distinction between the two approches. Whereas the "Mangajin" anthologies focus on providing instruction to facilite understanding manga as an end in itself through the presentation of several sequential panels, "Japanese in Mangaland" uses individual manga panels merely as tools to further the language instruction. Put another way, the lessons in "Basic Japanese Through Comics" serve the panels, whereas the panels in "Japanese in Mangaland" serve the lesson.

In sum, "Japanese in Mangaland" is a good introductory text for learning Japanese through a refreshing alternative approach, but if you're looking for something a bit more advanced and manga-focused check out "Basic Japanese Through Comics."




Rating:
Summary: A Great Book For Beginners
Review: This is one of the better guides to learning Japanese. Highly recommended