Japanese in Mangaland: Learning The Basics [Turtleback]

Marc Bernabe (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 4889961151 | ISBN-13: 978-4889961157 | Publication Date: March 12, 2004

This book is designed to help one master the basics of the Japanese language using the popular "manga" (Japanese comics) as a didactic tool. Its clear explanations and vivid examples help one naturally to get the "feel" for the basic patterns of Japanese grammar and at the same time to remember vocabulary associated with concrete situations. Besides that, learning with manga is more fun than simply reading page after page of dry prose. The 30 lessons that make up the book include drills, and a small glossary of 160 basic "kanji" is appended as an added bonus.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

With Japanese in MangaLand, readers can easily master the basics of the Japanese language using manga as a didactic tool. With thirty lessons, including drills, clear explanations, and vivid examples, readers will become familiar with the fundamental patterns of Japanese grammar while learning important vocabulary. This book also features a bonus glossary of more than 160 basic kanji to assist in the learning process. Japanese in MangaLand is a wonderful alternative to reading page after page of dry prose. Perfect for both beginners and manga enthusiasts, this book makes learning the basics of Japanese both fun and easy.

About the Author

MARC BERNABE is a freelance translator and interpreter with a broad experience in translation of manga and animated cartoons, mainly from Japanese, but also from English and French into Spanish and Catalan.

Product Details

• Turtleback: 269 pages
• Publisher: Japan Publications Trading (March 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4889961151
• ISBN-13: 978-4889961157
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 6.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #136,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Japanese
  • #81 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Japanese
  • #83 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Japanese

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

132 of 139 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, I'm finally learning some Japanese!, February 21, 2005

By 

Courtland J. Carpenter (Fort Wayne, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Japanese in Mangaland: Learning The Basics (Turtleback)

I've never had much luck with Foreign Languages. I'm an intuitive writer to begin with, and so generally build my writing structure by "ear". What sounds like it could be spoken naturally is the way I construct a sentence. Because of this, I virtually wasted three years in High School French. The net result of which gave me very little knowledge of the language, save a few remembered words.

Now I've spent the last six years collecting anime (in both dubbed and subbed versions), and a little translated manga. An appreciation of the Japanese culture derived from watching and reading, inspired me to want to learn some of the language. Still, it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks without some sort of gimmick that makes it seem easy. I tried the special tapes and courses that were supposed to be so great, but for the most part, they were boring. I listened, heck, I even tried sleep-learning with the audio CD's, still when the track ended, and I hardly learned a thing.

Then I saw a book coming out on "TheRightStuf" anime site, so I thought I'd check it out on Amazon. It hadn't been released yet, so I found this one instead. Pretty good reviews, so I thought I'd give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised with the results, after the first few lessons, I'm beginning to recall not only the spoken word, but the hiragana characters that write it in Japanese!

What's typical of most "gimmick" type books are that they focus only on the "gimmick", and beyond that are not very good. They are often not written by very knowledgeable people on the subject, just someone with a unique point of view. Often after a good start, they degrade into a boring reference. Those of you who've read those "...Dummies" books know what I mean. The real dummy is someone who thinks a reading a thousand-page book, is learning something the "easy" way! This book is not like that. While still a basic book on Japanese, it covers the subject very well. It manages to maintain interest with not only the manga "hook or gimmick", but with well-written, well-supported examples.

In addition, it gives the history of the Japanese language, how it's taught in Japan, and displays each phrase covered in five or more different equivalents. One of the most important but often missed in other texts is the literal English translation and the suggested proper translation. Too often, I've seen the suggested translation, and could not relate it back to the written Japanese characters, because the translated words are now out of order! Just that little detail helped me to start learning some written Japanese characters.

For a relatively small book, they go the extra mile. A guide for how to construct the written characters is included within the lessons. Each new lesson has interesting information on the Japanese culture as it relates to the language, and illustrated examples using manga. While I know you won't get a very comprehensive view of this complex language, I believe the foundation; will enable you to build on what you have. This will enable you to do well with more intermediate and advanced texts.

On the book itself, an exceptional bargain is to be had. The book is soft covered, but bound like hardbound books. The paper is smooth, likely acid free to last a long time without yellowing, much like the pages in an expensive college text. The graphics and print are easy to read with appropriate breaks and use of bolding, italics, and different fonts and sizes to accentuate the learning experience. I rarely see this quality of book in print these days. It was printed in Spain, they must have some very good print shops there.

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, conversational grammer explained!, December 5, 2005

By 

Torrance Bookmarks (Torrance, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Japanese in Mangaland: Learning The Basics (Turtleback)

I've been studying Japanese for several years, completing 3 years of Japanese in college and even studying and taking the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Tests). However, in most Japanese Language textbooks, you learn formal Japanese which is fine if you are going to be using it for business. If you want to watch Japanese TV programs, anime, read manga or talk to your Japanese friends, you are in for a rude awakening, because they don't speak the same Japanese you just learned out of a textbook.

Thank you, thank you for Japanese in Mangaland. Even though I've studied many Japanese textbooks, with this book I was finally able to learn some of the missing pieces of the puzzle of understanding "informal" or conversational Japanese. I don't mean rude or vulger slang that some other gimmicky books might teach you, but real Japanese that the everyday person might use.

However, I don't recommend this book as your primary text. Other textbooks like "Genki" or "Japanese for Busy People" have good exercises and audio tapes that go along with the text. Japanese in Mangaland is an excellent suppliment because of it's explanation of informal Japanese.

Get it, it is worth every penny.

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for anyone interested in learning japanese, May 13, 2004

By 

Ane "Ane" (Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japanese in Mangaland: Learning The Basics (Turtleback)

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 easier for you to understand any text, because everything written in japanese is filled with kanji!!!). For exercises and more practical japanese language learning, Minna no Nihongo is one of the best. Practical, perfect also for self-study, but as the textbook is only in japanese, don't forget to get the translation and grammatical explanation book too!

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.

Japanese in Mangaland + Minna no Nihongo + Remembering Kanji = winning trio.
ganbatte, tomodachi!