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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
NO STROKE ORDER?? Good book but less value., May 15, 2006
This review is from: Japanese in MangaLand 2: Basic to Intermediate Level (Paperback)
I'm a big fan of the first book in this series. Japanese in Mangaland seemed like a good jumping off point for those looking to do some self study in Japanese and I thought that the second book would really expand upon the ideas laid out in the first book. Not so. Book 2 is more of the same featured in book one which is, I guess, a mixed blessing. You'll have a grammar, vocabulary or culture lesson for a couple of pages, these can include a chart or two and possibly some pictures and the lesson is followed by several ONE PANEL manga examples of the ideas introduced in the lesson. What's the problem? Well, for the second book I would've liked to have seen more than one panel and the manga used aren't any I've ever seen before making the examples harder to relate to or even remember often. I think having some of your favorite characters (or maybe even some you're familiar with) can help he ideas stick in your head. Also, anybody who's studied japanese can tell you that context is VERY important as the language itself is rather vague. So, getting one panel where a character is yelling out a sentence that is TOTALLY dependant on the panel above or below it for context isn't going to help you understand it. You'll just have to rely on Bernabe and his translation choices. I think that "Mangajin's Basic Japanese through comics" does a better at this aspect of the book. There you get an entire section or page of manga which is then broken down and analyzed by whatever topic was introduced in that lesson. I've honestly retained more from being able to preview that book here at Amazon than from several of the lessons in JiM 1 or 2.
Another thing that's a HUGE, HUGE step down from the previous book (and one that I find very misleading, mind you) is that this book claims to teach you Kanji and that together with the first and third books you'll have learned about 400 or so Kanji, but in books 2 and 3 ther is NO STROKE ORDER for the new kanji being "taught". WHAT? How important is stroke order? Critically so! Most people learn kanji the way they learned their ABCs. Repitition, repitition, repitition. This book provides the various On and Kun readings and the typical example compound, but if you're learning these charact ers for the first time and this book is your ONLY source of info than your out of luck. The first book was also bigger and had more lessons so for the money you got more in the first book.
So here's my run down:
PROS: If you liked the first book, this is the more of the same.
CONS: Should include more information. Uses Manga that I've never seen or heard of. Not enough manga for a book that's supposed to teach you "through" manga. The Kanji are "taught" with no stroke order. It's only 3 bucks cheaper than part 1 but has WAY less info making it less valuable in my eyes.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Say goodbye to romaji, and step up to Intermediate!, November 20, 2005
This review is from: Japanese in MangaLand 2: Basic to Intermediate Level (Paperback)
Continuing this excellent series, "Japanese in Mangaland 2" brings up the level to intermediate, eliminates the training wheels of romaji, and teaches several real-life common scenarios that one might encounter in Japan.
Following the same style as volume 1, the lessons are presented with a grammar point, vocabulary, and then follows up with examples from various manga and finishes with a review quiz. The covered topics alternate between pure grammar, like "the -te form" and particle lessons, and scenario-based lessons like "At the airport" and "In the hotel of ryokan."
"Japanese in Mangaland 2" is a serious study book, and not just a way to memorize a few cute phrases of your favorite manga. The author assumes familiarity with the topics covered in "Japanese in Mangaland 1" and continues forward with each lesson. While not a complete study course, as no language should be studied without conversation practice and listening skills, it is an excellent addition and study-aid that can be used to support language acquisition.
The main drawback of this series is that the manga used is not well-known or popular. True otakus would probably rather learn from their favorite characters, but the rights to those are too difficult to acquire. In fact, the manga examples are original to this book, and while clearly mangaesque they are often not Japanese in origin.
However, this should not be a barrier to the purpose of the book, which is to teach Japanese in an authentic environment of manga with real-life situations and conversations.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally! A course that focuses on the written word!, October 2, 2007
This review is from: Japanese in MangaLand 2: Basic to Intermediate Level (Paperback)
This series is the best I've found after floundering off and on for years. I am a visual learner and the best way to learn for me is to read, but reading Japanese has always been presented as something difficult and fearful. Traditional courses put it off as long as possible and you are always taught "polite" language first. However, most of us who want to learn the language are used to hearing the extremely colloquial language found in our favorite anime and/or reading manga. This course does just the opposite. Polite language is not ignored, but colloquialisms that would only be taught to advanced students elsewhere are brought up right from the first.
More importantly, this course hits reading head on from the first page. While it's true that they hang on to romaji throughout the first book, it is eliminated in the two that follow. As the author warns in the preface to Vol. 2, it's time to strap on a headband and get to work after you've made it through the introductory first volume.
I'm now nearing the end of the second volume and ready to tackle the third in preparation for the JLPT in December. The author claims that you should be ready for the level 3 after Vol. 3, and I intend to put that to the test...literally.
Frankly, I would like to see this series repackaged for college use with more workbooks like that accompanying the first volume (and the answers only found in the teacher's edition!), it's that good and most college course books that I've seen are that BAD. (Don't even get me started on the dense, dry style and confusing romaji in "Japanese: The Spoken Language". It's horrible, and is yet one of the more commonly used series. *sigh*)
The format changes slightly after the first volume, with in depth work with those evil particles and verb conjugations. But to get to the heavy hitting work, you first must make it through the first volume.
My suggestion is to buy all 3 and the workbook for volume one and give yourself the goal of passing the level 3 JLPT (there are 4 levels with 4 being the easiest and 1 the hardest). With a definite goal and a once a year testing schedule with a definite date that YOU have no control over, it's much easier to buckle down and study.
It's working well for me, anyway. I've already noticed myself automatically reading the signs in pictures I took on vacation in Japan a few years ago..and not just the ones in English or kana!
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